Essay title: The Significance of Food in like Water for Chocolate

pass down from generation to generation, in the food of our mothers, wereawaken the past and make the present more real. In the novel, LikeWater for Chocolate, food is about history – with handed down recipes, thechef can remember the past.When Tita cooked, she could remember Nacha andher mother.

Food is a major part of the story, and it is somewhat obvious asthe title itself is about food.The title (Like Water for Chocolate) itself, is a Mexicanexpression that refers to the making of hot chocolate: Water is used ratherthan milk, and must be brought to a vigorous boil. Therefore, an extremelyagitated person is said to be "like water for chocolate," so is a person ina state of sexual arousal.A recurring symbol in Like Water for Chocolate is food (the titleis a good tip-off of that).Hardly a scene goes by without someone eatingor preparing a meal and some of the more hilarious sequences surround apair of banquets.Each of these scenes has a meaning beyond the obvious,however.Food is equated with life and excitement, two subjects into whichthis story pursues.Sex, food and magic are mixed in sparingly in thestory, which revolves about Tita, third daughter of a Elena.The time is the early 1900's and the Mexican Revolution is raging,but in the kitchen of the family ranch, the emphasis is on cooking.Thefamily servant, Nacha, Tita's surrogate mother, teaches the her secrets andmakes her the next in an ancient line of great family chefs.From Nachaand her mother Tita learns the art of cooking.While all the food did notcenter around Tita, most of it was.Even from the time of birth of Titashe was a part of the cooking, for example when she was born and Nachascooped up the salt left behind from the broken water of Mama Elena afterthe birth of Tita.This salt was used by Nacha in the foods for months.So it seems Tita was destined from the beginning to learn the traits ofcooking since her birth, making her emotional connection to the food shecooked later in her life a new form of realism.By family tradition, Tita, as the youngest daughter, is fated tocare for her mother till her mother's.