Writ 1133: Eric Leake
Extended Essay 1: Advertising and Experiences Relating to
Food
April 24, 12
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Zach Quinn
EE1: How We Eat Now
1,500 words minimum
Write a researched argumentative essay concerning food and
culture. You might think of your essay as an argument for understanding how
“we” eat now. You may incorporate and / or expand upon any of your previous
writing from this unit. Include at least three sources in your essay. Those
sources may include articles we read in class. The best essays will make a
specific argument or observation concerning food and culture and will support
that argument with well-reasoned analysis and research.
Thesis:
As humans we cannot function without food in one of its many
forms. Some are in devastating
accidents or get sick to the point that they require food in the form of
nutrients through a plastic tube or IV.
This way of eating pays no attention to taste, texture or
experience. The rest of us,
however, intake food that is grown, raised, prepared, and served. This process creates differentiation,
flavor and texture and these aspects create the experience that eating is. Humans place eating food as an
important part of daily life. With
this, there are individuals, groups and companies that have long thought to
profit off of such an activity.
These people and groups have created atmospheres for people to
congregate, socialize and eat at the same time. The food industry has created entertainment around the simple
activity of eating.
At one point in the era of hunting and gathering, food was
caught and prepared as a community.
Since then there have been large changes in the way we collect, prepare
and consume food. Rebecca Spang
writes in her book The Invention of the
Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture, “In the past 230 years,
the restaurant has changed from a sort of urban spa into a ‘political public
forum, and then into an explicitly and actively depoliticized refuge” (Spang
3). The earliest form of the
restaurant known existed in Pompeii before its destruction. Archeologists figure that over 158 of these
L-shaped counters served people cold and hot food along with drinks throughout
the day. (Ellis) What we know as
the restaurant today was born in France in the 18th century. The first served only a massive stew
for medicinal purposes. (Spang 1)
It led to serving a broader range of customers over time and became a communal
place for socializing. The industry
has come a long way since then and we see it through how restaurants look, the
foods they serve and how they advertise.
America has had a huge influence on food around the
world. McDonald's and Coca-Cola
have emerged in markets on every single continent and almost every country
besides Vietnam, Iran, the Vatican City and a few others. American companies have revolutionized
the way people eat food and changed the foods people eat. Jamie Horwitz talks about how
American’s revolutionized the food industry through the TV dinner in his journal
“Eating on the Edge.” (Horwitz) To take that even further, it is necessary to
talk about how America has revolutionized the restaurant industry. Though the restaurant was created in
France, American culture has arguably had the largest impact on its existence
today. From the creation of fast
food like McDonald’s and Burger King that French people opposed it can be
assumed that without the American desire for a fast paced lifestyle, those
restaurants would never have been created.
Works Cited
Ellis, Steven J. R. (2004): "The Distribution of Bars
at Pompeii: Archaeological, Spatial and Viewshed Analyses", Journal of
Roman Archaeology, Vol. 17, pp. 371–384 (374f.)
Spang, Rebecca. Book
Horwitz, “Eating on the Edge”
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