Tuesday, Aug. 4 2009 @ 8:00AM
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| Photo by Steve Rhodes |
| Michael Pollan, speaking in San Francisco |
Michael Pollan's latest piece in this past Sunday's
New York Times Magazine has once again proven to do what Pollan's work does best: incite furious discussion among food lovers, food writers and food professionals. Best known for his books
The Omnivore's Dilemma and
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, the journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley has also become famous for his pithy but deep mantra, discussed and dissected in the latter book: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
Taking this dogma to the next logical level,
his recent piece in the Times Magazine examines the ways in which modern society has removed itself from the actual cooking process and become increasingly reliant upon pre-fabricated and commercially designed packaged and processed foods. He waxes poetic about days spent underfoot in the kitchen, watching his mother recreate Julia Child's
boeuf bourguignon while simultaneously gleaning much of his own cooking knowledge from the TV shows and cookbooks of the era, in stark contrast to the zero-attention-span, non-educational TV shows and instant-gratification cookbooks of today. Our society has become obsessed with food -- as entertainment. We seem to have lost a signficant connection with food as fuel for our bodies and meals as nourishment for our souls. And, as the title of the article states, "No one cooks...anymore."
At least one decisive statement strikes home for many a Houstonian: "The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower the rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female particpation in the labor force or income." As the city with one of the highest numbers of restaurants per capita in the nation, as the city whose residents eat out more than any others', and as the city who has very publicly battled obesity for many years, could Houston epitomize Pollan's indictment of people who have lost touch with food?