I just read this great article by Joan Ryan on sfgate.com
It’s about a documentary filmmaker, Mickey Freeman, who relates the decline of the family meal as one of the causes of childhood obesity. The article also cites excerpts from Barbara Carlson, who co-authored “Putting Family First: Successful Strategies for Reclaiming Family Life in a Hurry-Up World.’’
The article brought back fond memories of our family table. We always had dinner together. My mom and sometimes my grandmother would help to make sure dinner was on the table the moment my dad got home. My job would be to set the table – setting out the rice bowls, soup bowls, Chinese soup spoons and making sure the chopsticks were placed just so to make sure they would not fall off the table – I was warned so many times a fallen chopstick was a calamity that would bringing on bad luck that I’m careful to this day. We (my parents, grandmother, two brothers and sister) would all sit around the table talking about our day – school, work, relatives, stories of my parents childhoods, local and world events and later as we neared the end of high school – debates on if, and then quickly, where we would go to college. And of course, under the watchful eye of the adults it was a surety that we ate a bit of everything thus ensuring we had a good nutritious meal.
The family table was one of the reason’s I started Tao de Kitchen – a personal chef service I firmly believe that the family table is deeply missed in our society today and it is such a great feeling to know I can help a few families build some fond memories of their own.
