Why I Cry of Happiness Over Delicious Food

Edith Salminen | edithsalminen@gmail.com

When I was asked whether I would like to be involved in The Euroculturer magazine as the Food Section Editor, I didn’t hesitate for a second in saying “yes”. I couldn’t believe that I, out of all people, had been contacted for this purpose. One of many reasons why I was so thrilled about this opportunity was because my dream, which I have been realizing through my culinary blog, Taste This!, for two years now and still going strong, is to one day be able to call myself a real food writer. Not only is being Food Editor for The Euroculturer going to take me one step closer to that dream, it will also make me work even harder so as to provide a multicultural European audience with information about food, food culture, gastronomy and beyond through my food philosophy and culinary lens.

As a former student of MA Euroculture at the University of Strasbourg, France, I feel that knowing Europe and, above all, knowing who you are and where you come from, is much about food. As a matter of fact, various scholars argue that food habits are the last to change when people move from country to country, from culture to culture. Discovering foreign countries through their distinctive food cultures and food landscape is among my favourite things to do. Eight months ago, when I started working on my Master’s thesis, I decided that I needed to unravel my own native country’s culinary culture and, thus, my own identity. After diving deep into Finnish food culture and taste, I am more convinced than ever that people should know what they eat and, hence, what they are made of.

My name is Edith Salminen, I am twenty-six years old, I come from Finland and, for as long as I can remember, I have had a huge appetite for delicious food. Because there are no limits to my love for food and because I want to learn all there is to learn about food, I applied and got accepted to the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Bra, Italy. My courses start in November 2012. I have a magnificent year ahead of me.

My love affair with flavours never ceases to amaze me. I dazzle myself sometimes when a tiny bite of a perfect dish excites my palate to the extent that tears of joy blind my vision for a brief instant. People often ask me how it is possible to be so emotional about food. I guess there is no direct explanation. I simply have to be very thankful to have been raised to always try and appreciate the food served to me.

The biggest credit, however, goes to my beloved older brother, a chef turned fire fighter. Ten years older than me, he was, and still is, my biggest hero and role model. My most vivid culinary memories go back to the mid 1990s; to the kitchen in my childhood home where my brother would test the recipes he had learned in cooking school on me. I have always loved to eat, so I had nothing against being his little guinea pig.

Somewhere between me being a little girl, starting to taste my way into the amazing world of culinary pleasures, and the present day, I have become a full-on and full-time foodie. Cooking, eating, writing, debating about food; you name it, I am doing it. I hope that I can inspire you, dear reader, to eat and cook more and better but, most of all, I hope to sensitize you to the enjoyment of tasting delicious food.

Amazing goodness is right there, even if you might not know it. Contrary to what some might think, good food and culinary know-how are not only for sophisticated elites. Good food ought to be an everyday demand for all. I sincerely hope that I will manage to make you think, talk and reflect over food, food culture, gastronomy and your culinary identities. Most of all, I hope I will make you very hungry. Taste this, Europeans! Read and enjoy friends!

http://tastethiseetu.blogspot.se/2012_08_01_archive.html

Edith Salminen, Food Editor

Edith was born in Finland and has been travelling around the world since a young age. Edith obtained her BA in French Philology from Helsinki University and studied Euroculture at the University of Strasbourg. After completing the Euroculture programme she did another Master’s programme, this time in European Studies at Lund University, Sweden. Currently, she is pursuing a career as a food writer and is enrolled at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Bra, Italy. She’s a passionate food lover who fully agrees with Virginia Woolf: “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well”.