The distinction was clear to my sister and me, growing up. “Real” was my mother’s chocolate chip cookies, eaten fresh from the oven when they were still soft and oozing melted chocolate. Store-bought were hard little disks that came in a bag and tasted like cardboard. Back then, all I knew was that “real” tasted better. But food choices are more complicated today and it can be harder to tell the difference between “real” and the rest. At the supermarket, you can buy a plastic tub of cookie dough that comes ready to scoop and bake. Those cookies will ooze chocolate and smell delicious when you take them out of the oven — but your mother wouldn’t recognize half the ingredients.
This week, we’ve been asking ourselves what, exactly, constitutes “real food.” Is it local? Organic? Heirloom? Traditional? Artisanal? We’re wary of elitism and don’t like food police any more than thought police. So here’s how we finally framed the question: what if the guiding principle for growing, shopping, cooking and eating food was… love? What would that mean? What would it change? Take a listen and let us know what you think!
—Anne