Food has been an integral part of most people’s lives. If you ask someone anywhere you will most likely find that they have certain food cravings and  a relationship with a certain food. The reasons for this may vary; for some it might just be because of the taste of the food and that’s their reason for loving the meal so much. For others, it may be due to the nostalgia a food gives, it may remind you of a certain place or time in your life that brings comfort to you. One source of nostalgia is taste, which is one of the primary human senses. It is one of our primary ways of survival, as well as smell, which in some cases is connected to happy memories. Cooking homemade meals has been a human tradition for hundreds of years and will probably continue to be for the foreseeable future. In Michael Pollan’s New York Times essay, “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch”, he describes the innovation of learning how to use fire to cook, suggesting it “[…] has done the most to advance the cause of civilization” (Pollan 16). Whether you agree with Pollan’s take or not you have to admit that cooking has advanced society in many ways, including,  being able to prepare food more efficiently, as well as making the food we eat much more safe and with less diseasesminimizing risks of food-related illness.With that being said, one wonders if people long for the result of cooking, or if they long for the process and the people and environment involved? As the taste of these meals are usually phenomenal, in my opinion the people around the meal itself involved in the preparation and the indulging of food at the end are just as if not more important than the food itself.   In our English class this semester, we were tasked to write an essay about our favorite homemade meal. I decided to write about my mother’s steak sandwich. The steak sandwich is made with a ribeye steak, brioche bun, arugula, caramelized mushrooms and onions, and finished with creamy horseradish. The sandwich taste wise is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but it means much more to me than just a meal. It reminds me of my home, as well as my wonderful mother. Now, everytime I go home, one of the first meals that my mother offers to make for me is the sandwich. She knows I love it, and it’s her little way of welcoming me back home after coming home from school, which at times is extremely stressful. One of the patterns of other people’s favorite meal essays written in that class historically has been tied to a certain human being, more particularly a family member. One of the waysmost powerful ways humans  have expressed gratitude toward family as well as peers has been through food, and through the hard preparation of cooking, it shows that you care enough for a person to sacrifice time out of your day to help quench that person’s hunger.

As the world continues to evolve, everything is getting faster and faster, leading to less time to do things such as prepare food. Well it would be unreasonable to think that people can consistently make homemade meals from scratch three times a day for seven days a week. However, there should definitely still be a few homemade meals stitched into your week. Through homemade meals there is so much camaraderie to be had with your family and friends through the cooking process, as well as sitting down together all around a table and enjoying the final product. 

With that being said, one wonders if people long for the result of cooking, or if they long for the process and the people and environment involved?