Creating food memories

Many of us cherish our early food memories, whether it’s standing on a chair by the stove watching our grandparent cook or the first time we experienced a certain family food tradition. But what do you do when you don’t have a food tradition memory but want your children to experience their family’s culinary heritage? Keith Pandolfi addresses this question in a touching article on Epicurious. 

Pandolfi laments that he didn’t experience his family’s food traditions because his father eschewed his Italian-American family recipes in favor of cooking new things from Gourmet magazine (which doesn’t sound like a bad food memory in itself). Nevertheless, Pandolfi would like his young daughter to understand her family’s culinary roots, an admirable goal.

He notes that like many modern children, “Sylvia will grow up untethered to ritual or heritage. She will never know the pleasures of having regular Sunday dinners with a big Italian brood. She won’t know the pastrami sandwiches Amy’s father once ordered from a favorite neighborhood deli in his hometown of Cleveland, or the elegant dinner parties-candlelit, with Mozart on the hi-fi-my late Uncle Gary once hosted with his partner Arthur in their Boston apartment. What she will know are all the dishes Amy and I bring to the table, the ones that are deeply entrenched in our own life experiences.” Read the full story at Epicurious.

Photo of Mom’s spaghetti sauce from RecipeGirl by Lori Lange