In Defense of Food

        After class last night, I kept thinking more about culture and specifically American culture and realized that yes it is different, but most families tend to stick with their traditional upbringing...at least the families in which the moms make a sit down dinner at least 3 times a week.  My mom loves to cook, so when I was growing up she would teach me and I would often times just watch with my head barely reaching above the counter tops,  following my mom around to "clean up" anything as she went, and at times helping cook dinner.  I realized that she let me annoy her all those years for a reason...so that when I could finally see over the counter top that I could cook for myself.  So, from a young age I cooked for myself and often times my sister, even though she is very capable at cooking for herself, whenever my mom was at work and couldn't make it home in time to arrange a meal.  My mom did this because that was how she was raised...if you want something, then do it yourself, be proactive not lazy.  My mom is also a no nonsense cook, if you don't like what she made then you don't eat.  Which was passed down from her mom and I will probably be the same way. 
        I do think there is culture amongst individual families, but especially those families in which the mom prepares food for a sit down dinner.  The reason I say sit down dinner is because generally mothers that make a meal for sit down dinners make a specific dinner which is intended to be eaten by the family.  The family does not pick and choose what they want to eat and hand it to the cook 20 minutes before dinner and expect magic, the cook plans and creates a balanced meal for the family to enjoy.  Today especially, I think this concept is being lost more and more even in my own family.  Families get busy and start going out to eat at restaurants where you eat a speedy meal and look at your electronic devices at least twice during the meal.  This is not seen in other cultures. 
        Pollan talks about the French paradox a lot and when I compare and contrast French dining to American dining, they are incredibly different and largely due to the way the countries operate.  Walking down a street in France, you will see restaurant after restaurant after restaurant and you will come to the conclusion that these restaurants are all different.  Even when traveling across the city there will be different restaurants, all operated by different owners and all offering different variations of French food.  This is something we don't see in the United States.  Much like grocery stores, you can find a "chain" restaurant on every corner, even out here in Boiling Springs.  Chain restaurants are typically very unhealthy. Why? Because chains are owned by one person or a group of people who want to make money.  They conserve money by creating a menu that can be mass produced at several different locations every night of the week.  Which does in fact make the food cheaper.  There is a weird paradox about this in the United States...yes buy food cheap and save money, however when it comes to other health services such as laser eye surgery do you really want the cheapest surgery to save money? Of course not.  So why do Americans do this for other aspects of health like eating?
        This reminds me of what Pollan said about pay more and eat less.  I watch the food channel a lot and there is a common theme among top chefs in the United States:  they were trained by first their family members and second by culinary schools, at least for the majority.  Therefore these chefs have a particular culinary background such as Italian, Indian, or French cuisines.  Then these skills get fine tuned in culinary schools and they eventually open up their own restaurant.  These chef run, no chain restaurants are indeed more expensive.  However, you are eating food prepared by a chef who has been trained beneath a specific culture and who combines flavors and spices to create a balanced meal for the paying customer.  So this is what I think Pollan meant by pay more and eat less, at a restaurant when you pay more it is typically because the chef uses ingredients that are a little more expensive to create his/her dishes...is that really a problem? No, but most Americans don't want to pay for the extra attention given to the dish.  When in fact these no chain restaurants will undoubtedly have a menu along the same cultural cuisines and have a kitchen headed by a well equipped chef.  And this is what you see in France,  individual restaurants headed each by their own chefs and each having a well balanced four course (at the least) meal for customers to enjoy.  The French don't want to push people through the doors of their restaurants, they want the customer to enjoy the food along with their party. 
        We could all learn a thing or two from other cultures, especially about food because in the United States I would say the only thing in common we have, in terms of food, is which diet we're going on next.