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That feeding and loving are inextricably bound together is not something that necessarily occurs to us as we order another portion of chips. However, the fact is that for most of us the first reciprocally loving relationship we establish emerges at our first meal; in the words of Freud (1900a), “Love and hunger… meet at a woman's breast” (p. 204). At this point we do not distinguish between love and food but simply bask in the joy of a gratification which leaves us with flushed cheeks as we drift into the warm embrace of sleep. Freud comments on the appearance of this baby as
reminiscent of the adult in a state of dreamy post-coital afterglow. He then goes on to make a linear connection between the baby's desire and gratification at the breast and adult sexuality and its expression in relation to the other. In this context the meaning of food and feeding can be understood as profoundly relational. This association in these early moments resides in the unconscious but nevertheless accompanies us throughout our lives.
If, for the infant, food and love are synonymous, for the adult other additional meanings prevail and in this sense, food becomes a moveable feast. The literary theorist and semiotician, Roland Barthes (1973) invites us to think about the function of food in a sociocultural context. Barthes famously takes the example of steak and chips which he identifies as a French national dish. Many people who sit down to tuck into a steak will not be conscious of doing anything other than enjoying the taste and texture of a favoured piece of beef. Barthes however has much more to say:
Steak is part of the same sanguine mythology as wine. It is the heart of meat, it is meat in its pure state; and whoever partakes of it assimilates a bull-like strength … Full-bloodedness is the raison d'être of steak. (1973, p. 69)
Barthes goes further:
… steak is in France a basic element, nationalized even more than socialized … Being part of the nation, it follows the index of pat