Foreword

People make societies, and societies in turn make us into the people we come to be. Few things aid this two-way exchange better than food. We use food to celebrate and to mourn; to nurture both physically and emotionally; and to give charity as well as to earn “our daily bread.”

We use food when we want to strengthen a bond with someone else. Cooking a meal for someone on a fourth or fifth date represents a threshold. Inviting them to your family’s Thanksgiving meal is an even more significant one. It also represents the continuing bond between parents and children. Cooking a favorite meal for a kid coming home from college reminds them without words that you will always be in their corner.