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Creating Food

Read this interesting story about roadkill cook-offs. It is like a cooking competition like any other but has a specificity which makes it unlike others, maybe puts it in a league of its own

The Roadkill Cook-Off is Marlinton’s Coachella. Its Mardi Gras or Super Bowl. And Marlinton tries to have its snake and eat it, too: by leaning in to West Virginia’s stereotypes while trying to show there’s something more to the state than hillbilly caricature.

I watched The Menu sometime ago and reading this brought that movie to mind and what it made to caricaturize. The rat dropping themed ratatouille at the Roadkill Cook-off is at the opposite end of the kind of food featured in The Menu. 

There is a level of absurdity in both but ways that maybe the path to reconciliation in these difficult and divisive times. Maybe the two could look at the zaniness of what are each doing and find humor in the other's effort to be special. It may turn out things are not as far apart and impossible to bridge as it would seem at first.

Where the two worlds meet is the amateur cook with a flair for adventure and whimsy. I would call myself one of those. I like making dishes that have an element of surprise, take a staple and give it a little shake-up so it brings a smile on the face of the person tasting it. Small but valuable joys of cooking that always makes it so worthwhile for me.

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