. . .here I am. This is my first post to ChefTalkCafe. I have been watching, reading, and gathering information. Thanks for being here. This is a very interesting resource. In addition to loving to cook, I am a social sciences professor, and study the psychology of food and eating. I also have a number of friends who are chefs as well as front and back of house people. Because of the breadth of information available here, I am looking forward to asking and sharing information. Glad to be here.

[mudbug]

How interesting it must be to study the "psychology of food and eating". Your perspective should be a great contribution to the forum! Welcome emary!

Thanks for the welcome, cchiu. I have seen you a lot lately over at Epi. I hope to be able to contribute SOMETHING constructive to these forums!

[Chef David Simpson]

Welcome emary, to www.cheftalk.com,we hope you enjoy yourself. Please post your questions anywhere and I'm sure you will get an answer.

[This message has been edited by Chef David Simpson (edited 12-08-2000).]

[shroomgirl]

Welcome!!!!

[cape chef]

Bonjour, Emary. enjoy!!
cc

this is cool . i am slo interested in why people eat the way they do.

it's compelling when you understand that food feels many interesting needs for others.
i will be watching

[Mezzaluna]

I'll look forward to your insights, emary. Welcome aboard!

Thank you all so much for the warm welcomes! This is a very friendly place! I look forward to becomming part of the gang!

[Live_to_cook]

emary -- as you study the psychology of food and eating, I'm curious: do you have an opinion on why people like to spend so much time talking (or communicating via Internet) about food and eating... and what they get out of it?

Has talk, for some of us, become a substitute for the actual food? (I'll confess I feel that way sometimes. An Internet-capable computer is easier to get to than an appropriately stocked kitchen and the time to cook.)

Well . . .Let's see. This is a HUGE question, as I'm sure you know. But, in my opinion, the biggest reason is that food and eating are SO central to the basic human experience - as central as sex and shelter (remember Maslow's heirarchy of needs?). Food not only sustains us physically, but psychologically as well. It is a metaphor for other human experiences, which is why it is associated in art and literature with sex and love - with well-being and creativity - with power and affluence - with survival and even with discipline. Think about how food and eating are so intertwined with everything from setting the stage for romance to bringing the boss home to dinner, to protesting social conditions by going on a hunger strike, to religious worship, to sending children to bed without any supper. Eating also lets us peek into someone else's culture by experiencing it in it's most basic terms.

One of the best ways I have heard it stated is by Jean Faraca on NPR. Here is a great quote:

". . .food is an exploration of life, and talking about food is an act of imagination that can be more delicious than food itself. It's not just what we eat, it's what sustains us, inspires us, and honors our differences. It's as much fun to talk with a Sicilian woman about the way Carnivale was celebrated in her hometown as it is to talk to Amy Tan about the way she uses food as metaphor
in her novels. Eating, we become part of one another. It's a natural form of communion. The best food is food that nourishes us in the deepest sense, whether it's dandeloin and cannellini beans that have suddenly become chic, or a peasant dish nobody has ever heard about. What matters is the celebration of the feast."

[Dlee]

emary,

WELCOME! It seems you are a popular person. I have a question for you. I have always been intrested in Psychology, can you recomend any books on the topic psychology of food and eating.

Thank you

Dlee

Hi, Dlee. I could recommend a ton of books and articles but some are much more readable than others. Here is a partial list of some of the more "digestable" ones:

Counihan, C., & van Esterik, P. (Eds.)(1997). Food and culture: A reader. NY: Routledge. (C&VE)

Logue, A. (1991). The psychology of eating and drinking, 2nd edition. NY: W.H. Freeman.

Lyman, Bernard. (1989) A. Psychology of food : more than a matter of taste. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. New York

Rozin, P. (1996). Towards a psychology of food and eating: From motivation to module to model to marker, morality, meaning, and metaphor. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5, 18-24.

Any of these make for very interesting reading if you are interested in food psychology.

[Dlee]

Thanks emary