We all have our food memories, some good and some bad. The taste, smell, and texture of food can be extraordinarily evocative, bringing back memories not just of eating food itself but also of place and setting. Food is an effective trigger of deeper memories of feelings and emotions, internal states of the mind and body.

 The Harvard University Press on John S. Allen’s The Omnivorous Mind

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Have a Favorite Recipe?

It might be an old family favorite or a newly discovered winner.  Share your recipe and the stories that go along with it.  Add in a delicious photo. We’ll compile a blog post for all to enjoy.

Please send your submissions to astanescu@marincounty.org

The recipe, and the accompanying story about why this dish is important to you, should be included in the body of the email.  Please do not send a text attachment.

Photos may be attached as a .jpg (.jpeg) or .png file.

We’ll be taking submissions from December 1, 2020 to January 5, 2021 and post the blog in early 2021.

Food is essential.  Food can transport.  Let’s gather together around our shared food memories.

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Curious About the Connection Between Food & Memories?

Psychologists Explain Why Food Memories Can Feel So Powerful by Julie R. Thomson, May 10, 2017, huffpost.com

Savor the Moment: The Peculiar Connection Between Taste and Memory by Michael W. Richardson, August 6, 2015, BrainFacts.org

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 Need Inspiration?

 

 

If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… The people who give you their food give you their heart. Cesar Chavez

A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe. Thomas Keller

Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life.  Maya Angelou

 

 

I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.  W.C. Fields

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.  Virginia Woolf

 Anyone who’s a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: ‘Is it good? Does it give pleasure?’  Anthony Bourdain 

 

 

The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.  M.F.K Fisher

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.  J.R.R. Tolkien