When it comes to telling stories, the best ones in my opinion include food. Growing up in Alabama, food is a love language. We always had the best moments when the family got together and shared music, laughter, and food. One distinct memory was when we were at our house and some of the cousins and aunts were over. My mom had fried up some fish, bone-in, ( I did not have the luxury of a filet as a child but I’m bougie now so you won’t find me with bone-in fish) and we are all sitting at the table eating away when I swallowed a fishbone. I could feel the pointiness in my throat, eyes wide with fear and concern. Someone starts patting my back while my aunt, who is a nurse, yells, “you betta get that girl some water!” in a slightly high pitched southern drawl. I started choking more as the table erupted into laughter. When we recall that moment, it’s never about me choking but about my aunt, the phrase she uttered, and how good that fish had to be.
So, what is a food story? A food story is a telling of events that include or are enhanced by food. These are the stories where you share how amazing of a meal you had to celebrate an anniversary or just a simple night out or creating a meal for yourself that showcases the skills you never thought you had.
Most of us already share food stories on social media; in food groups such as Where (insert city here) Eats or to Twitter followers, through photos on Instagram, etc. We look to encourage others to try out what we so thoroughly enjoyed (or what we did not enjoy, hoping someone else may have a better experience). But, I want us to go deeper.
Creating a cookbook around these food stories will allow for us to connect in much deeper ways. It not only offers reminders of the good times that tend to be lost in our memories, but it also allows for future generations to see us fully. They will get to taste, see, smell, read, and hear what has come to pass while also adding their stories, creating a new form of scrapbooking and storytelling.
We’ve experienced this with “celebrity chefs” such as Anthony Bourdain, David Lebovitz, and Lazurus Lynch. Lets add ourselves to that list. Click here, to start the journey of telling your food stories to future generations.