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Quote by Bee Wilson

“The importance of shared childhood food memories for bonding families together can be seen among expats who carry their ‘homeland’ with them in the form of ingredients smuggled in suitcases.”

Quote by Bee Wilson

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

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First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

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“One of the functions of traditional cuisines is to reinforce these shared childhood food memories.”

Food Tradition Memory Cuisine

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

“To eat these foods again in the new country was a way of holding on to the grandmothers and mothers who had first cooked with them. Often, however, the remembering through food is bittersweet, because even when you have tracked down every last herb and spice, the missing ingredient is the cook. You find you don’t want pasta ‘just like Mama used to make’; you actually want Mama herself.”

Food Eating Memory Food Writing Food Anthropology

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

“You’re not a bad person, you’re just a little bit different and I’m a sucker for that.”

“Given that we all bring such different food memories to the table, how is it ever possible to cook a meal that will please everyone?”

Food Cooking Memory Meal

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

“Though it was composed of shortening, corn syrup, colourings and other unwholesome ingredients, with a shelf-life so long it became the punchline of many jokes, for many the Twinkie was the taste of childhood. It was Proust’s madeleine for the junk-food generation.”

Childhood Food Memory

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

“When you get three or more adults with nothing in common together, surprisingly often the conversation will turn to the junk foods we knew and enjoyed as children. There is a communal comfort to be had in reciting the names out loud, together, like a liturgy. In Britain, the catechism of nostalgia includes such sweets as Spangles, Jelly Tots, Rolos, Fry’s Chocolate Creams, Space Dust. These are common reference points that take us back to some joyous pre-pubertal age when life was free and easy.”

Food Memory Britain Food Writing

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

“Unlike traditional food, which is remembered jointly within families or communities, mass-produced food and drink is remembered across continents.”

Food Memory Food Anthropology

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

“Our olfactory bulbs have gathered endless sense patterns of foods high in sugar, fat and salt. These flavour memories have become part of the fabric of our sense of self and are not easily discarded, because the system, as we have seen, is designed ‘not to forget’.”

Food Memory Food Anthropology Eating Disorder Recovery

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

“Why is a bowl of frosted cereal loops with added rainbow marshmallows allowed to count as ‘breakfast’ and not ‘sweets’?”

Food Breakfast Cereal

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

“The existence of birthday cake ice cream suggests that we can no longer distinguish celebration foods from everyday ones. We are also not too sure whether we are children or adults.”

Childhood Food Birthday Ice Cream Birthday Cake

Book:First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat