About Janine
Janine Eckhart is a freelance food writer, reformed professional baker, and Master's student in Writing and Book Publishing. She's all about good eats, the serial comma, and homemade jam.
She lives in Portland, Oregon, with a small flock of hens, two wily cats, and The Squeeze.
An Exerpt from Food, according to me:
According to me, food is about more than fancy garnishes and the latest fine dining trends. Food is about more than how a thing looks, or even tastes. Food is about communion, and about creation — but not only. It's complicated, see? According to me, food is about the dirt in which it is grown. It's about hedonism, which may seem contradictory though I promise you it's not.
Food is about farmer’s markets and a floppy hat to keep the sun off my face and hybrid cars and the chickens roosting on my back steps. It’s understanding some chemistry, and being able to manipulate a recipe so it comes out how I think it ought to — it’s making six batches, if that’s what it takes, to get it right. According to me, food has everything to do with politics and environmentalism and ethics. I use food for calories, for pleasure, for stress-relief, and, occasionally, for triggering emotional breakdowns.
According to me, food is about preserving biodiversity. It’s about affection and passion and communication. According to me, food is about more than what’s for dinner. According to me, food is about craft and about dirt and about making choices true to oneself and to the rest of the planet. Food is about honesty, and about love. It’s about acknowledging that butter makes it taste better, but not going crazy with the saturated fats.
According to me food isn’t worth much if it doesn’t feel good, if it can’t keep you alive and healthy, if you can’t share it with friends. Food, you see, will soak up all the meaning and the heft you want to give it. And if you don’t want it to mean anything, then just eat it already — Bon appétit.
(June 2008)
