Why Nostalgia And Food Matter: How Our Past Affects Who We Are Today
Presented by Society Insurance
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By Camille Shoemaker
Nostalgia. At its core, is a memory linked to emotion. It can be sentimental, frustrating, and enlightening all at the same time. When it comes to food and nostalgia, these memories tend to be the strongest. We all can remember specific meals and dishes growing up, and the events that correlated with them.
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a home where my mom cooked most of our meals, and was an amazing cook (still is.) All my memories associated with food and nostalgia are directly tied to both my mom and her mom, my Granny. This truly shaped my career, who I am, and the food that I cook today.
My Granny’s kitchen in Texas was my sanctuary. I knew that after an 18-hour drive from Colorado to visit, we would immediately be brought back to life by the aromas of her food. Seafood gumbo, fried shrimp, and twice-baked potatoes that to this day, I have not been able to recreate. I am a chef because of my Granny. And it wasn’t just the food. It was that exact feeling I got walking into her kitchen as a child, and how her food made me feel. I was always in the kitchen side by side with my mom or Granny—baking with my mom, absorbing southern food with my Granny.
It was these experiences that led me to waking up before anyone else as a child and stand on my step stool to make my own lunch, as I refused to eat the awful elementary school hot lunch. I loved cooking and baking so much that in 5th grade, when prompted with an essay assignment about what we wanted to be when we grew up, I wrote about wanting to be a pastry chef. Two students out of the class were chosen for the best essays and awarded with an internship in the field they dreamed of being in, myself being one of the two. I got to live out my dream of making Oreo truffles in a chef's coat and a paper toque hat—and to this day, I can still remember what those truffles tasted like. Fast forward nine years, when I was accepted into the baking and pastry program at Johnson & Wales University and began my career as a chef.
Nostalgia is undoubtedly about storytelling—where you were, who you were with, what the occasion was—this adds the most power to our nostalgic taste memories. These food memories feel so nostalgic because of all the context surrounding preparing and eating the food. We can try to recreate our grandmother’s gumbo recipe, or our mom’s apple pie, but it may never be achievable as we can’t recreate that exact memory. However, the taste of a certain food will always remind us of special people, places, and events from our past. Food memories are also far more illuminating than other memories in that they truly involve all of our five senses. You’re not just using your sight to recall those memories of watching your grandma cook, or your taste on its own to be brought back to her gumbo, you’re using all the senses. That offers the potential to layer the richness of a food memory.
Headquartered in Fond du Lac, Wis., Society Insurance has been a leading niche insurance carrier since 1915. As a mutual insurance company, Society focuses on the small details that make a big difference to its policyholders while offering top-notch insurance coverage, service and competitive pricing to businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, Colorado, Georgia and soon Texas.
Professionally, my culinary journey began at Johnson & Wales University in Denver, Colorado, where I earned a Bachelor’s in Baking and Pastry Arts and Food Service Management in 2012. After graduation, I moved to New York City, where I earned an M.A. in Food Studies at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 2016. While living in New York City, I worked as a cook, a brewer, and a farmer. After building a foundation in food, I began to collaborate on original recipes for several culinary websites, as well as “Women Chefs of New York,” a cookbook celebrating female chefs of New York City.
After migrating back to my home state of Colorado, I worked as a professional brewer for two years before taking on my current role, working as a Private Chef and the head baker for Mountain Dweller Coffee Roasters. To hear more stories about nostalgia, head over to @camilleshoemaker and catch the IG Live series, “The Nostalgia Project.”
Opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Best Served. To achieve our mission of bringing more voices to the table, we are committed to sharing a variety of viewpoints across the industry.
