It is a special treat when my dad cooks. Usually, over the top and elaborate, my dad’s savory pies can't be beaten. As far as I am concerned, my dad is a pie connoisseur. His specialty is chicken curry pie. What I first thought to be a strange idea, my dad's curry pie creation is something I always look forward to eating. From the tangy turmeric and the gentle ginger, this dish rings with spice. With flavor to spare, the pie is packed full of cauliflower, chicken, and chickpeas. The crust of the pie is always the best part. My dad especially makes the crust from scratch in order to create designs atop the pie. From creating a chicken caricature made out of dough to a traditional lattice. My dad was born and raised on the North Island of New Zealand. When I asked my dad why she was so passionate about making pies, he told me that he first learned to make a good pie while in New Zealand. He came from a humble background and worked on a farm as a student. Meat pies are a staple of New Zealand, so, understandably, this is where my dad learned to make them. My dad doesn't only make meat pies though. No, his talent ranges from chicken pot pie to cherry pie. The special thing about my dad’s pies is that they are all his creation. My dad never uses a recipe, but instead uses his good sense and imagination to come up with new, delicious dishes. “What exactly goes into the creation of one of your pies?” I asked my dad. According to him, “no matter what type of pie you're making, you need to perfect your timing”. You need to add all your ingredients into the pot at the same time, but already have your broth boiled. When making the crust, you need to roll your dough perfectly, before the oven preheats. I had no idea the thought and time that went into the process of making these pies.

Every time my dad makes a pie, the flavorful aroma fills up the house. Like a beacon, it brings the whole family together. With the pie comes a long night of family fun. Food has always been something that brings my family together. It grounds me in the past and the present. It makes me feel humbled to eat a meal packed not only with deliciousness but with my dad's culture and heritage.

My parents have always been the most important and significant people in my food life. Just like a lot of parents, my mom and dad have influenced me in many ways and have shaped the person I am today. They have provided me with my house, education, and food ever since I was born. Our Tinsley food culture comes from both my mom and dad’s families. My mom carries on her rituals for gathering together and my dad continues recipes from his parents. We are definitely not vegans; all of us have always been meat consumers. Neither my mom nor my dad is more significant in my food life than the other, so I decided to interview them both. I sat down with my mom one night and talked with my dad later the next day.

With my mom, we talked about how the food she ate with her family when she was younger is not something she carries on with her kids, but she does continue the eating habits and traditions. The food my mom ate with her family varied, but my grandparents were into fancy foods such as caviar and lobster. My mom grew up eating a lot of seafood but now doesn’t eat seafood at all. She focuses more on the ritual and the gathering of the meal rather than the food itself. My mom makes it known that it is important to set the table before dinner, light the candle, and honor family dinners. She always had big dinners with her five siblings and now she loves to have family dinner with her seven children, or however many are home. My mom, sister, and I set the table every night and on special dinners, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, we use my grandparents’ silverware. We place the silver forks and knives on either side of the china chargers and plates that were used in my grandparents’ house in the past.

On the other hand, my dad and I talked about how he loves to use recipes from his parents for his own kids now. His Tinsley-famous “Pasta Madness” dish came from his grandfather and has been cooked and enjoyed by all of my siblings. The types of food that are important to my dad come from a long line of family tradition, like his father’s favorite cannelloni dish and his homemade ravioli recipe. My dad enjoys a lot of foods, but his favorites consist of American, Italian, and European dishes. My siblings and I love when dad cooks because it’s always delicious and brings him joy as well because the recipes came from his own family.

With my dad’s food and my mom’s traditions, we have the perfect balance of what we like and we now form our own family’s food culture. We know exactly what food we like, but are open to try anything that is made. We are an athletic family, so we like a lot of carbohydrate-loaded meals and milk to build our bones and muscles. My brothers are big meat consumers and one of my favorite meals is chicken and rice.

After the conversations I had with my parents, I didn’t feel any different about our food culture. Like I said, Tinlseys are definitely not vegans. However, as I write this, I feel that no one in my family has been as educated as me about some of the things that I’ve learned in Food Writing. I have read articles and watched clips about how animals are treated and how meat eating is a huge cause of climate change. I don’t believe anyone in my family would go vegan, but if I could bring some of the things that I’ve learned to my dinner table, I can teach my family that the food on our plates has come from a long process and there’s more to think about than just eating the beef. We can all then be more conscious of what we buy and eat as a family.

At its core, my Dad’s love language is food. My Dad has influenced my food life more than anyone else. He grew up in rural Minnesota with not much money. His dad later on sold his company and became wealthy when my dad was entering college, but for most of his childhood he lived a simple life. On their 3 acre property they had a barn with cows and chickens, which provided meat, eggs, and milk. They had a garden during the spring and summer months for fresh produce; beets, potatoes, lettuces, and summer melon. My dad would often go hunting for birds with friends, and learned that value of food. Although he ate homegrown food, his mom hated to cook so they often got fast-food. He vividly remembers going to McDonalds for dinner, especially when his dad was out of town so his mom didn’t cook. When she did cook it was flavorless and over or under done. His mom's “specialty” was a casserole with spam, pasta, frozen tater tots, and some cream-based canned soup. Health wasn’t a priority, or even considered, so the healthier homegrown food was sometimes given to neighbors as gifts when they ate fast food meals instead. My dad and his family never ate fancy food and rarely went out to places other than fast food.

As he got older and started to be able to manage his own money, he started to really value good tasting food. Not necessarily healthy food, but he was bored of bad fast food and bland home-cooked meals. He never cooked for himself and always ate out, a pretty common occurrence for a young man. Once my parents met, my mom took on a lot of the cooking, and my dad was the most excited and appreciative eater there was. After having pretty bad food that was not home cooked he would always be so happy for a yummy meal made by my mom. She has gotten much better at cooking, but she says she used to be pretty bad. They would eat simply meals of chicken and veggies with some sauce, but for my dad this was all he needed.

Now, my dad is incredibly food-centric. When we go on vacations he books food walking tours almost every day, does hours of research for restaurants, and wants to try all the exotic foods he can. Recently, he has been very sad that he cannot go out to eat because that is one of his favorite activities. He values good food but also the act of sitting down with his family to have a meal. My dad is truly happy to eat everything and incredibly appreciative when someone offers to cook him a meal. He eats almost anything and is incredibly open to trying new things. Food, especially good food, gets him excited and passionate. He loves to match the perfect wine with his steak or make dramatic pleasure noises when he gobbles down a slice of warm pie.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom complained that my dad has never cooked for her, which he admitted was accurate. As much as he loves good food, he can definitely not cook. The only thing I have seen him cook is eggs and they look pretty nasty to me. When my mom said this, he decided to cook a meal so he planned a huge 3 course meal for the following week. For someone who didn’t know how to turn on the stove, it was actually pretty good. He wanted to be fancy so he purchased a sous vide machine to be able to make a steak. He made popovers, carrots, potatoes, and a mushroom sauce. When he grabbed the knife to start cutting the crunchy carrots we all got a little nervous but he claimed that we have to “trust the process.” He decided to go all in with the sous vide and cooked his steak, potatoes, and carrots in there. The steak was then finished in a cast iron, which was good and tender. The potatoes and carrots both became overcooked, soggy, and flavorless. On the other hand, the mushroom sauce, full of garlic, butter, and cream was very good. The popovers, the most adventurous thing to cook, turned out great and had a crunchy shell with a soft and chewy interior. At one point the popovers actually popped over and butter starter spewing everywhere in the oven, resulting in some seriously thick smoke. My brother and I jokingly grabbed our coats and shoes because we thought the firefighters may need to pay a visit. After the smoke had cleared, we began to eat. We showered him with compliments during the dinner, so he felt accomplished and excited.

Because my dad’s family didn’t cook, now when someone cooks for him it feels like a physical act of care. I think this is why he was determined to cook for us his child-like excitement for food, which is often shown through a big smile and a dramatic little clap when he sits down, has influenced our family to show love through food and value a good meal.

A few days ago, he asked if he could make popovers again--and try grilling chicken.

My family has never had an exotic food life, but out of all my family members my dad is definitely the most influential on my food life. My dad has always been the one to teach me how to cook even the most basic things. He taught me how to make eggs and garlic bread which aren't very hard to make but I make these dishes all the time. Over the years, he has had many influential dishes such meatloaf, garlic bread, and buttercake. His mother has taught him the basics of cooking and family recipes which he has passed down to me. Doing this has allowed my family’s traditions to continue to grow.

My dad is definitely what you call a “foodie.” Everytime I see him he is eating some meal varying from buttered toast to a dragon roll from Sakura. My dad explained that "food allows him to feel nourished but also gives him energy in oder to stay productive throughout the day." He believes food is very important in his life and "is not only important for my mental health but also my physical health. When I eat food I am doing something good for my body and for my health”. He believes without a good meal a person will have a bad attitude or their body will feel drained without getting a good amount of nutrients into their system.

My dad remembers to cook on many occasions but three that are very distinct. The first time he learned to cook was when he was twelve years old with his grandmother and mother in his family kitchen. During that time he learned how to make meatloaf, pancakes, and chocolate chip cookies which were all his favorite foods at the time. The next time he learned to cook was with his roommate at graduate school in their apartment. His roommate taught him how to make grilled foods on his barbecue such as hamburgers, hotdogs, and kabobs. They were "delicious and to this day he barbecues for my family such as cheeseburgers and hotdogs." The last time he learned to cook when he was living in Japan as an exchange student for a semester. He learned from his neighbor how to make common foods found in Japan at the time such as stir fry vegetables, dumplings, and curry. Sadly, he does not really make these meals anymore except on holidays when restaurants are closed for indoor dining and take out. Learning to cook and eat all these diverse meals has caused him to have my family get various types of food to eat during the week. Our meals will range from spicy Chinese noodles to greasy cheese pizza.

Despite learning how to cook all these meals, once he started having a family of his own the idea of home cooked meals slowly became nonexistent. As a child he had eaten home cooked meals which leftovers would be eaten two or three days after the original meal was cooked by his mom or dad. As he grew older, he stopped making meals and eating leftovers. Now he eats more ethinic food found at restaurants or frozen meals from grocery stores premade. Despite not cooking meals at home my dad told me how it is important to know, “how much variety of food is available to us today and the important connection between food and culture”. We usually gather this variety of food from restaurants and see how different cultures make different traditional foods connect to their past. If I was only cooking for myself I would definitely be making something plain such as buttered pasta. Going to restaurants such as Bucca or Juban allows me to eat food from different cultures almost as if I was currently visiting the place where the food comes from. You are just not eating food, but you are able to talk to the people there and see decor of the certain culture through pictures or statues in a restaurant. Most importantly he wants me to never forget traditional foods eaten during the Jewish holidays. I have never been taught how to make potato latkes at Hanukkah or honey cakes at Rosh Hashanah but I would definitely want my dad to teach me in the future so I can do my part of passing down our family traditions. I will always love my Grandma’s favorite meatloaf and can't wait to learn how to make it with my younger sister one day.

My mother is the most important person in my food life, really in my life. She nourished me from the beginning of my life. She grew up in Rancho Santa Fe on a few acres with horses, dogs, cats, and four brothers. My mom is strong, stubborn, and puts 100% effort into whatever she does. I am influenced by her relationships with her parents, faith, friends, and community. Through our family foundation, she shoes her philanthropic passions by providing military and boys and girls club families with holiday gifts and recognizes high achieving high school students and coaches. Her energy is something so contagious and admirable. Cooking is a specific example of the energy and care she puts into my family.

Growing up, my grandmother taught my mom similar things to what my mom has passed onto us. My mom grew up collecting eggs from the chicken coop, oranges and apples from the trees, and vegetables from the garden. Everyone who knew my grandma knew her homemade pasta and fresh tomato sauce from her garden was the best. She would only use the best and freshest ingredients. My mom was taught to eat well, exercise, and get plenty of sleep because those were the best ingredients for a well-nourished life. Her family enforced strict rules about food that there would be none. Dieting of any kind was discouraged because it would mess up their metabolism for life. My grandparents always told my mom and her siblings to avoid artificial sweeteners and dyes. Something my grandma taught her family and that has stuck with me forever is moderation. She would always tell us nothing is ever right in big doses, and moderation is key.

Food is a big part of my mother’s life. From her childhood to being a professional athlete, she has gathered a range of knowledge and importance about maintaining a healthy lifestyle to being a mother to four. My mom puts a lot of love and energy into everything she makes and how she serves food for her family. She tries to purchase the highest quality ingredients and cook it the cleanest way to offer them the best nutrition. Food is really important to her, though, not only because she loves to cook and eat but also because food is an expression. Meal preparation is one way she expresses her love for her friends and family. She only repeats a particular dish for Taco Tuesday, but she looks through her cookbook collection and discovers new recipes for the week each weekend. Cooking for six people has been a big part of my moms’ life, and quarantine reopened this time for her. She preps and cooks 18 meals a day. My mom taught me that food is the body’s fuel and the best medicine to keep us strong and healthy.

As I sat down to interview my mom for this entry, we sat across from each other on a wooden stool in our white marble kitchen. The cooked pizza scent still held a faint smell following lunch, and my siblings walked in and out numerous times. It was an appropriate setting for this topic. My kitchen is important to my family, just like food. We gather in this room at least three times a day, and it is always welcoming foods, chefs, and new people. I could describe so much that I have learned from my mom, but a few things that have genuinely changed my perspective about eating is nourishment. I have many abilities, and caring for my body is crucial. Freshness, quality, care, and moderation are just a few key ingredients to living an educational and responsible nutritional lifestyle for the environment.

My mother’s family is very connected to their Czech heritage. Every year, there is a festival on Memorial Day weekend that I have attended ever since I can remember (except last year due to covid obviously). It is called the National Polka Festival and takes place in Ennis Texas. There are a lot of traditional meals and desserts including kolaches and klobasse, along with dancing and other activities. I wait in excitement for this event every year, and greatly enjoy any opportunity to see this side of the family to be embraced in culture.

My mother cares dearly about her family, making their heritage something of great importance to her. While I am an attendee at the previously mentioned festival, my mom helps in with the planning and preparation. This generally involves cooking the aforementioned meals, a task she has become quite attached to. She works with her mother and sisters in a way I would that seems like it should be unproductive. They constantly bicker about measurements, especially since my grandma only gives measurements in relation to her mood. My mother has begun to curate her family’s recipes so she has them the rest of her life to remember her family. The connection she has to these recipes is quite close, and she continues to make them for my siblings and I, as well as friends, in an effort to spread the culture and memories. She is particularly quite fond of her mother’s kolache recipe, a small round pastry with a fruit filling (sometimes sesame seed). Kolaches are definitely the most distinct Czech food, and therefore have the most emotional weight for my mother. She loves it so much that we have ended up with stockpiles of the dessert sitting in our freezer waiting to be thawed and enjoyed, or given to any number of unsuspecting friends.

Ever since I have been going to the Polka festival, I have known about my mother’s deep connection to her Czech heritage. Her side of the family is filled with people who love their culture and express that through music, dancing, and food. This assignment allowed me to see her connection through the perspective of food, in a way I had not previously considered. From that, I feel as though I now have a closer connection with my mother, her culture, and the food she makes for us.

My dad grew up in a small village in Papua New Guinea. He lived here for about 5 years and his eating habits were very different to my traditional western pallet. He moved from the United States when he was 8. He had to give up supermarkets and enter a more traditional farming lifestyle in Papua New Guinea. Most of his food was either grown himself or bought in the local market. There was no Safeway, no big supermarket to get basic food items. He told me his favorite food at the time were potatoes. He would get 5-10 potatoes from the local market and boil them. He enjoyed the starchiness and rough texture of the potatoes. He would only use butter, salt, and pepper to season his daily snack. My dad grew vegetables; carrots, radishes, lettuce, etc. In Papua New Guinea spicy food, like cayenne peppers and adding curry powder to every meal was popular and my dad became used to the taste of heat in his food. In fact, he loved adding spice to his food, something he graciously passed down to me. Besides produce he would also routinely eat rice and beans. He said that this was a common meal especially living somewhere so small with little options. My dad would often pick small black berries off of local bushes, or use spears to get fish in the nearby river. Throughout his life the way he ate has changed dramatically.

When he turned 14 he moved back to the United States and was welcomed by full supermarkets packed with freezer food, sweets, and every type of meat. Despite returning to the holy land of supermarkets my dad stuck to his habits from his youth. He continued to eat boiled potatoes and rice with beans. Except now those delicacies he enjoyed when he was younger was accompanied by twinkies, sugar, and classic cereal brands. As he continued through his high school years he learned how to cook from his father. My grandfather was a food connoisseur and passed this trait on to both my dad and his sister. He would cook smoked salmon, deviled eggs, steak, chicken, and even duck. He was a creative cooker and that got passed on to my dad.

My aunt, my dad's sister, went to college for food science and worked at multiple large food companies. She was one of the first people to discover that you can make different flavors of olive oil. She also took up the hobby of baking and would often tell my cousins, my brother and I the importance of having a balanced meal. This idea of “balanced meal” was also apparent in my dad. He is constantly ordering new cooking books, books about the ethics of food, books about how flavors go together and so forth. If you went into my dads office you could probably find a cooking book about just anything. There are books full of japanese cuisine, vegan meals, recently he has been getting more recipes off of food critic websites. He also never shies away from a spicy meal and he enjoys cooking spicy curries.

When on vacations my dad will thoroughly research the best local steak restaurant. He has a skill for finding restaurants that are good. Thanks to him my standards for food are exponentially high. I am used to having him cook 5 star meals at home. He also has taught me the importance of trying to shop from local farms. We buy most of our fruits and vegetables at Signonas which is all locally based. I also inherited his spirit for being adventurous when it comes to food. When I was younger he used to feed me fried frogs, weird foreign fish he would hear about in one of his cook books and more. I am glad I came from a family that appreciates food and loves to share their cooking abilities with me.

My Nana is one of the most strong-willed women that I know. Her journey with food is inspiring. In a world filled with every possible type of sugar, and aisles littered like trash with different forms of corn syrup, she manages to stay above its allure. She is not tempted by the shiny tins of the Twix or the colorful boxes that seem to beg you to eat them. Instead, she eats barely any sugar.

When she was 53, she was diagnosed with a tumor in her pancreas. They told her that she had to get it taken out using a whipple, which removes most of the pancreas. Therefore causing her to become diabetic. She, therefore, was deprived of many of my favorite food groups; potatoes, big candy bars and red apples. Nevertheless, she adapted. She was suddenly diabetic after eating well all her life, but she took these changes in stride. Her goal was to see my mom get married and have grandchildren. She was determined to make it there. My Nana was able to adapt to not eating sugar almost suddenly after her surgery because of this determination. She decided that she would regulate her own diet, because she could still produce some insulin, just not the amount that most people need.

For 21 years, she went without having to use insulin. She was able to regulate her diet in order to keep her blood sugar in the right zone in order to not take insulin. She would read labels, something that she had never done before, she would walk around at work and would also cook smaller serving sizes in order to keep her blood sugar low. If she could keep her blood sugar low for that long, why can’t I? Why must I be so entranced by the shiny tins of the Twix bars or the colorful boxes that liter the aisles of my grocery stores?

My Nana’s dedication and ability to resist the temptation of big companies that scatter the grocery stores with sugar makes me want to eat better. She makes me want to stop eating so much sugar and to resist the urges that I feel towards sugar. Instead, I can take a page out of her book. She has taught me that I can get my sugar from a green apple or a tomato and often describes the allure of green apples. She describes a green apple as a shiny green light. Whenever you step into the room, you can see its pungent lime green hue. When the sun hits it, it dazzles like a diamond in the sun. When you take that first bite, juice spirts out at you like a sprinkler and you feel the sour flavor hitting your tongue like a warhead. I have never been a big fan of the green apple, but the way that she describes it, makes me want to power through its sour bite.

My mom is one of, if not the, most influential person in my life. She leads by example and has helped me navigate the first 18 years of my life. She also impacts how I eat given that she does the majority of the cooking in the family. Growing up, my mom had a lot of allergies to foods, including all kinds of nuts and some common fruits and some vegetables and, as a result, her eating habits and cooking were impacted significantly. Given how common fruits, nuts, and vegetables are in many people's diets, my mom had a very hard time getting over not being able to eat this food for almost her entire childhood. Growing up, she had to be very cautious in order to avoid the most common foods that she was allergic to. She had to move past her allergies and not long for foods she couldn’t have. She couldn’t have PB&Js so instead she would have a bagel with cream cheese as her go to snack. She also went through many experimental food allergy trials in order to try and outgrow the allergies. Through this difficult process of moving on from foods that are so important and so common in many diets, my mom learned to overcome challenges and make the best of not being able to eat many foods.

When I was born, I had an egg allergy so I spent the first 5 years of my life not eating any eggs at all. After I outgrew that allergy, I started getting new allergies with avocado, melons, and all shellfish. Although I don’t remember much about being allergic to eggs, I can imagine it would be very difficult to not eat eggs given how many foods they are in. My mom had to be creative with her cooking and use recipes that didn’t include eggs in them. Then after I outgrew the allergy and I was in the clear… until I tested positive for being allergic to avocado, melon, and shellfish. This was a crusher for me because I loved watermelon and avocado, especially, so I was pretty down. But I was never really a fan of shellfish so I wasn’t too disappointed about that then.

However, as I’ve gotten older, I really want the opportunity just to try some of these foods that I haven’t had in 10 years. This is where my mom comes in the most. She had to go through almost all of her life without being able to eat any of the foods she was allergic to so I know that I can do the same. This is her leading by example again and showing me that it’s not the end of the world and you can get through it. I’ve gotten better and better at forgetting about my allergies so that I don’t consistently long for the foods I’m allergic to. I have grown to love so many different foods that I can easily find something I want to eat at any restaurant (although it is tough watching everyone enjoying chips and guac at Mexican restaurants).

My allergies have become part of who I am. I identify with them. I don’t feel bad about really any of my allergies anymore and I have accepted that, for at least the near future, I won’t be able to eat any of these foods. My mom has been crucial to my acceptance of my allergies and she has allowed me to realize that allergies are not the end of the world and that I can live a completely normal life without these foods.

Ever since I can remember, whenever I would come home from school, my mom would just automatically start making dinner. She quickly heads toward the kitchen, grabs whatever ingredients she needs, and starts cooking. Within a few minutes, I can already smell from my room what she is smelling; as soon as I leave my room the aroma from her cooking arrives to my nose after swiftly drifting in the air. The meals can include pasta, fish, soup, to typical Salvadoran dishes like pupusas, panes con pollo, and more. She would have to make sure that dinner was ready by about 5 ish so my dad could eat before heading to work; all this was before the pandemic of course. She always makes sure to always cook the best and healthiest, while also trying to put in some Salvadoran taste.

Speaking to my mom, she quickly stated how the food that is most significant to her is Salvadoran food. She went on to quickly name some foods such as “tamales, pupusas, panes con pollo, pan, Salvadoran quesadillas, ” and more. It has become a way for her to appreciate where she comes from. Other than the fact that she enjoys making these dishes, it's another way for my sister and I to learn more about our culture.

She said how it reminds her of El Salvador and her childhood, especially since she has not been able to return to her home country for more than 20 years. My mom was the 3rd of 11 eleven children, so she had to help my grandmother take care of her younger brothers and sisters. This was where my abuela taught my mom how to cook, especially since it was accustomed to according to the societal norms of the time. Despite all the negative factors of the time of growing up in the midst of a civil war and having to help raise 10 other children with not many resources and without proper schooling, my mother embraced the lesson from my grandmother. She has continued to follow the lesson and tradition that my grandmother passed down to her, making her best for my sister and I to retain these valuable customs and traditions. Nowadays, she continues to cook for our dinners, family parties, and more, not just Salvadoran food but any food she has learned to cook over the years, whether it's Mexican, American, or anything she wants to cook. However, she always makes sure to add her own Salvadoran taste to it.

I always knew the importance and appreciation my mom held for El Salvador, especially as it could be seen through her love for the food she would make. However, I was fascinated by how quickly she stated it. Food has now become one of the ways in which she can stay connected with her family and friends back at home. Food was one aspect she was able to bring from her home country to here. I could really tell she misses her hometown, but also wants to take care of her own children, just like she did with her siblings. She is always making sure her cooking is to its best, making it with much love, care, and appreciation, both from where it comes from and from where it's going.

While listening to 70’s classic rock and Brazilian jazz my father has always taken the role of cook. From a young age, my father yearned for better food. He grew up in Palo Alto, where my grandmother always cooked the American basics; from bland hamburgers to chicken with a side of mashed potatoes. But my grandfather traveled a lot to France for his work and would sometimes take my father, and that is when his initial curiosity about food struck. He was inspired by the use of herbs and spices and also the new foods like lasagna and escargot. My father found a love for food and cooking and knew that he wanted to learn and practice the art of cooking. The food that his mother would make, and even the French food he loved, never really satisfied my father, and sometimes it even made him sick ( it wasn’t until his 20s that he found out he had been living with diabetes his entire life.) Throughout his entire childhood, my father practiced cooking, making foods that made him satisfied and bring happiness to others. In college, he lived in a big dorm and was put in charge of cooking for 60+ people a night. He would cook Asian curries, Japanese nabe, french stews and so much more. That was when he purchased his first cookbook, Greens.

Greens expanded my father’s view on foods, brought new ideas, and also made his entire dorm grateful. My father would make curries from different cultures from all over the world from India to Greece to Mongolia. He never really follows the recipe, always going off taste and smell. Studying how flavors and spices interacted with each other and then practicing how to have the flavors bend to his will, ensuring a delicious dish. That was when my father knew he had a love for cooking.

As his child, I was spoiled with hundreds of different types of cooking and never got bored. I would watch from the countertop in awe as he did something that he loved, it was energizing in the best way. All of the chopping of vegetables to the beat of the music, mixing spices while dancing around the kitchen. Then taking those simple combinations tossing it all into a pot to create a delicious mouthful. Every day, I would come to school with a packed lunch prepared by my father, and people would always want to trade meals because my father’s cooking was mouth-watering. Some days he would make onigiri, Japanese rice balls, the fluffy pearly rice wrapped in crisp deep green seaweed matched with carrots cut into flowers and juicy bright strawberries. At that point I understood the joy that cooking brought to my father, creating something that others yearned for, and instilled joy in them after just one bite. As I grew up I also got a yearning to be able to create something almost magical. From that point on I have helped my father with dinners and have continued to learn and practice cooking, trying to attempt the art that my father has mastered. We have made Potato Au Gratin, Ratatouille, southeast Asian Curries, Korean BiBimBap, Sweedish Pancakes, Okonomiyaki, and Toad in the Hole egg dish.

I have attempted creating new, exciting, different, balanced, and healthy meals, but it is a lot more challenging than one might assume. I want to know how to create a perfect egg dish, from omelets to frittatas to simple but perfectly cooked fried egg, making sure that the right amount of yolk will pour onto my piece of toast. I want to get to the point where when I cook it looks more like a dance. To be able to create my flavors and dishes, just like my father. I have a deep respect for cooking, the joy that this has brought for my father and many others as well as the bond that it has created between my father and me.

The most important person in my food life is my mom. When talking to her about what types of food are most important, she said it’s the food that brings everyone together. Whether that be the hours of preparation for Thanksgiving, or the quick Blue Apron meals that are thrown together on weekdays, dinner is a special time for my family, and we try our best to be with each other as much as we can.

My mother’s grandmother immigrated from France, and grew up on a farm. She loved to cook for my mom and her siblings. She enjoyed crepes almost every week, vegetable soup, lamb, and even more odd things like roasted rabbit. The story goes that my grandmother wanted to be American so much that she didn’t teach any of her children French, and tried to make them as American as she could. It’s really for this reason that my mom doesn’t know a lot of the meals that she grew up eating. I find it odd that my great-grandmother wanted to move away from a rich culture, but I can understand the opportunities that she saw elsewhere.

I have to say, I haven’t really been all that interested in cooking during my life. I don’t take the time to learn from my mom as much as I should. I have fallen victim to the easiness of Blue Apron. While it’s not as memorable in the preparation, I think that it allows for more time together at the table. I think that the type of food doesn’t really come into play when cooking for people that appreciate you. Sure it’s nice to have someone who has their own unique style of cuisine, but at the end of the day, it's the people who surround you that really makes the meal memorable.

My mom grew up in a household where her mom was strictly against any junk food. My mom probably didn’t eat enough either--she claims her mom “didn’t feed her”. Her mom was very skinny, and I guess she wanted her kids to be healthy and didn’t want them to get too big. My mom was really skinny in high school because of this, but when she went to college, she explored food more. She ate a lot of unhealthy foods because she wasn’t allowed to at home.

My family doesn’t have a history of cooks. My dad’s mom grew up in the Great Depression, so we will find things in her freezer that are a decade years old like ice cream and bread. She doesn’t like food going to waste and always saves everything. She has a few good recipes: peeled apples with cinnamon and raisins and her famous cheesecake, but other than that it’s mostly freezer burned food. Most families have rich culture rooted in the kinds of food they eat, but that is very different from my family.

My mom has been a stay at home mom since a few years after my 22 year old brother was born. During that time, she had two other kids: my other brother and me. As any child is like, my brothers and I didn’t have the most expansive pallet when it came to food, but as we have grown up, my mom’s cooking has too. Once my mom had my brothers and me, she gained a lot of weight and has been trying to get back to the way she used to be ever since. She tried so many special diets, but has recently been seeing a naturopath. Because of this, my mom has learned a lot more about food and what eating healthy is like--without restricting yourself of the food your body needs. My mom gets farm fresh vegetables and fruits from a local farm delivered to our house every week. She uses all of it in the dinners she cooks for my family. She makes soups a lot too. When she goes to the grocery store to get meat and fish, she will cater everything to our diet. Our diet refers to me and her. My brothers and dad love beef and pork, but my mom and I don’t. She cooks meals that are always balanced--lemon, caper sole with orzo and broccoli, or pasta with italian chicken sausage and a salad. When she doesn’t feel like cooking, she orders food from healthier restaurants. These foods still taste delicious, and they are better for you than McDonalds or Chick-fil-A. Some of our favorite restaurants are Sweet Greens, True Foods, and Vesta.

My mom has always fed me since the day I was born. Every meal throughout my life was a meal prepared by my mother. As my sister and I got older my mom began to teach each of us how to cook. My sister then began preparing elaborate meals such as four cheese lasagna, salmon with a pesto and breadcrumb topping, and eggs benedict (all before I went vegan), based on what my mother taught us and I ended up cleaning after her. I have never been a good cook, so even now that I’m older my mom does all of the cooking.

The first dish my mom said was the most important to her is cake. She said it reminds her of celebrations of my sister and my birthday as well as her own. With a very strong sweet tooth my mom is always in the mood for cake. My mom loves every cake but her favorites include chocolate with fudge frosting and lemon cake with a lemon drizzle and lemon curd filling in the middle. My mom explained she didn’t have very often growing up because my grandma didn’t bake cakes. So, now that my mom is all grown up she makes cakes whenever she feels like one, which is often. My mom always loves surprising my sister and I with cake because she thinks of it as the best treat. During christmas time she enjoys surprising us with a ginger cake, for my birthday she always bakes a chocolate cake with fudge frosting, and as an afterschool snack she usually surprises us with an angel food cake.

Something else my mom makes that is a staple to her is homemade bread. Bread has endless opportunities to create things with. Her favorite to make is an oatmeal bread, but she also enjoys experimenting with sourdough starters, and baking french bread. I enjoy her bread as toast in the morning or after dinner I'll put cinnamon sugar on top of it and make it into cinnamon toast. Bread buttered and sprinkled on top of mac and cheese creates something delicious. When my sister and I were younger we would have picnics with my moms homemade bread; buttering it then adding sprinkles to it calling it fairy bread. Bread is delicious and versatile.

My mom then began to explain the importance of comfort food to me. “Comfort food allows you to feel at home no matter where you are.” She asked what my favorite meal was when I was stressed and just wanted to feel at home. I then said spaghetti. My mom then said that was her favorite comfort meal too, which would explain why it’s mine. Her perfect marinara sauce paired with the long floppy whole wheat spaghetti noodles always helped me relax and feel at home. We both agreed it was our favorite meal after a long flight or a vacation when we were ready to be back at home.

While I wasn’t expecting these foods to be my mom's favorite dishes, it made sense to me. I also thoroughly enjoy cake and think of it as the best treat, spaghetti is also my favorite comfort food, and I usually eat a slice of her bread everyday. It made sense that I would have the same taste in food as my mom because she raised me with that food. It is what I am used to eating and grew up eating. My mom continues to cook for me, and we have both influenced what we each eat. It was interesting to learn exactly what my moms favorite dishes are. I had a general idea what her favorites were but we had never sat down and had a real conversation about it. I was to continue to talk with my mom about the food we eat.

My father has always been an influential figure in my life because of his ability to stay calm and be extremely well-spoken. I interviewed him about his relationship with food and the role that it has played in his life. At first, it was very awkward asking him the questions because he had never sat down and simply thought about his relationship with food before. Most people including myself, have never taken time to reflect on food but it plays such a pivotal role in everyone’s lives. My father said that food was always interesting when he was a child, since he had three other siblings and they would truly eat whatever was put in front of them. He grew up eating a lot of meat products but not that much fish. Most of his siblings and his father did not like fish, so they ate a lot of steak and chicken on most nights. Growing up, my dad could not recall one single meal which his dad ever cooked due to his busy work schedule and the gender dynamics during that time period. His mother cooked a lot of the meals along with the help of his sister, Sheila.

Looking back now, it’s hard for him to understand how his father did not cook when he plays such a role in cooking dinner in our home. He believes that food is a way of getting together with family to share a meal but it goes beyond just the enjoyment. My dad really likes the challenge of making the meal and constantly strives to make the dish better. One of my dad's favorite dishes is making gazpacho. He constantly tries to make new recipes and puts his own touch into the recipe. He likes to add more basil to the gazpacho to make the flavor punch and improve the strong aroma of the gazpacho. I think that how he views food really reflects the person that others view him as. He really cares a lot about all the food that he is creating and wants to make sure that everybody is enjoying the food. Similarly to myself, we both really like trying to improve our dishes after we make them which I think is a really cool element to cooking. One major improvement we have made is for the heirloom tomato recipe. This is heirloom tomatoes topped with fresh burrata cheese, basil, balsamic vinaigrette, olive oil, salt, and pepper. My dad now uses two different types of sea salts when making the recipe and adds more basil than the recipe calls for. Additionally, we add sauce on the bottom of the plate so the tomatoes will soak up the different oils and the flavor is really bold.

He likes beginning with hearing about a certain dish that somebody has tried or something that he has seen on the television. My dad once saw a recipe on how to make homemade pizza and he pursued that idea! As a family, we learned how to make homemade pizza dough and learn the perfect proportions to get that crispy but thin crust. Some of his favorite foods include ribeye steak, gazpacho, and brussel sprouts. He is pretty good about following along with the recipe the entire time and then the more times he makes the recipes, he begins to deviate with the ingredients and proportions. He puts a big focus on making things that require less cleanup by using sheet pans which is awesome since everybody is so tired from Zoom by the end of the day! My dad also likes to understand the heritage and history of the food and where it came from. Especially when we go to nicer sushi restaurants, he is always questioning the source of the fish alongside the preparation. He enjoys cooking on the grill and using an assortment of salts such as sea and truffle salt. He likes preparing plentiful meals so that we can enjoy the food the next day but also feel full after dinner the night before!

Growing up, my dad had a very privileged life but food traditions were never a central part of his family's life especially since his parents got divorced right as he entered college. He had a lot of traditions growing up but none were centered around food or culinary experiences. There were a few restaurants they would always dine at for special occasions but they enjoyed grilling a lot of meat. He has demonstrated a huge effort to create traditions within our own family that hopefully we will pass to our eventual children. From a huge crab dinner on St.Patrick's Day to making brown butter with artichokes. Food definitely has become a bigger part of my dad as a whole but also the experience of sharing a meal. Even though my family has a busy life, we always eat dinner together every night unless something comes up. There is beauty in taking that routine for granted, in the way it provides me with both stability and comfort.

My mom grew up in San Francisco, and basically raised herself and her little brother. From taking the bus to school to cooking dinner at the age of 8, my mom had a difficult childhood, to say the least. With divorced parents, my mom and her brother lived with their dad the majority of the time, who made them liver sandwiches and other foods they did not like. They weren’t picky, but the food their dad made was, well, disgusting. My mom started cooking for the three of them at a very young age. The majority of her cooking knowledge extended to chocolate cake, spaghetti bolognese, roast turkey, teriyaki steak, teriyaki chicken, salads, and sausages. Her grandmother also taught her how to make sushi and she learned how to cook corned beef and cabbage from her Catholic school. Taking care of her household, my mom was forced to grow up way too soon. Luckily, her parents believed a lot in quality food and were horrified when a Mcdonald’s opened up five minutes from their house. Without much guidance, my mom built her skills, which would only continue to grow.

As she got older and traveled more, she started experiencing and enjoying different cultures and foods. Extended family also played a role, as her mixed ethnicities increased her affinity for cooking different foods. After she went to Japan she learned how to cook sukiyaki and how to make miso soup. She learned how to make steamed Chinese rock cod with ginger and onions from her Auntie Heidi, and learned how to make chicken and dumplings from visiting some of her family in Minnesota. Traveling clearly expanded her interests in foods all around the world, and her cooking became international. From making enchiladas after visiting Mexico, to cooking stuffat tal-fenek (rabbit stew) after meeting my father and discovering his Maltese heritage, my mom never limited herself. Rabbit stew is very important to my dad, as he grew up eating it. My mom’s ability to correctly cook a delicious dish that means much to my dad is very inspiring to me. We have rabbit stew 1-2 times a year, unless we visit my dad’s relatives in Malta – then we have it much more! There are no specific foods or cultures that matter more to my mom than others, as my family is very diverse. Stemming from 9 different ethnicities, my mom always made the effort to introduce each part of our heritage into mine and my sibling’s lives. I am very grateful to have a mother who has experienced much in life, and continues to nurture my own growth as a person, and honor our diverse heritage.

My family loves all types of foods, whether or not we are connected to the culture. Some meals that are important to my family are spaghetti bolognese, rabbit stew, along with many others, however, we enjoy trying new recipes and diversifying our taste palates. We appreciate every meal and style of food, and it is especially delicious when it is homemade. It has actually become quite difficult eating elsewhere, as I’ve grown accustomed to my mom’s amazing homemade meals. After speaking with my mom about her journey with food and cooking, I’ve come to realize that though she learned from others, she took it upon herself to learn and grow. I am proud to be able to try new foods wherever I go, and I aspire to experience a life and attitude similar to my mom’s. I would like to be immersed in different cultures and travel the world, adding on to the things I have already been exposed to, thanks to my mom.