Food and literature have long been intertwined. Food provides inspiration and symbolism for authors and plays an important role in many works of fiction through plot devices, character revelations, and descriptions of meals. Different cultures are defined by their unique cuisines and food traditions, which then influence distinct literary works within those societies. Authors use food to convey meaning, represent social statuses and conflicts, and create moods and settings. Feasts in particular can signify celebrations, social bonds, and turning points in plots. Food is a lens through which authors have explored issues of gender, politics, and memory. Works across centuries from ancient texts to modern novels demonstrate the deep and varied ways food has nourished literary imagination.

1. Global Food Perspective
Food And Literature
Preface
Since time memorial, eating has been a basic human activity, an activity which is not
only necessary for continued existence but also connected with social functions. Eating
patterns and rituals, the preference of dining acquaintance, and the motive behind these
behaviours are basic towards nurturing an understanding of human society. Food and
drink have not only spiced up but have also given an emblematic insight to the printed
pages.
Food and fiction paring is as old as the Bhagvad Gita, The Bible and The Vedas. It has
been a constant source of inspiration, since the time ink was first put to paper. Be it a plot
device or a method of revealing character-eating, drinking or merry making, food has
played an important part in many of the novels, poems, and other literary works. Foods
and patterns of eating and their symbolism are brought to play because of their
elementary place in human life and culture. English and French writings have many a
times associated bountiful supply of food with good health and festivity, while scarcity
represented wretchedness.
A more practical approach would be that food representation in artistic works would add
a level of complexity, making everything related to food and eating a still more important
issue in the advancement of a world increasingly affected by apparently unsolvable
problems of hunger and satiety.
But being two of the greatest pleasures of life -eating and reading- explains the fact that
why food writing continues to be so popular and why magazines such as ‘Food & Wine’,
‘Conde Nast’, ‘Gourmet’ and ‘Bon Appétit’ will probably never fade away.
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Food And Literature
Food and Story-Telling
Not to forget that when we talk of "writing about food", it doesn't indicate a transitory
reference to food. It basically means a passage in a book where the author has really
written about the food itself, creating both a visual and a verbal impact, and to create a
mood or convey an idea. The meal is such a human endeavor that it has fed the
imagination of poets and writers across the ages to provide the ingredients for many
brilliant scenes.
Portrayal of Food in ‘Collected Works’:
Food in Culture and Memory
Every culture being unique has its own traditions and rituals, its own cuisine and distinct
eating habits, so is it with its food culture i.e. unique methods and technologies, growth
and harvesting practices, etc. Thus events involving food-cooking to serving-help define
the social organization and cultural identity of the very communities that give rise to
distinct literary traditions. This in-turn evokes an avalanche of memories and feelings
through food writings as food involves all the other senses too besides the taste and smell.
The Meal as Communion
The portrayal of meals through literature as a union of individuals and as moments of
light and warmth in the dark and cold is not uncommon. The famous Christmas feast in
„A Christmas Carol‟ by Charles Dickens perhaps is the best example where Scrooge‟s
clerk‟s family feasts‟ on the plum pudding and roast turkey.
Gargantua and Pantagruel‟s food imagery is one of the best examples of feast in the face
of literature. The good-humor, triumphant feasts, the pinnacle of the development of
growing food, in which mankind in communal harmony faces the world with an open
mouth, gives rise to fineness in tête-à-tête, and hence to literature.
A feast is not only an indicator of celebration of victory, a successful marriage, etc but
also substantiation of a community. Thus Shakespearean romantic comedies such as „As
You Like It‟ and the „Tempest‟, come so close.
The Feast as a Focal Point of Plot
Feasts are an integral part of a literary work. Although the plots are based on the human
tendencies of love, conquest, betrayal, and loss, rather than food, the feast still it holds the
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3. Global Food Perspective
Food And Literature
power to be a fulcrum on which a plot can turn. In Homer's work titled „Odyssey‟,
Odysseus murders his rivals right after the feast of the suitors.
Food and Social Healing
In Dickens‟s play „A Christmas Carol‟ the character Ebenzer Scrooge a misery
transforms after overlooking his clerk‟s family feast on Christmas. On that night Scrooge
finds the youngest child of the family crippled and the family as a whole raising a toast to
Scrooge even after his indifferent behaviour.
Food in Children’s and Women literature
Besides social order and civilization, food often represents the limitations imposed upon
a child's world, blending well with the idea of excess as a key element of childhood
fantasy or childish emotions like coziness and power struggle inherent to family
dynamics. Teatime is one such imagery used to depict the states of harmony or
disharmony. For example-Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1866), in
which Alice learns to come to terms with the world around her via her experiences at the
Mad Hatter's distinctly uncivilized tea party.
Food is a powerful imagery in adult literature as well. Katherine Anne Porter and
Margaret Atwood use visual images to increase the realism in their writing. Porter's
Flowering Judas and Other Stories (1935) create a sense of richness and conveyed
external and physical manifestation of human complexity through food details. Likewise
in food used as a sensual and sensory object in poetry.
Ernest Hemingway of the great literary writer was capable of creating a distinctive mood
through his illusive accounts of food allowing his fictional characters the emotional
access to the world they were living in.
Edith Wharton has effectively used „dining rituals‟ to lay emphasis on the conflicts
underneath an order as „dining rituals‟ not only reflect but also express the human desires
and behaviors. Whereas authors such as Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor often use food
metaphors to characterize people and their status in the society, hence accepting food as
a significant indicator of civilization..
Food, feminine character and domesticity have had a pivotal place in many works of
women's literature. Margaret Atwood has addressed the issues of gender, language, and
sexual politics and social dislocation through food and eating disorders. In The Edible
Woman (1969), Atwood has used anorexia to explore women's strategies to develop
alternative languages. In Laura Esquivel‟s Like Water for Chocolate (1989) food has
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been used as a metaphor for passion and desire. Also the kitchen has been expressed as a
woman‟s domain as well as a vehicle for their creativity.
(Source: http://www.enotes.com/twentieth-century-criticism/food-literature 19/04/2009
at 4:20pm)
Scriptures - Around The World
Food till date is the greatest common denominator between different cultures. It is
through food only that different people across the globe have learnt have come to know
of many a things that otherwise may have remained opaque to them. One can find food
linkages through the Holy Scriptures like the Bible, the Ramayana; the Vedas; literary
works of Shakespeare till the 20th century literature.
The BIBLE
The Bible has food and drink all throughout. One of the best known linkages is that of the
Last Supper- Jesus last meal with his disciples before his death which included bread and
wine. Some other well known scenes are that of the feeding of the five thousand, the feast
for the lost son, and the wine miracle in Cana (were Jesus turns barrels of water into
barrels of wine) from the New Testament and the first Pesach meal in Egypt; Abraham's
sacrifice of Isaac, for whom a wild goat was substituted the manna in the desert from the
Old Testament. The mention of the land flowing with milk and honey from the Old
Testament spreads God‟s idea of the ideal of Egypt and that the one who curses honey
and milk would be a Bible heretic.
The purpose of Food imagery in the bible was, firstly to inform about the production and
consumption in the area during the biblical times and also to tell how the food was
prepared and its meaning henceforth. Secondly it communicates a message to the reader,
for instance the theory of vegetarianism.
Another important fact associated with bible is Gluttony. Bible forbids gluttony and
states that, that it‟s the sins committed and not food that led to human obesity.
(Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/food-in-the-bible 19/04/2009 at 11:40am)
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5. Global Food Perspective
Food And Literature
Food in Nineteenth and Twentieth -Century Literature
Talking about the most basic level food references in the nineteenth century literature
shows the authors attempt to include practical elements from everyday life. But the
differences in availability of food and dissimilarity in diet convey important cultural
information on class difference. And this is well depicted through the table manners and
the food feast starvation imagery signifying a class issue - the wide inequality between
the rich and the poor. Another instance that justifies the above fact is standard time for
eating the main meal of the day which changed over time. Maggie Lane explicates that
since it was cheaper to prepare and consume the main meal in natural light, the
fashionable people would prefer dining late—6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., or even later—by
candlelight.
Food has also been used as a symbol of social status to fictional represent French life.
For instance Lilian Furst expresses Emma's wedding feast of „Madame Bovary‟ as a
normal country wedding with an elegant banquet and a vulgar spread; where the menu
and presentation signifies the refinement and elegance that Emma longed for, in contrast
to the life that she was actually living. Food has also been used as an environmental
factor, to describe the area around as a land of poor soil and inferior cheeses and viceversa.
Food has also been associated with both love and sex, and in English, French, and
American novels, the denial of love and the repression of sexuality manifest themselves
in a variety of eating disorders. In Dickens's „Oliver Twist‟, food and sexuality are
associated in a way that relates to the acquirement of identity, which is common to
several narrative threads of the novel.
A primarily feminine affliction, self-starvation, i.e anorexia nervosa, is widespread
among the female characters of nineteenth-century fiction as women's repressed rage is
turned inward and results in self-destruction.
Dickens love for feasts is a proof of sociability and gusto and as ceremonies of love and
not a celebration of glutton or the gourmet.
Abandonment of esoteric concerns for the demonstration of real life led to the inclusion
of concrete descriptions of everyday events, including the details of food preparation,
dining rituals, table manners, and even digestive disorders. Until the late twentieth
century critics often ignored these literary devices whereas at the same time the cultural
studies scholars focused their attention on food and foodways.
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Food And Literature
Scholars associated with twentieth-century vegetarian theory have also dug out the texts
of the nineteenth century, tapping into Romantic vegetarianism as practiced by Mary
Shelley and others. Carol J. Adams discusses Shelley's man-made creature in
Frankenstein, who sets himself apart from humans in general and his creator specifically
by refusing to eat meat.
Not surprisingly the preparation and serving of food is linked to women within
patriarchal cultures. But the connection is often more subtle than a simple assignment to
women of the role of cook and provider of sustenance to men and children. In George
Eliot and Charlotte Brontë‟s novels, the instances of such stereotypical “women's work”
along with food and the proper preparation of various dishes are abundant. A serving of
food as a device for illuminating the structure of the societies they specifically portray.
The obligation for food preparation could be empowering for women—not only in terms
of supervising a large portion of the household budget, but also as a way of dispensing
love and fellowship along with food.
(Source: http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/food-nineteenth-centuryliterature 20/04/2009 at 6:57pm)
Miscellaneous Writings
Besides the above mentioned literary works there are certain works of fiction and
cookbooks which throw light on cooking and literature. A few examples are stated below:
1. Tea with Jane Austen
In this book, Kim Wilson offers a synopsis of the history and culture of tea, with selected
text and discussions related to Jane Austen's works. Reading this book one could also
discover the rituals of tea.
2. Cather's Kitchens: Food-ways in Literature and Life
Roger and Linda Welsch collected recipes from the Willa Cather's family recipe files,
from period cookbooks, and from ethnic recipe collections. In this book one can find the
molasses beer, corn soup, biscuits, and other recipes and can get a taste of those novels
like "My Antonia”.
3. A Feast of Words: For Lovers of Food and Fiction
Anna Shapiro pairs 25 selections from novels and short stories with recipes for Orange
Bread, Apple and Cheese Bread, and Sesame Loaf, crunchy roast potatoes, the best
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Food And Literature
chocolate mousse, and cafe con leche. Read from Jane Austen's "Emma," from Doris
Lessing's "A Good Neighbour," and Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina."
(source: http://classiclit.about.com/od/bookgiftsgadgets/tp/aatp_litcookboo.htm
19/04/2009 at 1:18pm)
4. The Mistress of Spices
-- by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Divakaruni‟s prose is so pungent that it stains the page, yet beneath the sighs and smells
of this brand of magic realism she deftly introduces her true theme: how an ability to
accommodate desire enlivens not only the individual heart but a society cornered by
change.
5. Like Water for Chocolate
--A Novel in Monthly Instalments with Recipes, Romances, and Home
Remedies by Laura Esquivel and translated by Carol and Thomas Christensen.
“A tall-tale, fairy-tale, soap-opera romance, Mexican cookbook and home-remedy
handbook all rolled into one, Like Water For Chocolate is one tasty entree from first-time
novelist Laura Esquivel.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
6. The Language of Baklava
--by Diana Abu-Jaber
“Incredibly powerful. . . . The world described is so strange and sumptuous, the
characters so large and comedic, and the descriptions of the food so enveloping and
mouth-watering that you want to climb into this world and make it your own.” —The
Oregonian
7. Under the Tuscan Sun
--At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned
villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. In Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the
lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveller, and the discerning palate of a cook
and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her
table. (Source: http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/FoodLit2008.html 20/04/2009 at
5:19pm)
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8. Global Food Perspective
Food And Literature
Critique and Conclusion
In lame words one can say that it is due to the tummy and its desire for food that gives
rise to feasts and festivals. The need for such feasts maybe to celebrate the human
feelings of triumph over the world, in which food represents the entire process through
cultivation to preparation.
In accordance with Glants and Toomre‟s thought, food easily has the potential to become
a metaphor in the national customs and thereby can set off a different reaction depending
on its national tradition. This is so because one can draw numerous similarities between
the importance of both food and literature as vehicles of cultural and social evolution. In
short both literature and food are means to preserve as well as transform social and
cultural traditions.
To name some, writers such as James Joyce, Kazuo Ishiguro, Virginia Woolf, Salman
Rushie, W.G. Sebald, E.M. Forster and Pat Barker are all interested in the „food travel‟
and the social occasions that it can possibly creates.
One must taste the flavours of books and literature and ponder over the fact that how the
makers of those products begin to adapt their creativity to the new conditions of
globalization.
(Source: http://www.news.wisc.edu/12459 19/04/2009 at 3:00am)
I‟d like to end with a quote by Marie-Antoine Careme“According to Careme -When we no longer have good cooking in the world, we will
have no literature, nor high and sharp intelligence, nor friendly gatherings, no social
harmony.”
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9. Global Food Perspective
Food And Literature
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