Food and Literature; Part One.

Food and Literature Part I
“ A few words on Lunch in Paris and Eat, Love and Pray.”

I’m a food lover. I like to eat, cook, read and watch everything related to cooking and food. For the past 3 years I have been a permanent fan of Food Network and a huge fan of the 30 Minutes Meals hostess Rachael Ray. I like 30 Minutes Meals because, being a full time attorney, I do not have enough time to spend in the kitchen. By the same token, it is not always an easy task to cook only for a single person. However, I enjoy cooking very much and I do it every time I get a chance.

Since I began my English lessons, I took over on an old passion of mine: reading. Reading has been part of my life since I was a little girl. I remember the first book I bought with my own money: Alice in Wonderland. I bought it in a cruise ship converted in a sailing bookstore, it was August 1986. Later in life I decided to purse a career in Law and as many of you may know, reading is most of what law students and attorneys do during their careers. Today, in July 2010, I’m mixing my two main passions: reading and food.

As I have improved in my English lessons I have chosen to read more and more in English and more and more about food. I’m not only reading books focused on the nutritional aspects of food and its preparation, I’m also reading books and novels focused on the healing properties of food and its impact on the human souls and spirit.

During my summer vacation in California, I read Lunch in Paris, written by the American author living in Paris, Mrs. Elizabeth Bard (please refer to her blog http://www.elizabethbard.blogspot.com/.) In her book, Bard is telling her love story with Paris and with her now husband Gwendal, a Frenchman with a doctoral degree in engineering and a big dream of pursing a career in the making of digital movies. I like her story very much because she focuses not only on the well known beauty of the city of Paris, but also on the importance that Parisians gives to food and the art of cooking and eating. Bard even shares her recipes with the reader, and her tips to have a great homemade meal in the table every evening.

This book made me think about the magic surrounding food and its preparation. Every year on Thanksgiving day I share the celebrations in the house of one of my very best friends. (I’m blessed in having a few of them.) And to my delight, most of my very best friends enjoy cooking and food very much. Indeed, some of them have contributed to my knowledge about the topic and in my process of gaining weight (who can resist a piece of Alba’s apple pie with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.) When people gather to eat, they share more than food: they share their many blessing and the love and happiness of being family and friend. Most of my cherished memories are around a dining table.

I think that food is more than nutrition for the body: food is nutrition for the soul. I can’t deny that my passion for food have helped me in my heartbreak healing process. For the past 12 months I have increased my interest in food preparation and entertaining. I even (with the help and cooking expertise of friends) have managed to prepare dinner for more than 6 persons. All of my attempts had been successful and my friends are starting to like my food. However, I can’t deny I have a lot more to learn and a lot more to read and experience about the topic.

I’m reading Eat, Love, Pray, another book written by another Elizabeth, this time Ms. Elizabeth Gilbert. This book uses food and traveling as medicine for the soul, mind and heart. In Eat, Love, Pray, Gilbert tells her story of a year of traveling between Italy, India and Indonesia. After a rough divorce and a complicated affair with another man, Gilbert embarks in the trip of her lifetime. It is all about giving her the time, love and affection she has been looking by having relationships with men. I’m still reading about her adventures in Italy (I believe this is just one third of the book). During her stay in Italy, Rome to be more accurate, she enrolls in a language school to take Italian classes. Gilbert narrates her experience as a language students and how she manage to find herself studying partners.

To do the last, Elizabeth published a personal add requesting an Italian native interested in making a language exchange. The requirement was very simple: this Italian will help her to improve her Italian and in return, she will practice English with her new partner. This exchange really amused me. Sometimes we (and usually when I’m using “we” I’m really thinking I) want to learn how to do something but we stop ourselves to learn what we want because we are too afraid to ask for someone’s help. It is kind of stupid because sometimes we complain about the fact that we do nothing new or that we do not have enough friends, but most of the time we deprive ourselves of this experience of making friend just for fear of sharing our time and knowledge with another human being.

In the next few hours I will begin to read about Elizabeth’s experience in India. I know it will be interesting. Let’s see what she teaches me next. As of today I have learned through her words that love and healing can truly be experience through food. There is not inner pain that cannot be healed by some comfort food.

I will keep you all posted on my reading. Stay tuned for more Food and Literature, I will summarize my experience with Eat, Love, Pray (which I hope I can finish before the movie premiere) and I will begin telling all of you my experience with my new book on food: Kitchen Confidential. Ciao and Bon Appetite.