I’ve put together some of my favorite foods I’ve eaten over the years.
There’s this scene in Ratatouille’s Ratatouille that I remember often.
It happened when Anton Ego, a notorious Parisian food critic, visited his least favorite restaurant, Gusteau’s. He sits alone at the table in favor of giving Gusteau’s new head chef, Alfredo Linguini, a chance to win critical criticism. After waiting endlessly, he receives his main dish: ratatouille. Ratatouille is widely known as a peasant dish in French culture.
Nevertheless, when Ego takes a bite he is suddenly transported back to his gilded youth, when his mother made him ratatouille after he scraped his knee in a bicycle crash. At the first bite, the delicate petals of eggplant, tomato and zucchini are instantly sprinkled with maternal love, evoking a sense of peace.
Well, now the ego is dumbfounded. Judging by the shocked look on his face and the negative criticism so common among restaurant owners, it’s clear he hasn’t tasted nostalgia in a long time.
He had forgotten the meaning of good food – comfort.
Food is essentially part of what sustains human life, but it also nurtures us spiritually. When you taste the last bite of masala chai or let a delicious shaved ice melt on your tongue, you should remember the feeling you get when you taste delicious food or drink, especially if it involves someone else.
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Food is essentially part of what sustains human life, but it also nurtures us spiritually.
Last summer, I made my own lemon meringue pie for the first time. It turned out perfectly. The meringue was oven-baked and fluffy and slightly browned, the batter was crispy on the tongue, and the lemon curd had the perfect amount of sweetness and tartness. When my dad ate it, he said it reminded him of his grandmother’s lemon meringue pie that she used to make for him and his siblings when they were little.
Similarly, hearing a certain flavor may remind you of a dish you ate a long time ago. Just yesterday I tasted an Indian butter chicken dish that brought back memories of my visit to Edinburgh 4 months ago. There I had the best meal of my life, a flavorful dish of butter chicken and a chocolate chai latte from a restaurant called Dishoom. At that moment in Edinburgh, the dish evoked nostalgia and nourished the heart and soul. It was a meal I won’t soon forget.
The famous chef Roland Henin once told his trainee, now world-famous chef Thomas Keller, that chefs cook to develop people. That’s it. The truth about restaurants and every meal you’ve ever eaten is that food is meant to nourish and nurture. It is, like any other art, an art that seeks to forge connections while preserving the nature of the soul.
Every time I ate a simple, delicious grilled cheese sandwich or a restaurant’s elaborate cultural dish, everything I’ve ever eaten has given me a sense of stability and comfort in the vibrant realm of earthly cuisine. I remember the meal.
