Living Through Food

 

    Growing up, food was such a big part of our lives. I would stand in the kitchen with my mom or grandma, just happy to watch them chop vegetables or stir their pot of sauce. I was all the more thrilled when they started giving me small tasks to do too. I was happy to even sift flour or crack a few eggs. But in those small moments, you begin to learn. you're offered a space in a place that has so much meaning, meaning that goes beyond food. In my family, it was like a language that was always edited, changing, and present. 

    "What did you add to your sauce?" "Do you toast your spices in the pan before you use them or do you add powdered spices?" "How long do you cook your pasta after the water boils?" 

    All questions that were always passed around in the same way that we would say "I love you" to each other at the end of phone calls. Seemingly small things, but questions that built the language we all communicated with. We connected through food, through the recipes passed between each other like secret messages, and through cooking together in a tiny kitchen. 

    Soon, I was able to cook with members of my family that I had looked up to, and even introduced my younger brother to the kitchen. Cooking became a way for the two if us to bond. And now that we're older, we still look forward to cooking together. 

    In the summer of '23, I grew more and more fascinated with the intimate stories behind food. It is so much more than what is on your plate. It is getting up early to prep your stock, or finding specialty stores for the ONE ingredient you can't find anywhere but can't live without, and it's the conversations around a simmering pot. So much was being said in the kitchen. I had the idea to start my own podcast around food. The summer of '23 was when I began formulating plans and puzzling out ways to approach it. 

    In the fall of '23, I was able to record my first episode of 'Lick the Wrapper'. The idea behind the show was to be centered around a love of food, a love of making it, and a love of eating it. Diving into the stories behind favorite meals more is revealed about the importance of food to our histories, culture, and memories. Lick the Wrapper is about food that’s so good you want to lick the wrapper. You just can’t get enough. Something that sticks with you long after you’ve finished eating. Food is an experience, one that is personal but also shared, a labor of love, and a rich history of memories and culture.  

    Each episode features guests and we discuss the love of food- making it, eating it, and sharing it. I have had guests with years of culinary experience, home cooks, and people who simply find appreciation in simple meals like grilled cheeses. There is such a wide range of topics that have been covered. I have engaged with fascinating perspectives such as veganism making you a more creative cook, or individuals that were born with allergies, grew out of them, and have found a new love of cooking. It has become an audio library of these intimate stories. And throughout each episode, I learn more and more that the conversations are actually less about food, and more about the memories associated with it.

    The conversations have been so rewarding, and I am so thankful to continue to record episodes that are released weekly.