Favorite in class text: My favorite in class text was Tacopedia by Deborah Holtz and Juan C. Mena. I liked this text because it was accompanied by a class discussion that forced me to consider how food connects to history, culture, race, and identity. Instead of simply thinking, “This corn tortilla was made somewhere and now I have a taco”, I  was exposed to not only the history, but also the importance of corn as a staple food in the Mexican culture.

Favorite out of class text: My favorite out of class text was Perfect Neapolitan Pizza, a clip from TV show, No Reservations, with host Anthony Bourdain. I really appreciated this ‘text’ because it was a multimedia text and I had never before considered that the written word and the multimedia version could be one in the same. This text might have also been my favorite because it is linked to my favorite class project, the annotated bibliography.

What does the Rhetoric of Food mean? I now know that the rhetoric of food is incredibly broad. It is meant to bring joy to people the same way that food itself does. Whether it’s a multimedia platform, poetic piece, food review, or recipe, texts are published to insight a feeling within the reader or viewer. The rhetoric of food is meant to tell a story. We can use the rhetoric of food to look at everything we already know through a different lens; whether that be history, socio-economic status, culture, and so on, food provides a new perspective into these dense aspects of the human world.

This link will take you to my blog the Common Eater where you will find a review of Second Bar + Kitchen! Check it out!

The Common Eater

 

I am exploring the genre of restaurant reviews. After conducting research, I have gathered that reviews come in all shapes and forms. Some reviews are extremely biased while others try to remain more open-minded; certain reviews critique a particular food at various locations while other authors take the route of reviewing all aspects of a single restaurant. When assessing this genre, I tried to take all of these variations into account, so my sources have a wide assortment of style preference. However, while all of these reviews are somewhat different, they still fall under the same genre of a ‘restaurant review’, therefore they all have formal and functional similarities.

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What should it contain?

Always: 

• A critique of the food
• The atmosphere in which the food is consumed
• Brief description of the restaurants location
• Directly or implicitly provide the author’s credibility

Sometimes:

• Include the restaurant’s chef
• Provide comparisons of similar restaurants
• Include photos
• Address how pricey the restaurant is
• Inject a biased opinion

The functional elements include giving the reader the ability to make an informed decision about whether or not they would enjoy a dining experience at the particular restaurant. The author provides a detailed summary about what a typical meal at this restaurant would be like and through the use of strong imagery, the reader is able to envision the event being described.

Sources:

• Restaurant Review: Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square
• Jonathon Gold goes on a holiday crawl across L.A
• Austin Chronicle Restaurant Review
• Restaurant Review: Uchiko
• Fed Man Walking: A Month of Sunday’s Brunch

Questions:

• What makes me qualified as an author to write a food review?
• Which type of review do you think is more interesting: a singular restaurant or a”best of” list with a particular food
• As a reader, are you more interested in food reviews or beverage reviews?
• Any suggestions for which restaurant you’d be interested in reading about?

Austin Chronicle Restaurant Reviews

For my mentor text I chose a local restaurant review website that is relevant to my audience because as of right now we all live in Austin. I am a strong believer in researching a restaurant and checking out their menu before committing to a meal, so this particular type of text is incredibly close to my own passions regarding the rhetoric of food.

Restaurant reviews vary from author to author, but I appreciate the reviews on this specific website because they present a biased point of view. After reading a review from this site, the reader is able to understand if the author appreciated their overall dining experience, but is also capable of removing themselves from the particular opinion and is left to consider the facts that have been laid out before them. This type of opinionated review is beneficial to me because the imagery created within the article is so vivid that the reader is able to place themselves in the restaurant and assess whether or not they would enjoy the certain environment themselves.

The review I provided of Forthright, written by Brandon Watson, has notable factors that deem this text a superb mentor review to analyze. He begins by establishing his credibility as a long time Austin-ite, reminiscing on the city’s changing food scene over the years. Following his opening statements he declares what ‘restaurant category’ Forthright is most closely linked to and provides restaurant comparisons in hopes that the reader will find this relatable. Watson knows all too well that when assessing a dining experience, you have to address all of the factors involved, so he also successfully lays out a description of the restaurant’s ambiance and environment.  At this point in the text, the visual reader has an image of the atmosphere and is then presented with a detailed review of the menu’s hits and customer favorites. I thought Watson’s inclusion of dish prices was unique and beneficial to the reader if they were considering budget. Another simple aspect that makes all the difference in this review is his final text at the bottom where he includes the restaurant’s location and hours of operation. While yes, any diner could easily Google this information, it is helpful to provide these details with the review itself.

 

Watson, Brandon. “Restaurant Review: Forthright.” The Austin Chronicle. The Austin Chronicle, 28 Oct. 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

 

For the History Major: Pizza: A Slice of Heaven 

Ed Levine, a respected New York food writer and creator of the website Serious Eats, takes us back in time to memorialize the evolution of what is now arguably America’s favorite food. Originally made by and for the poor, pizza was a staple among Italians and Italian immigrants in the United States. Once the WWII GIs stationed in Italy returned home, the demand for pizza quickly expanded across both race and class. This excerpt from his book highlights the battle between pizzerias versus the “big dog” pizza chains and how what was once a food with close ties to a cultural identity has been transformed into a mainstream, convenient meal.

For the Party People: October is National Pizza Month

Charrise Van Horn gives pizza lovers a reason to celebrate. This text shows readers the history behind National Pizza Month in October and features different marketing campaigns that pizza chains and independent pizzerias have to offer during this cheesy-filled month. The article is flooded with tweets and hyperlinks to different pizza promotions during October 2016. In the past, some pizza chains have even donated part of their proceeds to breast cancer during this celebratory month because October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month. Other companies typically use the month to introduce new fall flavors. Be on the lookout for any deals your favorite pizza company might have to offer this coming October 2017!

For the Strategy Guy:  A Case Study in the Pizza Industry 

In this study, information science specialists, Wu He, Shenghua Zha, and Ling Li, looked at “the big three” pizza companies’, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Papa John’s, social media use and the affect that it had on their sales and client engagement. The researchers looked at both Facebook and Twitter as social media platforms and defined “engagement” as a customer liking, sharing, commenting, or leaving reviews for a chain. The study found that customers have in fact become more valuable since the evolution of social media because the act of engaging with a chain establishes brand loyalty and created active brand advocacy within a customer. Researchers also discovered that 1 in every 3 customers ordered from a certain pizza chain because they saw something their friend might have reposted or liked on a social media platform. Pizza chains are furthering their brand by using their customers as strategic marketing tools.

For the Tech Savvy: This Robot Can 3D-print and Bake

Leanna Garflied, a tech reporter that covers stories on innovations in food as well as other things like architecture and urban planning, takes the reader on a journey of what quite literally seems “out of this world”. Beehex, a start up company in California, invented a robot that is able to 3D print pizza. Originally NASA helped fund the project in an effort to innovate space food, but the bot has since been modified for the enterprise market. Since its invention, the bot has been named Chef 3D and is expected to make a debut at various entertainment locations, such as sporting events and theme parks. The dough, sauce, shape and cheese are all programmed into the computer prior to printing and  customers will even engage in the tech savvy production by custom ordering their pizza on apps or at kiosks. The shape possibilities are endless with Chef 3D because the bot is able to make any JPEG image into pizza form.

For the Rule Follower: Perfect Neapolitan Pizza

Believe it or not, there really is only one right way to make a Neapolitan pizza. In an episode of No Reservations, host, Anthony Bourdain travels to Naples in hopes of discovering how to make a “perfect” Neapolitan pizza. He tells us that in 2004, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture actually said that the dimensions, ingredients and cooking temperature all must be regulated to declare a pizza authentically Neapolitan. In the video, Bourdain also compares New York pizza to Italian pizza, one difference being the way people consume their slice. In New York it is common to see people eating pizza with their hands, but in Naples it is normal to eat pizza with the help of a fork and knife.

For the Wannabe Chef: Ree’s Easy Homemade Pizza

Ree Drummond, host of Food Networks’ Pioneer Woman and author of best-selling cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes From an Accidental Country Girl, is here to help with all of your pizza cooking needs! She provides both an instructional video and an easy-to-follow recipe for a date night at home spent making “his and her” pizzas. Ingredients for the dough, sauce, and necessary essentials for both pizza options are listed on the left hand side. The right hand side includes instructions divided into “how to” sections including: dough, sauce, basic pepperoni pizza, a four-cheese pizza. With Ree’s simple breakdown you and a friend will soon be able to make these pizzas with utter ease.

For the Health Nut: Is Eating Pizza Healthy?

Andrea Cespedes answers this question by saying, “It can be!” With over 20 years in the fitness industry and exploration of both nutrition and fitness, professionally trained chef and certified personal trainer, Cespedes, offers up her expertise for how to indulge in healthier alternatives. She says that if pizza is a staple in your regular diet, you may want to reach for one of these options every once in a while to regulate your intake. When you’re trying to cut back, Cespedes says ordering less cheese or substituting meat toppings for more veggies is one way to go. If you absolutely need your meat fix, go for the healthier options such as ham or chicken. Another tip she suggests is getting thin crust instead of thick and possibly ordering whole grain crust if it’s offered. Ultimately she says making your pizza at home might be the best option because you can use ingredients like low sodium sauce and whole wheat flour. Cespedes acknowledges that everyone needs a good slice of pizza every once in a while, but in between “cheat days” she advocates for healthier ingredient changes.

For the Winner in You: How to Win a Pizza Challenge

In this video tutorial, Randy Santel, creator of foodchallenges.com and winner of 285 food challenges around the world, gives the competitor in us tips to come out on top if we are ever faced with the task of consuming a massive pizza in a limited amount of time. While there are a number of pizza challenges in existence globally, Santel provides a few tips that are universally key to successfully completing any challenge. For example, if you are able to decide the size or number of slices, he recommends going smaller and if possible having square slices because they go down easier than large triangular ones. The competitor is also reminded that taste isn’t a priority in the mission at hand. Yes you want to enjoy the pizza, but lots of distracting toppings will confuse your pallet and make eating the pizza within the time limit harder. Do you think you’re up for the challenge?

For the Over Achiever: Italian Chefs Create Mile-Long Neapolitan to Break Record

Rachel Swatman, writer for the Guinness Book of World Records, reports on the longest pizza ever made. The record was confirmed along the seafront in Naples after 11 hours and with the help of 250 chefs. The massive amounts of ingredients required were provided by local suppliers and five portable ovens were needed in order to cook the mile long pizza in its entirety. Once the officiator confirmed that the record had been broken, onlookers were encouraged to grab a slice and indulge in the victory.

For my annotated bibliography, I have decided to research the idea of “pizza variations around the world”. I believe this is a good topic because while this idea is is small compared to the grand scheme of pizza, I can still report on a large pool of information when I consider things like pizza toppings around the globe, the variations based on continent, how pizza is made, and its overall popularity as a dish in certain places. So far I have been exploring different mediums of research and will definitely be utilizing written text as well as multimedia reports on pizza.

In the written article, The Strangest Pizza Toppings Across The Globe, I have already discovered that crocodile and kangaroo meat are popular toppings in Australia, while China at large is a fan of hot dog crust. I am also looking forward to watching, Food Paradise International: Pizza Paradise, an episode from the Travel Channel, that includes information about pizza from London, Buenos Aires, South Africa and more. If anyone is curious about the pizza habits in a specific country or how certain toppings came to be, please let me know! I look forward to being able to relay this information to y’all.

Over the past few weeks, I feel that I have already improved my research abilities tremendously. I regrettably admit this, but prior to Rhetoric of Food I had never used the UT Library Database, so having recently utilized this tool feels like an achievement in itself. When considering what topic I want to explore, I immediately thought, “Why not research food and eating in Cape Town”? since I am traveling there this summer and will probably be doing some recon on the topic anyways. However, finding scholarly articles on this topic proved to be difficult; instead I was left with a handful of texts about food regulations in South Africa.

Scratching that idea, I moved on to plan B, my favorite food: pizza. I quickly decided that this topic would prove to be interesting because I have already journaled about my love for pizza and its a food appreciated by most everyone. I can also take this topic in all sorts of directions: types of pizza, it’s history, strange toppings around the world, and the list goes on. Google Scholar and Ebsco are the main data bases I have been using so far and they have a collection of material to read and chose from. Does anyone else have a database they would recommend?

Pizza: A Global History by Carol Helstosky

Slice of Heaven: A History of Pizza in America

 

Chocolate Oatie No Bake Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

Both my mom and my grandmother inspired this recipe. I can recall many occasions growing up when I would arrive at my grandparents house and rush straight to these cookies, leaving the hello hugs as an after thought once my taste buds were satisfied. As I grew older, I began to fix these for my siblings on a slow Saturday or a long summer afternoon. Now I love making this dish because I have so many happy childhood memories associated with it. No oven needed; hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do!

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Ingredients:

• 1/2 C Butter
• 4 Tbsp Cocoa
• 1/2 C Milk
• 2 C Sugar
• 1/2 C Peanut Butter
• 3 C Quick cooking Oats
• 2 tsp. Vanilla

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In a saucepan, add your butter, sugar, milk and cocoa. Bring this mixture to a full boil, and boil for about 1 minute. Next, stir in your peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. Once all of your ingredients are completely mixed together, use a spoon to scoop out small-medium sized lumps and place them on wax paper at an equal distance apart. Let the lumps cool. Once the cookies have hardened, enjoy!

The form of a recipe is distinct and fairly recognizable when compared to the form of other texts. It consists of ingredients and necessary measurements, followed with step-by-step instructions of how to successfully prepare the dish. Some recipes may also include a tasteful photo if the author is particularly eager to grab the reader’s attention or a brief introduction that gives a background on the recipe’s origin or a story about where the author got his inspiration. The layout of the text may vary depending upon the medium in which the author posts or publishes the recipe. For example, if the recipe is written in someone’s individual cooking notebook it will definitely appear different than a digital recipe posted online.

As far as the theme and purpose of a recipe are concerned, one must first consider the topic an author is attempting to explore. In Leanne Brown’s, Good and Cheap, her whole mantra is eating well on a budget. She emphasizes the idea that food doesn’t have to be crazy expensive just because it’s healthy and argues that, “Kitchen skill, not budget, is the key to great food”. After reading Brown’s intro and philosophy in its entirety, her purpose, to share healthy, easy recipes with the budgeting world (her target audience) is made clear and thus the reader has a better understanding of her theme.

Furthermore, the purpose behind an author’s decision to write a text varies depending on the context of that said text. In regards to a recipe, the author typically writes it for the reader because he or she believes the dish is worthy of others’ time and taste buds. An author may also write a recipe simply for his or her recollection purposes or to tweak the recipe at a later date.

With a few clicks of a computer mouse an individual can have a magnitude of recipes at their fingertips; whether that be a professional blog post, digital cook book, or website where aspiring cooks congregate to share their food favorites with one another. Allrecipes.com is a perfect example of such a site and once an individual creates a profile, he or she is free to post as many recipes as their heart desires. While exploring this site I stumbled upon a recipe titled, Yia Yia’s Baklava Recipe, posted by Jacolyn Dandreano. This title forces one to beg the question, “Who is Yia Yia?” but after reading just the first sentence of Dandreano’s introduction to this recipe we learn that Yia Yia is the originator of this dish and the Baklava has been passed down in her family. Her introduction goes on to share a personal story related to the dish and even suggests certain times of the year that the dish is typically popular. After reviewing the entire post, one might acknowledge that while the author’s purpose was to share her Greek recipe with the public at large, the theme this text portrays is the idea of food bringing families together and the importance of one’s culture.