Something I have recently noticed is how herbs, spices and cooking are portrayed in movies. Hollywood shows us the amazing healing powers of exotic herbs, herbal home remedies, and the use of spices and food to represent feelings and situations.
In 2015, we will be exploring some of the many spices and herbs we see in the movies in a new blog series called The Spices of Hollywood.
One of my favorite books is a best-selling novel by Laura Esquivel, Like Water For Chocolate. In 1992, this book was made into an extremely popular movie. The movie portrays many instances of the uses of spices for cooking traditional Mexican recipes.
The story is about a young girl named Tita who longs her entire life to marry her lover, Pedro. She is not allowed to marry him because of a family tradition requiring the youngest daughter to never marry, but instead, remain single at home to take care of her mother until the day she dies. Tita’s older sister is allowed to marry Pedro, causing her much pain and grief. Tita is not allowed to complain or show sorrow and is only able to express herself when she cooks.
Tita’s love of the kitchen and her deep connection with food is a major theme throughout the story. Tita’s cooking has a profound outcome on the other characters in the movie as she begins to understand that cooking is a reflection of her feelings, and she has the power to affect the people who consume her meals. During all of the cooking in this story, the ingredients and spices that Titas uses, along with her emotional state, cause those who eat the meals to experience all sort of emotions such as lust, grief or nausea, depending on her mood as she prepared the meal.
One example of this is when Tita prepares the wedding cake for her sister and lover Pedro. She cries as she prepares the cake and it becomes saturated with her tears. This food becomes so infused with her longing and sadness, that when consumed by the wedding guests, they become sick and sad with feelings of mourning for their own lost loves.
One of the profound ideas Like Water for Chocolate expresses is that a dish prepared by two different people doesn’t necessarily taste the same. The movie shows us that recipes also consist of “hidden ingredients.” These ingredients could consist of things like love, patience, and sorrow. In a way, it shows us how cooking can be a way to express freely what we might not be able to say aloud.
So the next time you are cooking, take some time to smell and taste the delicate mixture of spices. It might help you work through something you’re dealing with.
