Writing | Storytelling

Let’s Share a Meal: The Importance Food in Storytelling

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” — James Beard

Sharing a meal with the Gertners in Pentiment. (Screenshot by me.)

Food is a crucial part of daily life for every person — and it’s a vital part of our cultural experience. What kinds of food we consume, how we consume them, and with whom says a lot about us as people and the community in which we live.

In storytelling, food can play an equally important role, revealing information about the characters and their world. Does the character return alone home to an empty fridge and toss cup of noodles in the microwave? Or do they sit down to a large meal with their family every evening? The types of food and how the characters interact with each other — isolated or austere and conversationally cold or warm and chaotic — reveals a lot about their situation, their relationships with one another, and their world.

Beth Cato, author of the Clockwork Dagger series, highlights the importance of Turkish delights, the sugary confection that plays a key role in corrupting Edmund in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as an iconic example of food in fantasy fiction. In her essay she discuses the way in which the portrayal of food not only helps to make the world feel more rich and alive, but also…