Bourdain's Essay 'Don T Eat Before Reading This'

In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater”, author David Zinczenko, the editor -in-chief of Men’s Health magazine comments on the lawsuit against McDonald’s which is initiated by the overweight children’s parents. He claims that fast-food industry should accept full responsibility for a serious public problem: leading American kids to obesity. Zinczenko supports his claim with his personal experience to show how the fast-food chains marketing on them with low price. He also said it is not easy for those obese kids to turn their lives back. He believes this should be considered as a public health problem because their obesity causes the society huge public health losses. Zinczenko insists that if fast-food industry doesn’t take actions quickly, it is only a matter of time for them to become the next tobacco industry.

This gap has lead people to become “passive consumers” that are ignorant towards the origin of their food, how it is produced, and their role in the modern food industry. Berry argues that the pleasure of eating cannot be known without understanding that eating is involved in the agricultural process. He urges people to look into where and how their food is produced and under what conditions. He asserts that food is now a product of industry meaning the food industry no longer cares about the quality of food and how healthy it is, but how much can be produced at a small price. Berry then gives seven suggestions that can help people eat responsibly and understand the pleasures of eating. By being active in our world and in how we eat, people can eat with the fullest pleasure by being connected with the world around them and eating with understanding and gratitude

Anthony Bourdain is a critically acclaimed chef, writer, and television star. He has appeared in shows such as “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations”, “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown”, and “Top Chef,” and published works such as “Don’t Eat Before Reading This”, “Medium Raw”, and “The Nasty Bits.” Trained at Vassar College the Culinary Institute of America, Bourdain is known for his love of food. In 2000, he wrote a book called Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and his first chapter is entitled “Food is Good”. In the chapter, Bourdain discusses his trip to France with his family, and how the trip transformed from hating the exotic food to loving it. Through his structure, descriptive language, and childhood stories,

Although Samuelsson is interested in a variety of activities, his meaningful occupation is cooking. Introduced to him at an early age, he practiced cooking throughout his life, and it developed into his meaningful occupation. Occupation is the synthesis of doing, being, and becoming, (Wilcock, 1999, p.) Doing is the human engagement in an occupation (Wilcock, 1999, p. 4). For Samuelsson, doing is cooking. The occupation of cooking is a physical activity that involves the use of the whole body, which includes activities such as cutting, stirring, mixing, standing, and walking. Wilcock (1999) describes being as, “…about being true to ourselves, to our nature, to our essence and to what is distinctive about us to bring to others as part of our relationships and to what we do” (p. 5). Samuelsson’s being is as a chef. As he is doing the occupation of cooking, his essence or existence in that moment is

Tom Junod starts the article building credibility, he discusses his role as the cook of his house and then addresses why he holds this role and who inspired him to take it. When I started reading the article, I was unaware about who the author was. At first, I thought after reading the first couple of sentences that the voice was of a woman. It was not until the author addressed himself as a “husband who cooks for his wife, which makes me a man who cooks for his woman…”, (citation) that in fact it was revealed to me that the author was a male. I found this introduction to the author very clever, it caught me off guard and made me want to read further. Junod continues on to state that cooking is his job and not something

Yeganeh by the author is one of the highlights of the essay. I can almost picture his gesticulations and facial expressions as the anonymous writer lets him go on what was very likely a five minute rant. In it Mr. Yeganeh covers everything from the ingredients in his soups to the ingredients included in in other supposed “chefs” soups’ around the city. I found myself chuckling when he related how he fired someone after discovering an errant mushroom on the floor.

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

Because of passion with cooking and dream to be a chef, I have read a lot of cookbooks, regional culinary books and books about famous chefs, some of them are interesting but none of them was attracted to me the most. Normally, I just found some my favorite recipes in such books. However, “Letters to a young chef”, a book contains a collection of letters which Chef Daniel Boulud wrote to Alex Lee whom worked alongside Daniel for ten years as a passionate young cook, truly brings me desire to make my dream come true as much as help me to broaden my knowledge about culinary arts.

While the thought of explosive milkshakes, unceasing lines of customers, and the infamously pungent effluvium of grease may cause my very spine to tremble, my employment at Rondeau’s Dairy Bar has inevitably taught me more about the importance of communication, consideration, and tolerance than any sociology class ever could.

In Don’t Blame the Eater, David Zinczenko composes his opinion on the fast food industry’s absence of nutritional information and more. Zinczenko starts his piece by giving his own life experience. He recalls his childhood trying to find food and that fast food was “the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal” (Zinczenko 462). By giving his own life experience, Zinczenko relates to the reader and grabs their attention.

Thinking about the importance and significance of food respective to our health, ethnic culture and society can cause cavernous, profound, and even questionable thoughts such as: “Is food taken for granted?”, “Is specialty foods just a fad or a change in lifestyle?”, and even “Is food becoming the enemy.” Mark Bittman, an established food journalist, wrote an article called “Why take food seriously?” In this article, Bittman enlightens the reader with a brief history lesson of America’s appreciation of food over the past decades. This history lesson leads to where the social standing of food is today and how it is affecting not only the people of America, but also the rest of the world.

The Making of a Chef was a fascinating book that alternated my perspective on cooking giving me a clearer view of working through a culinary program. Michael Ruhlman gave readers a glimpse of life within the Culinary Institute of America, which is the most critical culinary school in the United States. Nothing is left to instinct or assumed information, everything is shown whether it is with culinary maths or precisely how you lay out unresolved issues for the ideal stock. Everything was just striven to be excellent, not good, nor O.K., but miraculously perfect.

‘’Food Is Good’’ written by a chef, author, and food critic, Anthony Bourdain reflects on his childhood experiences and his passion for food. According to Bourdain, food has more meaning beyond being a substance. Food is filled with stories and power that can change a life. In the article, Bourdain reflected on his family vacation to Europe, which piqued his curiosity for food and started his passion.

I recently watched the movie Chef, starring, written, and directed by Jon Favreau. Chef is a foodie movie with an emphasis on social media. Jon plays Carl Casper a divorced father of a ten-year-old boy and is the head chef at a popular Los Angeles restaurant. Carl wants to create food that give people memories, have people believe in his talent, and cook with excellence. He has a contemptuous relationship with the owner of the restaurant and after a bad review from a food blogger and a public blow up that found its way onto YouTube, Carl was let go. Carl also has a strained relationship with his son and has a hard time connecting with him because his focus is cooking and not being a dad. Carl’s ex-wife drags him to Miami, where he got his

Food can be healing medicine or it can deplete your energy and cause sickness and pain. In Cook Your Way to the Life You Want, Christina Pirello writes that we run a risk by having someone else prepare all our meals. “We run a risk of giving our destiny to any chef who claims to know how to cook a pot of rice. He or she is in charge of who we are and what we feel and how we behave. That may sound dramatic, but the truth is that whoever is cooking is in charge of the people we become.”