"Comfort Food" is Not Just About the Food

Sitting down to a meal with other chefs, the conversation is always about these incredibly hard times in our industry, both personally and professionally.

(For those of us who own our own restaurants, on our Top Ten List of Dreads, death is not on the list. Payroll is.)

I had dinner with Sara Moulton from Gourmet Magazine, Steve McDonaugh and Dan Smith, the Hearty Boys, and Rick Tramonto of TRU recently and we noted the difference between post 9/11 business and this period. While New York City stayed in a state of shock for almost 2 years, we, in the Midwest, reclaimed a sort of normalcy by the turn of the calendar to 2002.

Sara was doing a live show on the Food Network, which decided to suspend programming for an undetermined time immediately after the attack. Viewers clamored for their favorite shows to return so they could lose themselves in the "familiar".

She returned to the air and cooked "Comfort Foods". And it seems to me we have been cooking those foods ever since. But if it were just about the food, we'd all just be in our robes eating bowls of mashed potatoes and mac'n'cheese from the box.

It's about so much more.

It's about who makes the food ... where we eat it ... who we are with ... how does it make us feel ... and is it the same each time we eat it.

What makes "comfort food" is the fact that it's nourishing food served in a nurturing environment. Scientists who study "happiness" repeatedly find that people feel the most joy when they are with family or friends. It's not about the amount of money spent, it's about the quality of the overall experience. So, going out to a meal can be as satisfying as a weekend away on the happiness scale.

When a 2 year old wakes up on a Sunday and says, "INA Pancake," her understanding of what comfort food is, is already in place.

When a couple signing divorce papers at the table in the corner meet to sign them at INA'S, the food takes a back seat to the comfort that envelopes and supports them during the difficult process.

When a family brings a disabled aging parent to dinner, the effort it takes is acknowledged as we rearrange the tables to accommodate the wheelchair.

When a family brings a newborn to us on the way home from the hospital because Mom is hungry and the baby asleep, there is comfort in the safety they feel, inherent in that act.

Yes, our food is delicious, but the comfort that is found within our walls and in our hearts is what "Comfort Food" is really about.

Follow Ina Pinkney on Twitter: www.twitter.com/breakfastqueen1

Comments

[elakin]

as ina said, it's not about the food. it's about HOSPITALITY. we call it the hospitality industry but all too often we in the industry forget the meaning of the word. ina (and danny meyer) are two great examples of people who haven't forgotten. it's about making people feel safe and welcome and like things make sense, at least for the time it takes to eat a good meal, when everything feels crazy and uncertain in the world.

that *can* be achieved in a setting where the food is more edgy or less familiar, of course, but where when the food is familiar and accessible, it's easier to achieve. and, yes, C2, hospitality can (of course) be found at home. but sometimes people aren't at home, or they can't be for one reason or another. i didn't see anything in ina's article that in any way disparaged home cooks or cooking. she's just speaking from her experience.

i enjoyed the article, but maybe that's because i've experienced ina's brand of hospitality firsthand. thanks, ina!

[Spinnerama]

Bah humbug, Scrooge. Why do you feel the need to sneer at Ina and her heartwarming fuzziness? Do you prefer stories about how people have to wait for an hour in a restaurant bar because their reservation was not honored? Or about arrogant servers, wine over-pours, and chefs who refuse to cook your tuna to medium? First of all, believe it or not but the world was not invented in New York. I like Danny Meyer's food, but Ina has been cooking since he was in knee pants. Before that, there was Valois in Hyde Park (still there), Healthy Foods in Bridgeport (ditto) and scores of real delis all over the city, all serving familiar foods. Perhaps you find the phrase "comfort food" annoying, but I bet you love Science Experiment Food like foams and vapors (aka smoke and mirrors), which is worse than annoying, and not at all comforting (oh, but they're so "New York"). Maybe you know how to make perfectly fluffy buttermilk pancakes, crispy fried chicken, and cheese blintzes, but I rather doubt it. They don't have enough nutritional value for you. (Vegan? PETA? Tofuhead?) You sound like a food snob in a hair shirt. In your so-called comforting world, everyone would stay home and eat sprouts (or more likely, open a package of toaster waffles), and good people like Ina would go out of business.

[c2]

America's obsession with comfort food started long before 9/11. In the early 90's, Danny Meyer, owner of Union Square Cafe, one of the restos that really put comfort food on the map (or the menu as it were) was quoted as saying: "I can sell anything with a side of mashed potatoes." Besides, "comfort food" is an annoying phrase and i thought we were done with it a long time ago. The fact is that food is comforting, eating is comforting. I'm all for independently owned restaurants, and all the heartwarming, fuzzy anecdotes you give about how you treat your customers. But if what you, and anyone who uses that phrase is referring to is familiar foods, foods that hark of homemade, of things our mothers made (or that we wished she had) foods are comforting, then maybe we shouldn't be going to Ina's at all--but to our own kitchens, to prepare pancakes (or maybe something with a vague hint of nutritional value) for our own family and friends. Now that is a comforting thought.