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Comfort food. It’s a term we all know and love, right? Over the years I’ve noticed that everybody I speak to has a different idea of what comfort food really means. For example, I bet as soon as you read the term “comfort food” you pictured a specific meal in your head. I think of stuffed shells. My boyfriend Matt thinks of corn bread. I know some people who think of candy and ice cream. The point is, comfort food means different things to different people, but did you ever stop and wonder why?

Do you know where the term came from? In the 1960’s, the term “comfort food” was used in an article about obesity in the Palm Beach Post. The article says:

“Adults, when under severe emotional stress, turn to what could be called ‘comfort food’—food associated with the security of childhood, like mother’s poached egg or famous chicken soup.”

Guess what the article headline was?

“Sad Child May Overeat.”

It’s not the most glamorous history but it makes sense. Many of us seek our own version of comfort food in times of need. Stuffed shells serve as a comfort meal to me because that was my favorite meal growing up. The smell of my mom’s sauce, the gooiness of the melted mozzarella on top, and the creamy ricotta mixture in the middle … too good. I used to HOUSE plate after plate of that pasta. If I’m having a tough week or I’m feeling overly exhausted and worn down, I crave it. And that really says something because these days, I’m actually not really a fan of pasta (I know, it’s practically a sin). But I get it. When I am overwhelmed, my mind wants to take me back to a place and time where I was carefree so I imagine myself sitting at the kitchen table in my parents’ house in New York, shoving forkful after forkful of stuffed shells into my mouth. Comfort food. Shira Gabriel, an associate professor of psychology at SUNY Buffalo teamed up with colleagues from both SUNY Buffalo and the University of the South and published a study in Appetite (a journal) to shed some light on the idea of comfort food and how/if it really works to provide comfort.

As it turns out, we are wrong in assuming that the comfort in our comfort food comes from the food itself. There is a social aspect that plays a larger role. I don’t want to get too sciencey on you (sure, sciencey is totally a word), but you can check out the full study here if you’d like but basically, the findings prove that the power in comfort food stems from the memories that it invokes. Okay, we kind of figured that, but it runs a little deeper than that.

People with positive family memories are more likely to reach for something edible that reminds them of a certain time in their life over people with negative family memories. So, if every time you were sick as a child, your mother brought you a bowl of hot chicken noodle soup, you associate chicken noodle soup with feelings of being cared for which will in turn, enhance the flavor in your mind. Make sense?

It’s interesting that we turn to food and drink for so many things in life. We celebrate with sparking wine or cocktail toasts and we mourn and seek comfort in foods that bring back happier times. Gone (far gone) are the days when food and water were just necessities to life. Cuisine is so much more than that now. How lucky are we as a society to be in such a situation? If food had emotion, I’d go hug a jar of sauce right now.

What is your go-to comfort food?

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Rebecca McKinney

I was born a foodie. My dad is a chef, baker, and restaurant owner and my mom might as well be because she owns whatever kitchen she walks into. I grew up working in my family’s restaurant and bakery in Pawling, New York – McKinney and Doyle. I started behind the bakery counter at 12 years old after begging my parents to let me start working. At 16 I worked as a hostess. By 18 I was serving tables and training behind the bar where I then worked every other weekend throughout my college career. Even now, when I am visiting my family in New York, I help out where I’m needed. To make a long story short, the food and restaurant industry has been my life for as long as I can remember.

I wanted to create this blog for a few reasons. First and foremost, to share tips, tricks, and knowledge about the food and beverage industry in general but also to help people see a different side of the restaurant world. Every restaurant has a totally unique culture and world within it. I want to help open people’s eyes to more than how fast the service is or how easy or hard it is to secure a reservation.

So, thanks for stopping by! I welcome your ideas, input, and feedback and hope you enjoy!

Eat well & travel often,

Becky McKinney

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