Fluent in the Language of Food

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Recommended: Essay on how food can illustrate our culture

The experience associated with the preparation and consumption of food always fosters some method of communication. Even without words, food provides information about a person’s religion, lifestyle, wealth, and culture. In Babette’s Feast and Eat Drink Man Woman, this experience of food is primarily how the characters communicate and always involves everyone gathering together. In each film, communication revolves around the consumption or preparation of food. With Babette’s (sometimes unwanted) help, Martine and Philippa come to realize how good food is actually nourishment to the mind and body and evolve from their jaded ways. The Chu family uses food as the one unifying force that brings them together. Whether they are talking at the dinner table or cleaning the dishes afterwards, the Sunday dinner occasion provides an opportunity for the characters to express their ideas and feelings. Each Sunday dinner helps the Chu family sort through their miscommunications and helps each member realize what truly makes them happy. Food is an outlet for their emotions and a way for them to communicate without even speaking; throughout both films the food and the characters evolve in unison to unite one community and one family together.

Usually social events revolve around the consumption and pleasure associated with food, and in these films food is a common force that brings everyone together. In Babette’s Feast, Martina and Philippa work very hard to preserve their father’s old religious ways. Eating food is a religious ritual that accompanies their worship. Although E.N Anderson, author of Everyone Eats, may sound clichéd when he says, “the group that prays together stays together-especially if its members share religious feasts”(155)...

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... transforms into a way to improve the community in worship and in life. For Martina and Philippa, food offers a spark they can use to save the church and keep their father’s dream alive, while also improving on what he built. For the Chu family, the ritual of Sunday dinner allows them to learn to accept each other while accomplishing and discovering their individual passions. This experience provides the characters with an opportunity to communicate. The meals they share together open their minds to new ideas concerning religion, family, and culture, and the transformation of food from stale and flavorless to tasty and wholesome symbolizes this change.

Works Cited

Anderson. E.N. Everyone Eats. New York New York University Press, 2005.

Babette's Feast. Dir. Gabriel Axel. Orion Classics, 1988. Film.

Eat Drink Man Woman. Dir. Ang Lee. World Films, 1994. Film.

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