Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of Bite By Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees, speaks Friday in the Hall of Philosophy.
NORA SMITH
Staff Writer
What is the last thing you ate that made you pause, maybe even close your eyes and smile without meaning to?
At 2 p.m. Friday in the Hall of Philosophy, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, essayist, poet and New York Times bestselling author, asked the audience this question with genuine curiosity.
“Maybe it was your mom’s spaghetti bubbling on a stove,” Nezhukumatathil said. “Maybe it was the swirl of a gas station slushy on the way home from work. Maybe it was short ribs finished off on a grill. When was the last time you actually paused a little bit after taking a bite?”
Returning to Chautauqua Institution, Nezhukumatathil began her presentation on Bite By Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees, Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle’s Week Eight selection, by reading the chapter on apples, posing a question and then taking answers from raised hands.
One Chautauquan shared when they bit into a peach from the farmers market recently, another spoke of a pawpaw fresh off a tree in their backyard and one said grilled shrimp made by a family member. Others shared experiences of figs from their fig tree and another about a plum from the grocery store. Nezhukumatathil said all these bites that made Chautauquans stop and maybe even catch their breath likely contain a story.
“This book is really about memory, about family, about the strange and beautiful ways flavor can carry us across time and distance, a collection of nourishments and jamborees,” Nezhukumatathil said. “Food reminds us where we’ve been and who we belong to. Sometimes a single taste can carry an entire childhood.”
Nezhukumatathil said throughout Bite By Bite, she wanted to explore the concept of food being a love letter and a love language that doesn’t always. require words.
“Maybe someone woke up early to cook breakfast before school,” Nezhukumatathil said. “Maybe a parent packed your lunch in a hurry, but still remembered your favorite snack. Maybe a grandparent showed you how to stir a pot slowly, a routine handed down from their ancestors.”
Then, Nezhukumatathil recalled her own childhood and said no matter where she was, home was her kitchen and she believes food has a way of saying, “You belong here.”
“My mother might open a mango so golden … it seemed to glow like a lantern,” Nezhukumatathil said. “My father might fry smelt and perch so crispy the whole house smelled like the sea.”
Nezhukumatathil encouraged audience members to think back to their favorite dish and think of who made, grew or planted it, because that thread of connection between people and food is where
stories begin.
“The foods that make you different are often the foods that make you remarkable,” Nezhukumatathil said. “The recipes in your families are stories that have traveled across oceans and generations.”
Nezhukumatathil compared this passed-down knowledge to a map. She added that a surprise in writing about food is “discovering how much wonder lives in the ordinary moments,” and paying attention can make everything magical.
“Children are very good at doing something that adults sometimes forget,” Nezhukumatathil said. “They know how to point at the world and say, ‘Look, look at that bird. Look at that cloud…’ Wonder begins with that simple word: ‘Look.’ When we stop looking, the world shrinks, but when we stay curious, everything becomes larger and more interesting.”
Nezhukumatathil said this curiosity is the beginning of storytelling, and it’s never too late to begin writing, whether for a person’s loved ones, people across the world or simply yourself.
“Sometimes the world will try to convince you that certain parts of yourself are too loud, too strange, too different…” Nezhukumatathil said. “But here is the truth: Difference is dazzling.”
Nezhukumatathil said variety is what makes the world beautiful, and these stories, melded together from cultures and histories as well as identities, family traditions, favorite foods, languages and memories, aren’t something to hide, but to savor. She added that, going forward, she hopes audience members savor not just food, but moments as well.
“The next time you take a bite of something delicious, something bright with flavor and memory, just pause for a moment,” Nezhukumatathil said. “Look closely, notice everything and maybe say the first words so many children say when they discover something wonderful: ‘Look.’”
Further, Nezhukumatathil said to grab a pen and paper to share these moments and stories with someone else, because “society collapses if we forget we are all part of a community.”
“So, here we are at the last weeks of the edge of summer,” Nezhukumatathil said. “Tell me about your favorite dessert from summertime. Close your eyes and begin, and let that delicious imagining be the beginning of your own food journey.”
