Sunday, 20 June 2010 12:52 John Krivka

France, for many food lovers it’s the highest plain-- food Nirvana, it just doesn’t get any better. Two weeks prior to Dine & Cook’s launch, I spent ten days in Paris and southern France. Yes, the food is good, amazing. Did I have the best meal of my life in France? No, and that’s just fine with me.

After returning I told several food lovers this and they were appalled. They accused me of not searching hard enough, for not planning my trip more thoroughly. I did plan, I planned too much in fact. I did search and came up with some hidden gems-- places where the locals only know and eat at. For me, the reaction back home sums up the state of food today. A small, but vocal minority has put food on a pedestal; turning it into a vehicle to advance class and for the lack of a better term, snobbery.

As much as we love the culture, history and technique behind food we must realize one point. At the end of the day, if we are fortunate enough, we all eat-- it's a function of life.

I sat down on an empty bench in front of a cafe on the Champs-Elysees to write down my thoughts on my first editorial. Unfolding before me was a very stereotypical French scene. A lady carrying a baguette, diners in the cafe sipping espresso… but if you looked closer, things weren’t as they seemed. A man walked by munching on a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies, several people walked by sipping Starbucks and then the McDonald's bags-- they were everywhere. Even in the land of haute cuisine, the Golden Arches reign supreme.

I have a confession to make. I went to McDonalds in Paris. To be fair it was to use the bathroom, but I went, sat down and soaked it all in. I was expecting the place to be full of wayward tourists looking for a “taste” of home, but to my surprise the McDonald's in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe was full of… French.

I realized something right there, food is just food. I’ve already had enough of the snobbery attitude that has sneaked its way into many food circles, but there in central Paris, in that McDonald's something clicked. Food is about personal choice, of course keeping moderation in mind, and we need to accept that. Again (keeping moderation in mind) food should bring joy to our lives. We need to stop pushing only “the best of the best” and return food to its humble roots.

Amazing food might be created in the professional kitchens of New York City, Paris, London… but it is also made in a fourth story walk up loft in SoHo, a farm kitchen in Iowa, the favorite pizza joint of a hungry freshman college student.
That’s where Dine & Cook comes in. We created this site because food culture has become too much on one side like the Food Network and the other side like the New York Times’ dining page. I call it the Food Networkfication of food meets food elitism. I am a journalist by trade, and we are trained not to pass judgment. Dine & Cook is the middle ground.

We’re also the opposite of personal food blogs, we will from time to time pontificate but only on the editorial page. Our main goal is to take the personality out of food writing, the “I, I, I,” and let the food be the star.

Too many food writers use food to create a cult of personality centered around them and it’s a damn shame. We need to stop alienating those who aren’t as educated or cultured as us on food. The duty of a food writer is simple, to report on the story behind the food. Too many times food writers just skim the topic-- and then on the flip side, too many times writers ramble on missing the point, burying the rich history behind their topic in random musings.

Food has become for many a source of entertainment, which is fine. But we should never lose track of the culture and history of the plate. In journalism we are taught to look at a story’s impact and relevance. That philosophy can be applied to food. Food writing is such a unique beat to cover because it’s so entwined with being human. We eat to celebrate, we eat to be comforted, we eat three times a day no matter what happens.
I reflect often on France, it’s one of those rare places in the world where a nationality is defined by food and drink. I might not have eaten my best meal in the country, but the French gave me something more important. They gave me a sense of reality. Food is about living a life that you want to live. The French just do, they don’t care what the latest big named chef in the Latin Quarter is doing. If they want a Big Mac, they eat a Big Mac. But for the majority of the time, the French are perfectly content with going to their local markets, cooking at home and everyone else be damned.

Food culture needs to return to that. We need to stop looking over our shoulders. There is no food police in our kitchens who’s going to arrest you if you don’t butterfly that chicken perfectly. The food police won’t arrest you if you enjoy frequenting a greasy spoon. Nobody should care if you didn’t spend a fortune on only the best ingredients, and nobody should care if you’ve never eaten at a Michelin starred restaurant. At the end of the day, if you can smile while you’re cooking and dining and say that’s some damn fine eating, that’s the only thing that should matter. The rest is just icing on the cake.