food portfolio: the food of the gods: chocolate

Chocolate is something splendid, seductive, and overall pleasurable, but how does this confectionary concoction come to have such a loving significance in the American diet? There are two contexts by which chocolate and love can be understood: chocolate as a romantic gift and chocolate in everyday meals. Each of these paradigms exemplifies chocolate’s significance in our greater culinary context and furthermore they intertwine with the themes of food and aesthetics, as social connection and as memories.

Chocolate and love are almost synonymous with each other, but how was such a connection created? Chocolate as a symbol for love is a symbol by association and can be further understood in the greater historical context of chocolate in relation to social class. For example, in The Purity, Soul Food and Sunni Islam, Rouse and Hoskins explore the way in which food and history became intertwined with class in relation to “slave food” and the class of African Americans in modern times. In the same manner, the history of chocolate acted to identify a class of people, which further explains why chocolate is a luxury and thus given as a symbol of love. From the 1500s until the industrial revolution, chocolate was a rare pleasure because the beans had to be shipped in from Central America and local shops were rare, so it could only be afforded by the rich. It was so fashionable that The French Court referred to it as ‘the drink of the court’. Thus, for someone to be able to give a gift of chocolate identified you as part of the fashionable high society. If one was not high class, buying their loved one chocolate was a great gesture because it showed their devotion in working hard and saving the money. People buy their loved ones chocolate, in part, because it is a rare luxury due to its past historical association with high class.

In addition, Rouse and Hoskins brought up what professor Anagnost calls the “technologies of self” or the strict restriction of diet to attain one’s ideal self. Looking at a more contemporary trend of food consumption, we find ‘the diet’, which arose once food became plentiful. In the past, food was rare so being ‘fat’ was a sign of wealth, but now food is plentiful and being thin signifies high class. The switch of the signification of body fat influenced the meaning of chocolate as a romantic gift. Now chocolate is a rarity, not because of its price, but because of its high fat and sugar content. For a loved one to buy you chocolate is like a loving pardon to your diet. It’s like saying, ‘it’s ok, eat and be happy don’t worry about your body because I love you.” Also, the act of giving food has always been a way of social connection but to give chocolate in light of its symbolism strengthens such a bond.

The love and seduction of chocolate can further be explored in relation to its aesthetics. In The Breast of Aphrodite, synesthesia, the synthesis of two or more senses was brought up in its exploration of the most amazing peach. Likewise, while enjoying chocolate, taste and smell become intertwined with touch. The smooth, velvety texture in your mouth can translate to the caress of your skin. Looking at any chocolate commercial in which a women puts a piece in her mouth, closes her eyes and moans as a brown silk blanket wraps around her illustrates such a mixture of sensations. With repeated exposure, the smell and taste of chocolate becomes conditioned to produce this heavenly synesthesia, even without taste.

Chocolate not only signifies love as a gift for special occasions, but it also has a place in our everyday diet. It acts to conclude a aa meal, satisfy cravings, and be a reminder of a mother’s love in a child’s lunch box. For example, my mother always said, “A meal is not complete unless it ends in chocolate.” You will often find her rummaging through the pantry after a meal and if you ask her what she’s looking for, she’ll reply “oh just a little something sweet.’ Her sweet tooth sentiments are shared by many after they finish a meal. Chocolate is perfect for dessert because it satisfies the palette and hunger, but it was actually an unsweetened luxury originally. The Aztecs used the cacao beans to prepare a thick, cold, unsweetened drink called chocolatl, which was a liquid so prestigious that it was served in golden goblets that were thrown away after one use. It wasn’t until the 1500s that chocolate was made sweetened with sugar cane to fit the European palette.

In addition to concluding a meal, chocolate is desired anytime around the clock when a craving kicks in. Women especially understand the chocolate craving, due to the hormonal changes that occur during the menstrual cycle. Chocolate cravings are something unique. They are something that cannot be satisfied by anything else. Perhaps because chocolate is connected to love, people crave chocolate in an attempt to remember the love and social connectedness that their chocolate memories provided. However, analyzing chocolate reveals that some “seductive” chemicals, theodromine, act to release dopamine in our pleasure reward centers of our brain. So a chocolate craving is a mixture of its biological properties with the greater social significance.

The way in which chocolate also acts to communicate love in everyday meals can be seen in the lunch box. Almost every afternoon, at lunchtime, I would peer into my brown bag and be overjoyed that my mother put a piece of Dove chocolate in for dessert. I would save it until the end of the meal, like a little blue-foiled treasure. Such a memory reminded me of Anne Allison’s The Obento as State Ideological Apparatus, in which she explores the significance of the obento being a labor of love. The lunch box is a place in which a mother’s love is communicated and chocolate, being a symbol of love, is a perfect medium for such a communication.

Packing chocolate in your lunchbox is not only a reminder of your mother’s love; it might just save your life. During WWII, the US government recognized the value of this high energy bar so much so that they made it part of the soldier’s rations. A WWII veteran remember that when they liberated an internment camp they were horrified by the numerous starving people that they quickly gave everyone their chocolate rations, which is the greatest gift–giving of chocolate of all time.

Chocolate and love are a strong symbol in our culture, so much so that even a young child can recognize its significance, just as I did during lunchtime. The way in which it gains its significance is through its aesthetics, ability to satisfy, and the loving memories that it creates. Chocolate has been regarded as the food from the gods and rightfully so, I would think most would agree.