From the very beginning of the semester, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I really didn’t. But as time was passing, after I took on the challenge that was this class, I slowly began to realize that the rhetoric of food was more than just something you eat. It’s about having an emotional bond, a connection with food that’s so compelling it can bring out emotions and appeal to audiences. It’s being able to talk about it with others. I learned about this through the projects of my fellow peers, through the discussions I had with them, learning more about what their interests were in regards of food and listening to what kind of texts they’ve encountered in the past that deals with food. I was encouraged by several of them to seek out what I was passionate in doing when it comes to food. When it came to my recipe, it was something that I had cooked before and I had a special connection with, therefore I was able to communicate my piece as a text with ease. My original composition was something I grew passionate about and communicating my interests in respect to food as well as eating healthy was something I found to be second nature. It was because I grew an emotional connection to each project that I became aware of such a bond with my experience of food, that I had the desire to share it with others in the best way I knew how. The Rhetoric of Food is a relationship, it’s an experience that the author has with the text. It’s how one expresses themselves to their audience through of others and themselves.

One of the best assigned readings that I read throughout the semester was “Tacopedia.” I liked it so much because of the great depths it went to describe a taco. From the very first page, it gave a length definition of the word taco, in Spanish, which I thought was incredible. Then throughout the text, the wonderful use of visuals were not only enticing, but they were used effectively to captivate and engage the reader. It was also reminiscent in regards to my life, whenever I would make dough with my grandma back in Mexico, many years ago. Reading Tacopedia really took me back and it really hit close to home.

Another great reading from the semester that I read for my personal research was the “Unique Ships of the U.S. Navy.” I stumbled across this text during my annotated bibliography project. My topic at the time was ice cream and the reason this text was one of the best that I read because I grew a greater appreciation for the Navy. They used ships to transport tons of ice cream to soldiers out at sea. It was very interesting to learn about the military using ships in such creative fashions. You’d think they would be using them as battle ships but it turns out that they were delivering soldiers ice cream because alcohol was banned and they needed a different substance as a coping mechanism. Also, this reading was a fan favorite from my group whenever I presented my annotated bibliography, leaving me no choice but to choose this text as one of the better ones.

My favorite assigned reading this semester was most definitely “If White People Were Described Like “Exotic” Food” by Jaya Saxena and Matt Lubchansky, this satirical piece brings light to the fact that everything is a little exotic if you’re from the right part of the world. Reading this gave me a good laugh and has made me realize I should probably second guess calling something “exotic”, when to someone out there that food or meal is the comfort they can’t wait to come home to.

Before I began this course food to me was just something I ate when my body told me to, but after just a few months I can say with complete confidence that food is a language of its own. Food is a way for some to speak when words cannot express what they are feeling or seeing- similar to art or music. Food is a means for bringing people together, whether that be my all time favorite of Thanksgiving or the simplicity of a family gathering for dinner, food is the basis on which so many of our memories are built. The rhetoric of food runs so much deeper than just food on plate; it is history, it is culture, and it is the story of our world. I am so thankful for this course and the opportunity it gave me to gain this amazing insight.

We’ve read some interesting “texts” this semester. My favorite assigned text for the semester was Chapter 5 from the Adler reading earlier in the semester. There was a unique sense of authenticity in Adler’s writing that I really identified with. As someone who loves cooking, the asides about having too many wooden spoons and using your microwave as a bookshelf were great. Adler’s text appeals to people like me, avid cookers.

Outside of our required readings, I had the pleasure of discovering some great texts this semester on my own. My favorite of these readings was probably Austin Eater’s 38 Essential Restaurants, Fall 2016. I love the interactive nature of this text. It allows readers to engage with the text all while delivering relevant information in a convenient manner.

I began my rhetoric of food journey without a map. I signed up for the course because I love food and I generally like writing. After looking at the syllabus, I figured we’d be learning how to effectively critique food, food writing, cookbooks, food blogs, so on and so forth. Of course I was wrong, and thankfully so. I’ve come to understand how food can be an entry point into larger talking points like power, politics, history, conflicts, and so much more.

Food goes far beyond satiating hunger. It defines cultures. It brings people together. It can pull people apart. The rhetoric of food helps us understand food’s connection to our world and how other people view it through different lenses. Who is talking, what they’re talking about, and who they’re talking to all have major impacts on writing on both sides of the spectrum. As a reader, one must be conscious of who the author of a text is and whether or not they are a qualified speaker. As a writer, one must be aware of who he or she is speaking to.

As the semester comes to a close, I think that I am able to sufficiently define the rhetoric of food. When I first signed up for this class, I had no idea what to expect from it. I had no idea how much effort and thought goes into writing the simplest of recipes, whether the author is trying to show the true historical roots of the recipe, or just a blogger trying to portray his/her passion for food and food writing. I think the rhetoric of food also encompasses the connection between different cultures—there are so many ways to prepare a certain dish and each culture has a different way of doing so. It is so interesting that the authors of these recipes will include the how and why of each preparation. Food texts represent so much more than food; it represents the history, culture, and passion for food and preparing food from different human beings. I think that recognizing food as more than just something humans eat to live or to enjoy and turning it into a text is the best definition I can think of for the rhetoric of food.

This semester, I gained knowledge about the different ways to analyze food texts through many different varieties of texts including recipes, blog posts, and food reviews. I never knew that the “rhetoric of food” would be so interesting and deep; I now know how much effort and deep thought goes into writing even just the simplest recipe. For this reason, I chose the true Italian pesto recipe as my favorite piece of assigned writing during the semester. I was inspired dedication to writing the recipe as close to its Italian roots as possible. The author truly had a passion for her recipe for pesto and wanted to share it with the world, which is one of the most crucial techniques to writing a meaningful piece of food text.

Secondly, my favorite food text that was not assigned for the class to read would be the food blog “North Wild Kitchen.” I used this food blog as my mentor text when creating my own food blog and I am so thankful that I did; the parts of the blog that I chose to mimic from this blog were some of my audience’s favorite parts about my own blog.