W7 Secret Recipes

My family has never really kept much importance on secret recipes. In general, my dad is the one who cooks the most or would even have something that is like a "secret recipe." We have recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation instead. I think that if my dad were asked to share his secrets, he would be glad to do it. 

Whenever someone mentions that they have a secret recipe to me, it always throws me off. I think that it is a little strange that people find the need to keep it from everyone else. This is something that you see a lot on cooking shows like Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. When the host is in the kitchen, sometimes the main chef will be blatant and tell viewers every single ingredient that is in their food. Others will keep the ingredients a closely guarded secret because they think that someone might steal their masterpiece. I think it is just a part of two different schools of thought in food. Some people believe that the magic of making food is in the preparation and think that their process is what makes the food unique. Also, I feel that these people take joy in giving the information out. These people want others to be able to make what they do because they are proud of what they have come up with. Others think that the ingredients in an item of food are what make it stand out from the rest. Those people take pride in the unique combination of flavors that they discovered and these people wish to remain the only people that can make these dishes. I believe that if I ever came up with a recipe that no one else knew then I would be more than willing to share with the world.

W6: Food, Inc Response

One thing that I found compelling from this movie was their use of real people who dealt with the troubles of the food industry. A lot of documentaries tend to use the personal view to their advantage. It makes the issue relatable instead of being an abstract idea. For instance, the woman who lost her child due to E. coli infection is one example. Her story is tragic and it showcases the horrors that can come from the food industry if it is let to run amok. Another example is the woman who was running the chicken farm. It showed how she was trying to maintain some sort of quality in the way she raised the chickens. In the end, the company who endorsed her denied her contract when she refused to conform to the industry standard.  It's these stories from these people that stand out and drive the issue home. Another effective method they used in this film was showing how these choices by the food industry is effecting the daily consumer. A lot of documentaries have a hard time making the viewers care about the topic. However, the makers of this documentary did a good job of making the viewer think about how they are being effected. For example, talking about how the ammonia meat filler is in 70 percent of meat. They also talked about the illusion of choice at the grocery store. They discussed how many of the "farm fresh" items in a store are just made in the agricultural equivalent of a factory assembly line. Overall it was a largely effective argument without many flaws.

W5: Food Party

            This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a food party. I had never been to such a party before and I did not know what to expect. The plan was for everybody to bring a dish and then we would share with everyone else. My girlfriend and I decided on bringing our homemade macaroni and cheese. It is a simple recipe that we adopted from my dad who took it from Food Network. The noodles are a very important choice when making the dish. After a lot of testing, we found that rigatoni noodles work better than the usual elbow macaroni. The cheese is the next important choice. Two bags of sharp cheddar is my favorite, although the recipe works with a lot of different combinations of cheeses. The rest of the ingredients are traditional enough: eggs, butter, hot sauce, evaporated milk and mustard.

            So, come Saturday night, my girlfriend and I took our macaroni and cheese to this food party. We were the first to arrive and so we sat in the kitchen while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive. As the college students trickled in, I noticed a reoccurring theme. Many college students do not know how to cook. Besides the hosts of the party, only myself and one other person brought homemade food. It made me wonder how these people were living on a daily basis. At my apartment, we generally cook one meal a day. One person mentioned that all they and left in their refrigerator was eggs, mustard and mayonnaise. Several people brought bags of chips or some form of alcohol. A couple of people even brought candy. Fortunately enough, our gracious host had made enough food to cover everyone who showed up. 

            Overall, it was not too bad of an experience. I did get to eat some good food that I had not tried before. One person made a tortilla pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and olives. It was surprisingly good and made me want to try to make it at home. I have a feeling that his party was not the best it could have been, but it does make me want to attend more.