Lovett School issued the following announcement on Feb. 16.
For each heritage or history month, one of the ways that Lovett teaches their students is through cuisine. So, to investigate the importance of cuisine, I talked to one teacher from each of the languages taught here at Lovett.
Interestingly enough, each language class incorporates food into the lessons
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For Latin, you might think that because the language is no longer spoken, cuisine wouldn’t be so important to learn about, but actually there is an ancient Roman cookbook that still exists today. Before the pandemic at her previous school, Ms. Mellican would have a unit centered around Roman food, and she would “like a chance to do that here.”
In Señora Mitchell’s Spanish class, she will be showing the Disney movie Encanto and bringing in homemade arepas. This Colombian delicacy is one she would eat almost every day, and now she is passing the recipe to her son (like a generational tradition) and introducing it to her students.
In Ms. Hu’s 10th grade Chinese class, they have a unit about food where they learn about the four major categories of food, pick their favorite category, and either go to a restaurant and order the dish in Chinese or make their own dish. Then, they report back what they learned.
In Dr. Norwood’s French class, she is trying to plan something with the cafe, and possibly making crepes with her class. In the past, her students would prepare food from a region that they are learning about. She’s “really sad they can’t do this as much” because of the pandemic, but last year they were able to do this outside!
After learning about food within classes, I asked the big question: Why is cuisine so important?
For the Romans, both cuisine and dining were extremely important because the people really loved to eat. Among the “elite” Romans, they felt that throwing dinner parties was a way to entertain their guests and that they had to “one up” each other when doing it. According to Ms. Mellican, every house had a dining room and if they were too full, they would go to the vomitorium (yes, that is exactly how it sounds) and then immediately go right back to their feast. In the markets, there were many bakery stands, places to sample food, and even murals of the food that they were selling. Even though this is an ancient society, Ms. Mellican points out that aspects of it are still seen today like how the Italians focus on having family meals. Learning about food and cuisine also “brings life to the people” and makes students realize that these ancient people were people just like us.
Within the many Spanish speaking countries, “everything is surrounded by food,” Sra. Mitchell says. It connects members of the family. Sra. Mitchell showed me a “perfect example” of this, which is an art piece of La Tamalada, and it depicts a family gathered together to make tamales and bonding through making food together. Within the culture, there are celebrations and gatherings with families centered around food, and because they “love to eat well,” families can come together and “enjoy being together” with some tasty foods. “Food is a reflection of culture and tradition,” Sra. Mitchell explains, and she makes sure to carry this tradition by passing down her own recipes to her son.
There is a famous Chinese saying: “Mín yi shí wéi tian.” This directly translates to “people regard food as heaven.” From this, it’s obvious that cuisine holds a significant spot within the culture and everyday life. Food is the “most important thing in China,” Ms. Hu explains, and it’s involved in everything from funerals to parties to business meetings. With many dishes, there is symbolism or meaning behind it. For example, noodles are symbols of longevity, and fish is a symbol of abundance. Because of this, it’s very common to eat fish on Lunar New Year.
For the French, it’s a tradition to take time to enjoy a meal and to always use quality ingredients. There’s a lot of time that goes into both preparing and enjoying the meal, and “they put a big importance on not rushing a meal,” Dr. Norwood says. It’s also important to them where specifically the ingredients come from. For example, the Normandy region makes good dairy products, so many dairy ingredients might come from there. Food also “brings people together” and is a great way to investigate a culture (plus, it’s a chance to taste something new).
After figuring out the importance of cuisine, I thought it would be intriguing to explore some of the recipes, and the one I chose to make were the Colombian arepas that Ms. Mitchell brought up. I had never made them before, so trying to make something new was a fun and interesting experience. It didn’t take much time, so if you’re interested, try it out! They were tasty, and I’d like to make them again soon.
Of course, this isn’t the only food that can be made. “Every dish is unique,” Ms. Hu says, so there won’t just be one dish that goes for everyone who speaks the language. Despite this, the teachers and I were able to brainstorm popular dishes.
While the dishes may not be so popular today, there were quite a few Roman dishes such as a beef stew called Copadia, and the website that Ms. Mellican recommended, https://pass-the-garum.blogspot.com/, has many of the other dishes that were common during that period of time.
Ms. Mitchell and I brainstormed some foods that are similar between each country. There are rice dishes like arroz con leche, variations of arepas, and types of empanadas.
There are 8 categories of Chinese cuisine, and four of the main ones are Cantonese, Sichuan (which incorporates the use of three peppers), Huaiyang (which has sweet and salty dishes seen at the national banquet), and Shandong (which is mostly seafood since that region is close to the sea). One dish that you can try out is ma yi shang shu, which is a Sichuan dish, and the name actually means “ants climbing a tree.” Some other ones are gan chao niu he, a beef stir fry dish, or lazi ji, a Sichuan chicken dish.
One of the main foods that Dr. Norwood and I spoke about was crepes. One dish that has a history is a Canadian meat pie, because when the French settled there, they were just trying to survive the cold, so they came up with the meat pie.
I can’t wait to cook more recipes that I’ve heard about from the other teachers, and I encourage you to expand your cooking repertoire. We’re not trying to survive the cold here in Atlanta, but it might just be chilly enough to try out the meat pie.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Lovett School
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