Published: July 01, 2008 12:31 am      

For whom the dinner bell tolls

May we take your order?

Every human being has the same basic needs. We just tend to get a little more excited about food than, say, breathing.

What once was a means of survival has become, simultaneously, pleasure, recreation and art. We use food to gauge our location (grits vs. boeuf bourguignon) and era (unless you still consider meatloaf a novelty). Like a gourmet meal, it can be an experience; like macaroni and cheese, it can be a comfort. We love to eat. In fact, some say that’s our problem.

As Americans, we inhabit a very unique position. As much as we’ve set precedents and made paths, it’s easy to argue that our country lacks a national cuisine. Go ahead and list the foods you think are ours — and then knock pizza, hot dogs and pancakes off the menu. If America is a melting pot, then we eat whatever comes out of the melting oven, microwave and blender.

That’s easy to see in Fairmont alone. Aside from the preponderance of fast-food chains, the city boasts Italian, Chinese and Mexican restaurants, among others. And our Italian heritage comes out in our food preferences — nearly every person asked to name a favorite cuisine chose the land of spaghetti and tiramisu.

Of course, ancestry doesn’t have the final say. Whether or not you yourself are Italian has less to do with your choice than whether you have a chance to eat lasagna regularly. (If you don’t, my condolences.)

“Italian, Chinese and Mexican are all great, but nothing can compare to homemade,” Kathryn Shields says. “My favorite type of food is anything my mom makes!”

That’s especially true for those of us who don’t like to eat out regularly; why settle for homestyle? Even as McDonald’s and Co. continue to market convenience at low prices, the cookbook industry is going strong — and our parents are not the only ones buying.

“I learned to watch the Food Network at an early age because my sister Jenny was always watching it. Cooking is an extremely useful skill to have,” Jonathan Turner says.

At the age where being left to fend for dinner isn’t out of the question, while college cafeterias aren’t yet within reach, it’s best for us to be able to make something besides toast and Easy Mac ... though as a maker of, well, toast and Easy Mac, I’m not knocking either.

Or, as Nick Oliveto tells us, “Boil water and stick something in it until chewable, often before then.”

Judging by the popularity of Top Chef, Iron Chef and the multitudes of (naturally) chefs on the Food Network, we don’t cook just because we have to; we do so for enjoyment, too.

These shows use the words “innovation” and “plating” as often as your parents remind you to set the table, and employ pretty scary ingredients. It’s indicative of the culture shift in eating. Consuming food has become — shock of shocks — something social.

That makes the question of what to fix for dinner pretty loaded. Do you want to prepare something beautiful (and calorie-loaded) or healthy (and consequently gross)? Or would you rather deep-fry something and call it a day? In the great debate of taste vs. nutrition, taste at first seemed to be the clear (and delicious) winner.

Then something interesting happened.

More and more people began responding to the question with a crazy idea.

“The cool thing about taste and nutrition is that they go hand in hand,” Corey Kovach says.

Nickie Ambrozak agrees. “Does something nutritious have to taste awful? There is an accumulating growth in ‘health food’ that tastes good.”

We’re in the midst of what you might call a low-cal, high-health renaissance, with everything from popcorn to ice cream to sausage getting a makeover. Lest I hear you protest that these foods are more expensive, though your protestations might be right, remember that the Mom trifecta (fruit, vegetables and water) definitely carries some weight.

Given the options of corn on the cob, fruit salad and some H20 (shaken, not stirred), the question becomes almost moot. Eating doesn’t have to involve sacrifices — good news for those working up an appetite reading this article.

Whether you order in or cook out, your food choices are as personal as your favorite band or kicky plaid shorts. There’s a whole world of amazing flavor waiting to be experienced, one bite at a time.

In the words of the famed gastronome Brillat-Savarin: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”