The Meaning of Food is a three-part limited documentary series that explores our relationships to food and reveals the connection food has to our identity: personal, cultural, and familial. Everything about eating—including what we consume, how we acquire it, who prepares it, who’s at the table, and who eats first—is a form of communication that is rich with meaning. Our attitudes, practices, and rituals surrounding food are a window into our most basic beliefs about our world and ourselves.
Program overviews and credits:
The series was made possible by grants from Knorr, Humanities Washington, Pacific Islanders in Communication and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
About the Host
Marcus Samuelsson is the executive chef of the restaurants Aquavit and Riingo in New York City. “Food is important to me because feeding people is my job,” Samuelsson says. “And like everybody I know, I love to eat. But food is much more than that. It’s powerfully symbolic... and really complex. To cook something, to serve it, to share it with others—each is far more meaningful than just a job, a pleasure, or even a necessity.”
About the Producer
Sue McLaughlin is President of Pie in the Sky Productions, a documentary production company established to bring together a loose affiliation of West Coast and Pacific Island filmmakers. Sue is a Seattle-based documentary filmmaker whose other credits include producing the award-winning four-part PBS series Death: The Trip of a Lifetime, an examination of different cultures’ attitudes towards death; producing for Fire on the Rim, a PBS series about Pacific Rim cultures; serving as production consultant on PBS’s Vaudeville; and producing, directing, writing and editing numerous documentaries and pieces for KCTS (Seattle’s PBS affiliate) and for clients such as the National Institutes of Health, Scholastic Publishing and Seattle’s Wing Luke Asian Museum.
Online Press Kit
Press and print resources produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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Online Story Credits
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Chop Suey:
Rick Wong
Bring in the New:
Andrea Alban Gosline
Slow Food:
Dave Stewart
Kurt Michael Friese
Obento:
Yayoi Brown
Comfort Food:
Tom Douglas
Wylie Dufresne
Alice Waters
Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Marcus Samuelsson
Paula Wolfert
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Family Business:
The Chou family
Edible Schoolyard:
Esther Cook
Kelsey Siegel
Near Eats:
Tod Murphy
Jeff Harvey
Keeping Kosher:
Rabbi Aharon Brun-Kestler
Ross Kling
Picky Pooches:
Brian Connolly, Castor & Pollux
Claudia's Canine Cuisine
Breaking Bread:
Marjorie Halford
Brian Rohter
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Web Credits
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Marion Rice, Ed.D. | Executive Producer
Margot Chase | Editor
Hot Pepper Studios
Brad M. Smith | Executive Producer
Susan Prior | Producer
Marina Gordon | Writer
Eli Castillo | Designer
Eben Dickinson | Illustrator
Twayn Williams | Programmer
» www.hotpepper.com
The Meaning of Food Web site is a production of Oregon Public Broadcasting in conjunction with Pie in the Sky Productions. Oregon Public Broadcasting has produced major Web sites for PBS.org, as well as enhanced-TV prototypes, books, and extensive promotion and education/outreach campaigns for PBS primetime programs.
