The history and evolution of Westen food and our opinion about it.

We would like to talk about the history of our way of consuming meals/ food. Because there has been a lot of changes. Nowadays it's an important topic in our society.

 

Western cuisine usually follows a meal pattern of starter or soup, main course and dessert.

The first two courses are usually salty, the last one is sweet. The main suppliers of carbs are grains, in the form of bread, rice and various potato preparations.

The kitchen is strongly influenced by the various Christian religions and meat is usually seen as the most important component of a meal.

History

Historically, European cuisine has been developed in the European royal and noble courts. European nobility was usually arms-bearing and lived in separate manors in the countryside. The knife was the primary eating implement (cutlery), and eating steaks and other foods that require cutting followed. The ruling class were the court officials, who had their food cut ready to eat in the kitchen, to be eaten with chopsticks. The knife was supplanted by the spoon for soups, while the fork was introduced later in the early modern period, ca. 16th century. Today, eating dinner by hand (without cutlery) is no longer considered acceptable.

 

Evolution/ Opinion

The classic meal has been finished.

How often do you still have a classic meal with potatoes, meat and vegetables on your table? Less and less, is the answer. The traditional meal is declining, we want to spend less and less time in the kitchen and more at the table. So we look for ways to cook quickly and easily.

One is the 'almost ready to eat' trend. We consciously look for products to which we only have to add one ingredient. That way, you will have a meal ready quickly, and you will still feel that you have cooked yourself. 

That explains the great success of soup. Soup fits perfectly in that picture. You buy pre-cut vegetables, stock cubes, pre-prepared balls, and you have fresh soup.  Also popular, especially with the younger generation, are wok and single-pan dishes.

Ethical considerations and environmental awareness are prompting more and more Belgians to eat less or no meat. Although vegetarians remain in the minority: in Flanders, for example, there are more people who eat halal than vegetarian.

 

We are obsessed with healthy food.

We already mentioned it: due to our health concerns, bread consumption is declining. However, bread is just one of the victims of our food paranoia. Although we have never eaten as healthy as today, there has never been so much fear. In the days of my grandparents no one knew what was in his diet and there were no expiration dates. Today there is mainly fear of carbohydrates and sugars, partly due to the many books on the subject.  Many people no longer know what is healthy, and that is a problem. If you read the news, you are no longer allowed to eat fats today, and you cannot eat any carbs tomorrow. People just don't know anymore.

 

Our food is becoming increasingly exotic.

The fact is that we eat more and more exotic food. The more we travel, the more we bring. Italian food was already exotic in the 60s, but in the meantime we are more and more used to the Chinese cuisine and sushi. And that makes us experiment: We will make our own combinations of all the ingredients that we like from all over the world.

 

We can conclude that our way of preparing meals has been changed though the years. The classical pattern of meat, potatoes, and vegetables on our plate. We like our food to be healthier, but it can't be to expensive or take to much of our time. We look for food that is out of our comfort zone, like more exotic products.