From books to plates: How literature hides modern culinary trends

While the phrase ‘books to screen’ is commonly heard, heave you heard the phrase, books to plates before? Have you noticed when you picked up your childhood classics, how well they described food? Food is truly one way to win hearts over, whether it is in real life or through the pen. Lavish descriptions of Victorian tea parties, kitty parties, weddings, or ballroom dinners have found space in books.

As opposed to this, the ‘poor man’s meal’ has also been featured in several classic literature. Moreover, to make things interesting for the children, books often mention about chocolates. Now, that you are surrounded by culinary trends, developed food display, and innovations on the plate, do you ever stop, think and recollect your childhood memories of reading about them in your favourite books? Could they have possibly played a part is enlarging pop-culture and influencing today’s culinary trends?

Does literature have a hand in shaping modern culinary trends?

 Long before the Bridgerton tea-party set-ups started coming out of the screen and on to your plates, Roald Dahl, JK Rowling, and even Shakespeare had written at large about food. Here are some trends which find immense parallel with literary references. A quick note ahead, food like these always existed in the society, but literature may have had its fair share in elevating their significance.

Undoubtedly this phrase would remind you of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl with its futuristic chocolates and waterfalls. Do modern lavishly set up fondue chocolates remind you of the chocolate river? Or chocolate sculptures, flavours, and global innovations take you back to Mr. Wonka’s indomitable thirst to better chocolate for the children and the world? These little bits from cocoa are an all time favourite regardless of age and with time and innovation, their ways of consuming is also changing. P.S Cannot forget chocolate shawarma, can you?

From Chinese Fried Rice and Chilli Chicken to Darjeeling momo or breakfast bread and toast or porridge, what makes them click? While eating the same thing every day may set in monotony of flavours, what make them work are the comfort that they produce and the fact that they are pocket friendly in nature. Moreover, even if the food is same, the flavour and taste differ depending on who cooks them or where you order it from.  All these today come under the phrase ‘comfort food’ but once upon a time they were the ‘poor man’s meal’ born out of the need to sustain oneself. Remember the chapters from David Copperfield or Oliver Twist?  

As children when access and availability was low, how many nights have you dreamt of being on the mountains of the Swiss Alps, relishing freshly baked hot bread and warm melted cheese made of goat’s milk? While both are now easily available, even then, who would want to miss the opportunity of feeling like Heidi by Johanna Spyri when they are visiting the snow-capped mountains? In fact, many homestays, hostels and hotels offer freshly baked bread and cheese platters on their menu so that one can take a taste of the local delights. Does this bring to mind if Heidi’s dinner was one of the first kind of farm-to-table occasions?

Themed food or food according to the occasion is an important category to look after during modern day celebrations. During Halloween, one can see spiders, pumpkin, bloody fingers etc dominating the dining table. Similarly, when one celebrates special occasions like Harry Potter- themed party one cannot not have Butterbeer in it. What started off as a fictional drink, now actually finds place in cafes and hotels in England. Another instance is the rise of the candied apple. Remember how Snow White’s step mother tried to poison her with an apple? This gave rise to the apple in pop-culture and during occasions you have candied apples or carved apples to suit your themes.

Tea time has always been a very prominent cultural part of the British era. It finds ample mentions in poems and novels of that time. From Jane Eyre’s lavish parties to Jane Austen’s portrayal of the elite class, it finds a mention there. Items like freshly baked breads, scones, seasonal jams and a variety of tea often formed a part of this set-up. Borrowing from this, tea-time platters are a real set-up which is found not only in England but also in other places globally, giving rise to and sustaining the tea-drinking culture around the world.

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