2- Emagazine: Food

Food

Today, the cuisine had become so popular, lots of people are making a career of it and it had resulted, for that reason, cultures around the world play a significant and indispensable role on it. Below, it will be explain in detail. However, there is the million dollar question. What is gastronomy? 

“Gastronomy is one of those terms often tossed around in the culinary field, […] gastronomy actually goes beyond cooking to define the food world as a whole. From the science of human digestion to the study of cultures and the way they interact with food, gastronomy is all about the relationship between humans, food, and the world we live in” (Jones, 2011)

It is important because gastronomy is totally an art, for all the aspects it involves and all its styles. It also involves a lot of things than just food. The cuisine implicates three important things: the cutlery around the table, the way people cook and cultural components as place, people and food cultivation. This art of gastronomy can be divided in National gastronomy (dishes originals from a specific place or country), and the International gastronomy (when a dish is used and cook all over the world by most of people in different places).

Now, Let’s talk about the first one, it includes the cutlery, most of people do not know that, the cutlery has a significant meaning and even less the use of it. Most of the people think it is not essential or a priority, but there is a main idea on knowing this. People can use it all the time if they want, but mostly in special occasions, formal dinners and different situations.  For example: there are different wine and water glasses. Besides there are different knives and forks, depending if it is a salad or the main dish, inclusive there is a knife for the bread and butter. Believe it or not, it is not the only, behind this part there are more, the cutlery protocol is big. Another example is that there are different ways of put the cutlery for say something, like: when you place the cutlery with and X form, it means that you did not like the food, on contrary when you set it in a horizontal form, it means that was excellent. When you set the knives and forks in 5:20 (like in the clock) means you finished your food. These are some examples, but there are more and more.

In addition, other essential aspect is the style with each chef cooks, with his or her special touch in any meal they prepared, it will become into the grace of the dish. Because chefs can cook similar but with different process or practices and it will give to the food a unique taste different from the rest.

Then, there is the last aspect but not the last important; the culture fact. This is the key for present and cook delicious dishes all around the world. Is necessary to consider the customs from each place, what kind of products are harvested, and take into account the tastes of people.

In order to these, it means that chefs are going to take into account the region, it is important because with it, they can identify what is the best type of food for that area, for example if a restaurant wants to start a production, they have to take into account the people and their customs for satisfy them. Although, they can be creative and see how it will work in a determinate population. They must take into consideration this aspect because is crucial, for example the gastronomy from Mexico is much different than gastronomy from India or Italy. Why I said this? It is because in Mexico the food is spicier and if they want to succeed on it, they have to use this kind of condiments.

Inside of the gastronomy field there are many types as Mexican Food, Thai food, French food, Italian food, among other examples. One of the most popular foodstuffs around the world is the Italian food. It has influenced too much in our daily eaten. Looking back, people had involucrate their meal in their houses, millions of families use to prepare spaghettis, cannelloni, pizza in their places all the time and now it is part of our diet. That is why I am going to write about the principals dishes of Italy. Starting with Pizza, it is the most popular food all around the word, you can fount it since the north to the south, it transcends borders and it is delicious. Pizza is easy to prepare and an advantage is that you can add different ingredients as you want or just let the original recipe. Other important piece of this gastronomy is the pasta, in this field there are another types of pastas like ravioli, lasagna, cannelloni and finally spaghettis that can be prepared in different ways with different sauces. The three most common sauces are:

“Alfredo-- butter, cream and freshly grated cheese served with fettuccine;

Amatricana-- sauce of fresh tomatoes, chopped bacon, onion and garlic, served with grated Pecorino Romano cheese;

Bolognese-- rich meat sauce flavored with chicken livers, wine, vegetables and nutmeg. Served with butter and grated cheese; sometimes cream is added to the sauce. Also called ragu in parts of Italy other than Bologna” (Drake, 1988)

These three sauces are the most common, we usually heard about them. People used to order them in the restaurants or we can prepare it on our home. Personally I love spaghetti, I cook them frequently whether in Alfredo sauce or Bolognese sauce, these two are my favorites and it taste amazing and even more if you add some garlic bread.  Other dish that is really lovely is the Risotto it is made of rice and it can be prepared in different flavors, for example: Risotto alla milanase (it is made with the enough condiments), ai funghi (it is made with mushrooms), alla salsiccia (it is made with some kind of chorizo). These tastes depend on what people want or prefer in that moment.   Besides these food I had showed before, there are more like soups as Minestrone that is wonderful, there is the calzone that most of people like it for its flavor and texture, and of course there are some desserts, but In case of Costa Rica the most popular is the tiramisu that is made with coffee, and for Costa Rican people it is incredible.

Finally, with all this can be shown that food brings people and nations. When people visit some place, the first aspect that people usually take into consideration is the gastronomy of each place, because the food results new, fabulous, but who does not like the food?  

Bibliography

Drake, J. (1988, 01 14). The Different Types of Italian Pasta Sauces. Retrieved from Los Angeles Times: http://articles.latimes.com/1988-01-14/food/fo-35749_1_pasta-sauces

Jones, G. (2011, 02 22). What is Gastronomy? Retrieved from Gateway Gourmet: http://www.gatewaygourmet.com/blog/what-is-gastronomy/