Class Readings

/ wc7495 / 2 Comments

I really loved all the intricacies of the various recipes from the class reading, however my favorite piece of writing I read would be the Farm to Fable piece regarding the restaurants in Tampa. I enjoy not only when a piece is well written, but when I learn something new from it. The Farm to Fable piece really opened my eyes to issues I was completely unaware of. How is it legal to serve pork as veal? I had so many questions after reading this piece. Maybe I was interested in this piece, because I am interested in the things it was sharing. I love the boldness of this piece and that it was very research based. You could definitely tell the author worked really hard to gather data and organize it. She did a great job presenting her information and still making her writing interesting. I also enjoyed her direct quotes of questions she asked various restaurants as well as her ability to highlight the hypocrisy of the various Tampa restaurants.

Of the readings I did myself, my favorite was probably The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food. It was very informative and exposed a lot about the food industry, not unlike the Farm to Fable piece. The piece showed me a lot of surprising information about the way the food industry makes its food, and it gave information directly from first hand sources. While very lengthy, the author revealed so many things that were unknown to me. I couldn’t help but want to know more.

Rhetoric of Food

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Rhetoric of food is very idiosyncratic and personal to the individual author. However food is what connects us to each other. Every human being likes and needs food. Regardless of the type of rhetoric an author uses in his or her writing, every one can relate to the writing because food ties us all together. Driven by what we eat and where we eat it, food rhetoric is often beautiful because of all the cultures involved. Whether you’re from Indonesia or South Africa, you enjoy eating food. Rhetoric of food is about unity, because it unifies all cultures, races, genders, and political views. Rhetoric of food is a tool or a vehicle. Food writing is used as a vehicle to share something personal (opinion piece), as a tool to promote activism (investigative pieces), or even as a tool to teach (recipe).

Class Readings

/ caw4374 / Leave a comment

Two of the best things I read this semester are:
– Tipton-Martin’s The Jemima Code for the way that it was able to tell a story through the context of food writing in a historical sense. This was the text that really drove home to me the idea that we all have a connection between ourselves and the food we make and eat. There is a reason we eat the way we do.
– Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century (http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/2/341) for the way that this text explained so well the crisis that the world faces if we continue to move towards a globalized diet modeled off of the Western diet. Essentially, this text explains, our bodies are not meant to consume this type of food. We have not had the time to adjust to this high calorie, low nutrient diet, and we might not ever. This text allowed me to explain why this type of diet is so bad for our health and has inspired a lot of thought in me about an issue in which I am very interested.

What is “the rhetoric of food?”

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To me, you really have to break down this topic word by word. First, rhetoric. I took a course on rhetoric last semester and the general impression I got was that rhetoric is, in simplistic terms, modes of persuasion. Next, of. This was the word that brought me the most difficulty at the beginning of this course. I knew the definition of rhetoric and food, but the rhetoric OF food just didn’t make sense. At the end, now, I can look back and say that here “of” refers to two things. There is the food’s rhetoric. The food itself has a story, and like art is there for a reason whether you understand that reason or not. In a way, the existence of the food is trying to persuade you of that reason. But second, there is the food writing in which people try to persuade others of their own personal connection to food, whether that be through the way that they perceive the pain of a lobster in the same way as their own pain, or how arguing for the authenticity of their own hummus as some representation of the validity of their culture. And food? That includes everything from the most basic sources of what we would commonly perceive to be food – the ingredients, crops, origins, production, history – to the process of forming those ingredients into dishes, to eating.

The Rhetoric of Food

/ mlb4537 / 1 Comment

by Michelle Biancardi

Like many of my classmates, my understanding of the rhetoric of food coming into this course was fairly limited to recipes, food blogs, and the food memoir, as these were texts with which I interacted somewhat regularly and found more or less approachable. But our studies this semester opened the door for me to the great expanses of texts that make up the rhetoric of food. I think one of my first and most important realizations of what is meant by ‘the rhetoric of food’ is that this genre is not just constricted to written texts or food literature. Text creators can use the language of visual images or audio to share their work with the world, which I find so exciting as our world shifts in this technology-driven direction, to think of the great many food texts that will be created in a wide variety of media. I greatly enjoyed watching some of my classmates put together such works that I initially did not consider a part of ‘the rhetoric of food’ upon the start of the semester.

We began the course by defining ‘rhetoric’ as the where, when, why, and how of a text, and I learned throughout the semester how important each of these factors plays in the making, meaning, and after-life of a text. I learned quickly that neglecting to learn as much background information about a work as possible was a huge detriment to my efforts of trying to understand how a piece functions in the world. I learned to recognize my biases towards certain texts and the value of moving past texts that seem familiar and comfortable.

To me, ‘the rhetoric of food’ is a celebratory piece of the rhetorical pie. It is a rich genre that calls on contributions from creators of all backgrounds — backgrounds even more diverse than the wide range of backgrounds that my classmates and I brought to this course. ‘The rhetoric of food’ is something to be studied to gather a wider understanding of how others experience the world. I’m excited to continue my personal work in this genre and am looking forward to seeing the many many directions in which the genre will continue to grow.

A Course Wrap-Up, Favorite Texts

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By Michelle Biancardi

Throughout our studies in the rhetoric of food, we have engaged with a wide variety of texts, linking the content, author, and audience to determine where each text fits in the world of food writing. My favorite of our in-class readings is the one I still engage with frequently: Leanne Brown’s “Good and Cheap,” a PDF she compiled as a part of her master’s degree program from New York University. This text revealed to me the import of tone in a writer’s work. This piece is friendly and conversational. It’s un-intimidating, which fits perfectly with the whole point of the work. It’s a how-to for “good” and “cheap” food; its audience doesn’t want to sift through pages and pages of confusing instructions. In addition to how beneficial good images can be to a text, Brown taught me how important it is to fully consider my audience, which has been one essential takeaway from this course.

During the final section of the course, I chose Calvin Trillin’s “Alice, Let’s Eat” as a mentor text for food memoirs, and it is a text that I see myself one day revisiting because I so thoroughly enjoyed the bits of it that I close read. As I learned about what it took to compose my own food memoir, Trillin stood out to me for the charm, humor, and light that he brought to each of his mini-stories. Each of his chapters was narrative in spirit, a guide I unknowingly followed as I created my own food memoir. He created that desirable, “glowy” writing that I find so inspiring as a student of rhetoric, and I look forward to continuing to engage with his works in my future food-reading and writing career.

The Rhetoric of Food

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The best thing I read during this class was probably the Pete Well’s review of Guy Fieri’s restaurant. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy his sarcasm and writing style, but it also inspired me to practice that type of my writing on my own. When we talked about the article in class, I spoke about my admiration for Pete Wells’ blunt honesty, and commitment to humor. I thought this article was set apart from other reviews we read because it was raw, and entertaining. This prompted me to chose to read another one of his reviews, “Don’t May be Bars, but Don’t Tell the Chefs”, another incredibly pleasuring review to read. I enjoyed this article because of the metaphors and direct contact to the audience he used. This also lead me to brainstorm my topic for my original composition, which was inspired by Pete Wells.

When I first began this class I had a general idea of what the rhetoric of food would end up meaning to me. Of course, I knew it had to have something to do with writing. I never thought I would think so differently at the end of the course. The rhetoric of food entails way more than I could have ever imagined. The rhetoric of food is a broad field that includes every and any type of food writing. What makes it more distinctive is that food writing can be done in multiple ways: diary entries about home, a recipe, a review, or simply a menu. I learned language is extremely important in conveying your message. I think the different food cultures that are important to us are those that remind us of other times. I believe that people are able to apart of any food culture, as they please. However, most people probably identify with a food culture that has to do with where they live, or religion/ethnicity. It is extremely easy to tie food into the conversation of anything. Food and food writing has a relationship with so many aspects of life. These food cultures serve as identity markers to individuals who identify with specific types of food, similar to how they identify with different religions. Overall, this class has showed me a new way to look at writing. I will definitely take all of the lessons I learned from multiple food writers (including my classmates!) and apply them to my future pieces.

The Rhetoric of Food

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By Lexi Hill

At the start of the semester, in my mind the rhetoric of food consisted of two kinds of text: recipes and food blogs. Over the course of the semester, not only have I learned a great deal about those two kinds of text, but I have also learned that the rhetoric of food encompasses an incredible number of texts that I had never considered. Food reviews, magazine articles, instructional videos, and podcasts, among many others, all fall into the rhetoric of food.

To me, the rhetoric of food encompasses all forms of text that discuss food; this can include but is not limited to politics, culture, privilege, and power, all in relation to food. The rhetoric of food is not simply a list of ingredients and instructions as I previously thought; it can be used to describe the creation of food, but also the celebration of food, its connection to race and nationality, and as advocacy for change.

What is the Rhetoric of Food?

/ mkb2552 / 1 Comment

Over the course of the semester, my ideas about the rhetoric of food have changed a lot. At the beginning of the class, recipes and restaurant reviews were the only genres of food related texts that I could think of off the top of my head. Now that the semester is over, I understand that food writing can come in all different varieties. I was really inspired by my classmates when I saw their creativity in producing their own texts. The way authors choose to express their thoughts, opinions, and research in relation to food can be so different from person to person. Food is such a common and powerful experience that everyone on the planet can relate to. It has the ability to define cultures, time periods, geography, politics, religion, and so much more. Eating food makes us feel something that we often don’t think or care to describe. Authors who are able to capture this experience and put it into words that give us that same feeling, whether it be identity, unity, or simply the happiness of a full belly, are artists. The rhetoric of food is writing that describes something we can’t see or feel, but we still know what it is. We can taste it.

Favorite Readings | Fall 2016

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This semester, we were exposed to a wide variety of food-related texts. My favorite of these texts was “Consider the Lobster,” by David Foster Wallace. This piece was so interesting to me because it conveys a very specific message about the food industry without ever expressing it in so many words. Wallace’s perspective on the Maine Lobster Festival is probably not one that you’ve heard before and the text could be really eye opening. This text helped me realize that food writing can come in all kinds of varieties and is often meant to invoke an extremely personal response within all of us, kind of like eating.

We were also prompted to go out into the world, conduct research, and find our own texts to read and share. My favorite text that I found was a gastronomical article entitled “Michelin in America,” by Priscilla Ferguson. I loved this text because I learned so much from it. Prior to reading, I had no idea what Michelin stars meant (except that they were good) or where they came from, and through this text I learned a great deal about their origin and the transformation of their usage over the years. I had no idea that Michelin came to America such a short time ago and was really interested to understand the dynamic that it now plays in our country’s food society.