Food could almost be the new 'rock 'n roll'. Recipe books and cookery programmes are no longer just about ingredients and instructions. They can be life-style statements, confessional, competitive, political and/or confrontational. Gordon Ramsay's forays into the world of restauranteurs are closer to soap-style drama with all its tears and tantrums.
Sophie Dahl's television series and book, The Delicious Miss Dahl, took a step towards combining literature with food. She told stories from her childhood as she chopped and whisked, read from novels and collections of poetry while her dishes baked and simmered. Responses to the programme swung between delight and profound irritation. I settled in the former camp. Food and words is my kind of coupling.
And then there are food memoirs, by well known cooks and chefs, writers inspired by them and by those who have found a way to say what they want to say through the medium of food. After all, food is never just about food.
Sophie Dahl's television series and book, The Delicious Miss Dahl, took a step towards combining literature with food. She told stories from her childhood as she chopped and whisked, read from novels and collections of poetry while her dishes baked and simmered. Responses to the programme swung between delight and profound irritation. I settled in the former camp. Food and words is my kind of coupling.
And then there are food memoirs, by well known cooks and chefs, writers inspired by them and by those who have found a way to say what they want to say through the medium of food. After all, food is never just about food.
Food plays a prominent part in my novel, The Oven House. It comforts and nurtures, attempts to fill an absence by satisfying the senses. Elsewhere in my writing, it threatens, invokes loss. I've been thinking for some time about a larger project where the people, the food and the words in my life collide. I have ideas to write about houses, kitchens, my family, about South Wales where I was born and grew up, about the food I grew up with and the food I now cook and share with people I love. About home, about leaving home and finding ways back.
the hungry writer is a way for me to begin and I've set myself the target of writing a post every week for a year starting in October 2010.
Update: October 2011
I made it, I blogged once a week for a year about food and family, about life and writing, and so many people followed me and encouraged me that I now don't want to stop. There's always something else to eat, something else to write about. Something else to share.
What about you?
If any of my musings prompt you into remembering a story, or a recipe, I would love to read what you have to say. You can add them at any time in the Comments below any post. Or if you prefer to contact me privately, please go to this page.
Lynne
x
Update: October 2011
I made it, I blogged once a week for a year about food and family, about life and writing, and so many people followed me and encouraged me that I now don't want to stop. There's always something else to eat, something else to write about. Something else to share.
What about you?
If any of my musings prompt you into remembering a story, or a recipe, I would love to read what you have to say. You can add them at any time in the Comments below any post. Or if you prefer to contact me privately, please go to this page.
Lynne
x
