When I am stuck deciding what to make for dinner I live vicariously through the meals eaten in literature and on screen. I want to explore the way food is used in three different pieces of media: literature, epic poetry, and television.

narnia

When I was a child I was captivated by the world of Narnia. It was something of an obsession. Though I fell in love with the characters, the magic and the wonder, C.S. Lewis’ description of food also stuck with me.

A few scenes from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe come to mind.

There is the infamous Turkish Delight, the sweet conjured by the sinister White Witch for Edmund. It was laced with an addictive magic that manipulated him into betraying his siblings.

Likewise, his younger sister Lucy was persuaded to visit the faun Mr Tumnus by his tea-time spread. Slices of toast topped with butter, honey and sardines, and a cake dusted with sugar. Mr Tumnus planned to use this food, along with music, to lure Lucy before he would kidnap her. However, the time they spend together makes him change his mind, letting her go despite knowing how White Witch would react.

Finally, once all the Pevensie siblings are in Narnia, they find their allies in Mr and Mrs Beaver, who also bring the kids home for supper. They bundle up in the Beaver’s Dam. Peter watches Mr Beaver fish in the frozen river and he brings back a fresh catch which Mrs Beaver fries. Lucy and Susan help her with preparing boiled potatoes which is served with the fish.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Chapter 7:

There was a jug of creamy milk for the children (Mr Beaver stuck to beer) and a great big lump of deep yellow butter in the middle of the table from which everyone took as much as he wanted to go with his potatoes, and all the children thought – and I agree with them – that there’s nothing to beat good freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and has come out of the pan half a minute ago. And when they had finished the fish Mrs Beaver brought unexpectedly out of the oven a great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll, steaming hot, and at the same time moved the kettle on to the fire, so that when they had finished the marmalade roll the tea was made and ready to be poured out.

homeric poetry (meaning of meat chapter 3)

Food serves an important role in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Here I’m drawing my analysis from chapter 3 of The Meaning of Meat and the Structure of the Odyssey, by E. Bakker.

In the Iliad, the heroes stop to feast at different points in the epic. These meals typically consist of some kind of meat roasted on a spit served with bread and diluted wine. The wine had to be diluted otherwise it would be too strong to drink. The feasts take place often enought that you may not question where the assembled Achaean (Greek) army are getting all of this meat from. The bulls and sheep are slaughtered without end, no mention of who is taking care of this seemingly vast herd on the Trojan beach. This is not a plot hole, the Iliad is not a story focused on realism. Instead these Toby’s Carvery interludes represent heroes eating in accordance with their status; copious amounts of roasted meat.

After Achilles’ lover and companion, Patroclus, is killed, Achilles is inconsolable. He refuses to eat in his grief. He rampages, killing anyone in his sight, fighting a river, murdering Patroclus’ killer, Hector, and desecrating his corpse. Then, Hector’s father, Priam king of Troy, seeks an audience with him, so he can bring his son’s body home. Achilles is shocked but receives Priam warmly. They break their fasts of grief together, Achilles who killed Priam’s favourite son and Priam whose son killed Achilles’ love. Here the feast is a closure for both the men and the poem. Having eaten, Achilles can now return to the realm of expected heroic conduct, giving Priam the body of his dear dead son.

In the Odyssey, food, especially meat, is not taken for granted. While journeying, Odysseus and his companions experience food insecurity, leading them into perilous situations. Food is often used against them. This is seen when would-be hosts eat their guests — think of the cyclops and the laestrygonians (giants). Or, eating the food has a magical consequence — the lotuses that make the eater forget their home and Circe’s feast that turns the crew into pigs.

The most consequential food is, of course, the cattle of the Sun god Helios. Odysseus and his men wash up on a distant island where Helios keeps his cows. Their ship cannot sail in the still air, so there they remain. Circe had warned them to not eat the divine cattle, so they subsist on the ship’s supplies. But days turn to weeks, and despite Odysseus’ insistence, the hungry crew sacrifice the cattle and eat them. They set sail soon after, which is when a divine storm strikes the ship, killing all except Odysseus who refused to eat Helios’ cows.

Even when he finally arrives in Ithaca, Odysseus sees the impact of the Suitors, who have been continually feasting on his livestock, eating him out of house and home. In disguise as a beggar, he is greeted well by the enslaved swineherd Eumaeus, who unknowingly gives Odysseus his first meal back home. He doesn’t have a lot, but still gives Odysseus the best cut of pork available to him. This is contrasted with the Suitors, who have the run of Ithaca. They jeer and insult beggar-Odysseus, throwing shanks of meat at him, and refusing to let him dine with them. Odysseus enacts his revenge in the same dining hall where they humiliated him, bringing war into his home. He kills the Suitors as they are dining, meat and wine dashed to the floor as flesh is cut and blood is spilt.

the bear

The Bear is an intense workplace drama set in a family-owned restaurant in Chicago. It explores the perils of running a restaurant and the dynamics of a family (both homegrown and handmade) who have experienced a sudden and brutal loss. This family is made up of charming, talented and neurotic people all dressed up in chef whites.

I’ve just finished watching series 4 with my mum. I know some people have not enjoyed this latest season so much; it lacks the grit, relatability and directions of the earlier seasons. I agree to an extent. There is a clear tonal and stylistic shift. But ultimately I enjoy the Bear for the same reasons I always have: the characters and their interpersonal relationships. To me the hustle of the restaurant is secondary to the scenes where the characters get to cook for others.

These characters’ love of food comes through in the way they treat others. In the pilot episode, Syd, despite having an awful first day at work, cooks a delicious ‘family meal’ for the Beef’s staff. This meal begins to break the ice between Syd and her new colleagues. In the latest season she spends an episode looking after her niece, who opens up to her about her friendship as Syd teaches her how to cook. Although Richie doesn’t cook, he too uses food ‘surprises’ to make guests at the Bear feel welcome. Likewise, Carmy reconciles with his mum by making her lunch.

final thoughts

Food is presented in different ways in these fictions. In the Iliad, food is in abundance, taken for granted by the feasters. Food is seemingly also in abundance in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as the White Witch conjures food from nowhere, and Mr Tumnus is able to serve an English tea in the dead winter of Narnia. Mr and Mrs Beaver’s access to food is specifically described by Lewis, regularly fishing in the frozen river and keeping preserves. They are also the only figures in the book who serve food to the Pevensie siblings without sinister intentions. Lewis may have been inspired by the Odyssey, where magical food has a dangerous consequences for the eater. Odysseus, in his home, is appalled when he finds out about the Suitors’ draining of his wealth by continually feasting. Food as an unsteady resource is a big theme of the Bear, as the restaurant relies on high quality ingredients to feed their guests.

However food largely serves in each of these stories as a motivator for emotional resolution. The Pevensie siblings find solidarity and kinship with the Beavers. Achilles and Priam see eye to eye over a meal, despite the gulf of war and grief that divides them. Odysseus is welcomed home to Ithaca by Eurymachus with a meal. Lastly, the chefs of the Bear connect with each other and themselves through their art.

I’m going to get political for a second. If you don’t like what I will say next, you can always click away. I can’t write about food and not write about this.

Living in a world where the access to food is so unequal means that food is politically charged. As much as food can bring us together, both in fiction and real life, it has also been used to devastating effects. Historically, dominant countries have weaponised the ability to access foods against the country or culture they are antagonising. Withholding, or destroying, or shifting the harvest away to such an extent that they bring on a famine, killing thousands upon thousands and weakening the survivors to the point where they cannot resist the continued exploitation. This was the case in the tragic events of the Great Hunger in Ireland, and the Bengal Famine. This is also happening now in Gaza, where food and aid has been available at the border, but were denied entry by the Israeli government. Their blockade has lasted months (March - July) and even now as meagre aid is trickling in, it is not enough to support the Gazan civilians, not when they have been cut off to point of critical starvation.

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