What Our Forks Are Trying To Tell Us

Like mini skirts and 4” wide disco belts, culinary tastes go in and out of style. We can learn a lot about ourselves and about our times by tuning in to what it is we’re craving at the moment. In the `70`s the western world learned how to season a wok. In the `80`s pasta broke out of it’s spaghetti and macaroni box into a huge variety of shapes, colours and sizes; we discovered designer mushrooms (not those ones) and started cooking up things like Champagne Risotto. We got fancy. The ‘90’s saw an explosion of ‘Fusion’, a blending of cultures, a search for innovation and creativity.

Last week I phoned my Mom for some slow-cooker advice. “Isn’t that funny”, she said. “Two of your brothers have already called today asking for the same thing!” That weekend, we turned on the News, only to see a rising culinary star describing his amazing new cuisine, cooked slowly over a very low heat.

“You mean, like a crock-pot?” the interviewer asked.

Yep. Comfort food is back, and not just at Mom’s house. It’s showing up at dinner parties, restaurants, and on TV.

What does that tell us? First of all, that we want things to be real. We’re tired of packaging, preservatives, and mystery ingredients. We want convenience, but not at the expense of authenticity, not the ‘remove cardboard and boil’ variety. We want to know what it is we’re consuming. We don’t want to be ‘duped’ or ‘sold’. We don’t want to be told something (drink red wine, eliminate carbs, invest in funds, deploy troops), buy into it, and then have public opinion and evidence swing back and forth like a saloon door.

I’m not suggesting that Beef Bourginogne has a place in politics or life planning. I’m just saying we seem to be wanting, more than ever, to keep it real, keep it simple and keep it good. We’re voting with our forks, and our forks are saying “We’ll innovate, but let’s make sure it’s based on good old, sound principles”.

Just like Mom used to serve.

Penticton Speaker Series - Penticton Steps Out   Creating Wow! Thursday, February 28th 6:30 - 8pm Come join me at the Cleland Theatre in Penticton for a talk about Creating Wow! Beyond Goal Setting - figuring out what we want and making it happen. This Speaker Series is sponsored by Penticton Steps Out, an award winning program designed by Bob Pope and being adopted across the country. Other speakers in this years series were the extraordinary Silken Laumann, Canada's Olympic rowing phenom and comeback queen, and Darren Wride, author of 'Release'. Juno Award winner and inspirational speaker Susan Aglukark can be heard this Thursday, February 21st at 7 pm. Penticton Steps Out Speaker Series

Thanks for joining me. Please contact me for a complimentary coaching session or visit my website at
www.cmqcoaching.com.

Sincerely, Carol McQuaid