The point of this blog

Eating good food by myself just isn’t worth it.

If my stomach rumbles and I happen to be alone, then I’ll likely take the opportunity to consume some of that cardboard-like cereal which comprises 90 percent of my recommended daily allowance of fiber and just let the wind blow as it wills.  But if I’m hungry, and I really want to eat for pleasure, then I fundamentally believe that no meal should start until the chairs around the table are as full as the plates on top of it. 

I don’t typically dine with celebrity chefs, prominent thinkers of food thought, or marketeers who drive what is hot and what is not in the culinary world. I make my kids eat dinner with their parents every school night. My husband and I try a new restaurant Fridays at noon. Food is paramount at any extended family gathering. And Saturday night dinner parties and long, Sunday lunches in the garden with friends are the mainstays of my social calendar.

I do eat with pretty normal, interesting people who love food of all shapes and sizes. And for large spans of these dinner hours, conversation centers on what’s on the table — where it came from, who influenced it, how it was prepared and whether it compares to past successes and failures.

This running blog will attempt to convey some of the more interesting points made about food by the people I’ve met while eating it.