Why study food?
Why study food in the first place? [...] Eating is such a mundane part of our lives that we dismiss it and food-related experiences as trivial [...]. What we need to acknowledge is that eating is an activity that always has cultural reverberations. Food is never a simple matter of sustenance. How we eat, what we eat, and who prepares and serves our meals are all issues that shape society.
Scholars across many disciplines, including anthropology, history, literature, sociology, and nutritional studies, have examined the symbolic and social meanings attached to food.
[...] Perhaps one reason for the growing interest in food studies is that, although food is often overlooked, it lies at the heart of the human experience.
(Inness, 2001: 5-6)