It came to me as I was sitting alone at the bar of a restaurant eating brunch in Copenhagen. This week, I’m going to feed you. I was writing in my notebook some reflections on my trip and how I felt about Copenhagen when I thought about the highlights I wrote a few weeks back for travelling alone. A major pro to eating alone is that your food comes FAST. Lightening speed. This time around, I was so much less self-conscious and overly self-aware than I had before. This time, I smirked with glee at the moments like this which made me appreciate being on my own.
The place I was having brunch at had been on my radar for upwards of 5 years. You guessed it, written in a note on my phone and forgotten about. It was nice to think about the visit as a successful achievement for a younger, and hopeful, version of myself. Of all five senses, taste is pretty underrated when it comes to evoking memories. We can associate different tastes, foods and meals with people and places when prompted, but our sight and what things look like usually come first with ease. At least, this is what happens for me.
“What does home taste like?” I asked myself. It tastes like apple tart, pancakes and roast dinners. It is food cooked from recipes passed down for generations. Made by hand and with love. I bought a leather-bound notebook a while ago to write down important recipes, especially from my grandma. Slow-cooker mulled wine was next on the list. Some recipes my grandma has are from her mother and mother-in-law (my great-grandmothers) and perhaps even further back. It feels important to preserve the legacy of memorable family dishes for generations to come. I never met Nana (my grandma’s mother-in-law) but I’m so grateful for her pancake recipe as I now have my own warm fuzzy memories of making the very same pancakes from childhood up to the most recent Pancake Day.
I’m lucky to have great cooks and bakers in my family. My sister adores cooking. She also bakes when she’s stressed and as a stress eater myself it seems we make a perfect pair. When we figure out the next time everyone will be together again at home our focus swiftly turns to food. What new meal could we make together? Is there a home comfort treat everyone’s been craving? How many loaves of bread can we fit in the oven? If there was a sixth love language this would be it.
Deciding to look for more abstract meanings when it comes to food, Vulture had answers. A heads up before the next bit, I speak about TV show Succession and there are some small spoilers for those not yet up to date. Vulture have long been obsessed with Succession character Tom Wambsgan and his relationship to food. A personal favourite is this article about actor Matthew Macfadyen (who plays Tom) having to eat a lot of chicken in the Season Two finale. But a more recent article believes food to be a metaphor for Tom’s humanness, reinforcing the fact he is an outsider to that of his media magnate family-in-law. Plausible, I like it. Food equates to mortality and the Roy family are immortal (at least in terms of their legacy, power and prowess). The article comes complete with corresponding Twitter thread snapshots of Tom’s best eating moments and is part of their Wambsgans Watch weekly critiques.
I watched episode five with beady eyes, keen to see the Tom Food theory in action for myself. As Ray willingly helps himself to the ‘Scandi spread’ buffet breakfast Tom says “you took the bait, fattened for the kill”. With that, his fate was sealed. Ray was the first name on Matsson’s kill list once the deal was over the line. Vulture were right. Food is being used as a symbol to weed out the weak from the pack. That and Tom may also have the power of prophecy.
Have I satiated your appetite yet?
We are teetering on the cusp of summer. So close I can almost taste it. We’re in May and the days are getting longer still. Dust off your patio furniture and scrub down your grill. It’s nearly time for ‘picky bits’, BBQs and picnics in the park. I can’t wait. Dining al fresco, everyone coming together and making more memories over meals shared and enjoyed. Some real food for thought. Sorry, I had to.
