A good friend, who ran the local food bank for years, used to describe our relationship to food by asking three simple questions. Is there enough? Does it taste good? How does it look or how is it presented? He argued that these three concerns and their relative importance revealed your level of affluence. Regardless of our perspective, most people would agree that having a meal is more than simply nourishing the body. Some consider eating a spiritual act and give thanks before each meal — noting that the items we ingest have given their lives to perpetuate ours. They also acknowledge the labor and laborers responsible for preparing the meal. Some believe a meal should be a communal event, and as often as possible be taken with others. When we eat out, the chef or restaurant owner is responsible for developing an environment or experience around the meals they serve. The range of that experience can span the simple and pragmatic diner to the sophisticated and luxurious Michelin 3-star restaurant. The experience may also vary based on the table you are given and your server.
When we take our food to go or have it delivered, we, by default, curate our own experience around that particular meal. We may get take-out at a drive-thru and consume it in our car as we drive down the road. We may have the food delivered to our home and eat it on the couch with a bottle of wine while watching a movie. I prefer to eat take-out at a park or next to a lake. Regardless of the food’s quality, eating in a beautiful natural environment always seems to elevate the experience. Eating take-out rather than dining-in became a necessity for many during the pandemic. Apart from driving me to hone my cooking skills, the pandemic made me more appreciative of how eating take-out forced me to consider the environments and experiences I developed around eating my meals. Take-out liberates one from a specific location or given set of circumstances surrounding a particular meal. It requires a bit more work, but take-out gives you agency to transform a less than satisfying dining experience into a more dignified one — it provides you more control.