This isn't just about preserving recipes. It's about honoring the hands that made them, the tables they graced, and the love they represented.
Food, Memory and Meaning
A new transformative 6-week live virtual class that guides you through 5 food-based themes with the option of creating the foundation for your own legacy recipe book —a beautiful integration of your food-related life stories and treasured family recipes.
Using the proven Birren Guided Autobiography method, you'll explore your life through the lens of food and sensory memory, documenting not just what was eaten, but who cooked it, when it appeared, what it meant, and why it matters. Each week focuses on a different life theme—from childhood kitchens to the seasons of life transitions, culminating in the legacy you want to leave.
A new transformative 6-week live virtual class that guides you through 5 food-based themes with the option of creating the foundation for your own legacy recipe book —a beautiful integration of your food-related life stories and treasured family recipes.
Using the proven Birren Guided Autobiography method, you'll explore your life through the lens of food and sensory memory, documenting not just what was eaten, but who cooked it, when it appeared, what it meant, and why it matters. Each week focuses on a different life theme—from childhood kitchens to the seasons of life transitions, culminating in the legacy you want to leave.
This Class Is Perfect For You If:
- You have family recipes scattered on index cards, in margins, or only in your head
- You keep meaning to "write down" recipes but haven't started
- You want to honor a parent, grandparent, or loved one who fed you
- You're feeling the urgency to preserve family history before it's lost
- You love food memoirs and want to write your own
- You're interested in guided autobiography or life review work
- You want to create a meaningful gift for children or grandchildren
- You're exploring cultural identity through food traditions
- You crave community with others doing similar preservation work
- Heritage preservers documenting family recipes
- Midlife memory-keepers feeling urgency to preserve
- Food memoir enthusiasts who want structure for their writing
- Recent retirees seeking meaningful creative projects
- Cultural identity explorers preserving immigrant food traditions
- Empty nesters with time for reflection and creation
- Anyone who's lost the family cook and wants to honor them
Over six weeks, you'll write, remember, maybe even test recipes if you so desire, and share in a small, supportive group.
You'll learn sensory memory techniques, possibly conduct family interviews for content, and gather the materials for a legacy recipe book your family will treasure for generations.
You'll learn sensory memory techniques, possibly conduct family interviews for content, and gather the materials for a legacy recipe book your family will treasure for generations.
Hello! I'm Angie, Your Facilitator For This Class
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Hello! I'm Angie, Your Facilitator For This Class As a Birren Center trained Guided Autobiography Facilitator, when I first heard about food-based autobiographical writing, I was intrigued. I couldn't think of a single food-related story that I could possibly write about, but decided to give it the "Old College try" and see what might come of it. I couldn't be more glad that I did because I was surprised by all the stories that flowed out of me from reading the themed prompting questions and hearing other's stories! Sometimes food was the main character and other times it played only a minor supporting role but it was an interesting new way to remember my past through a different lens. It didn't take long for my Certified Legacy Specialist brain to kick in and I just had to start integrating this into a legacy project of some kind. A Legacy Recipe Story Book! Yes, that's just what this class needed. So for those that want to take it one step farther, I included what equates to another class within this one with all of the steps to create the foundation for your own Legacy Recipe Story Book / Magazine. I hope you'll join me for a 6 week adventure of Food, Memory and Meaning |
WORKSHOP OUTLINE
Week One: Introduction
This lesson will include an intro to sensory writing, examples and getting to know the group through writing exercises.
Week Two: The Flavor of Home - Belonging and Rootedness
What tastes like "home" to you? This theme explores the deep connection between food and our sense of belonging, examining how certain flavors, dishes, and eating rituals anchor us to place, culture, and identity.
Week Three: Breaking Bread Together Food and Human Connection
Food is fundamentally social. This theme examines the relational aspects of eating: the meals shared, the tables gathered around, the conversations over coffee, potlucks and dinner parties, the restaurant dates and family celebrations.
Week Four: Seasons of the Appetite - Food Across the Life Cycle
Our relationship with food changes as we age. This theme traces the evolution of appetite, taste, and eating practices across the lifespan, from the first foods of infancy through childhood pickiness, teenage appetites, young adult experimentation, midlife changes, and elder eating.
Week Five: Desire, Deprivation, and Abundance
Food carries moral weight in our culture. This theme explores the emotional and psychological territory of desire, denial, guilt, pleasure, and abundance around eating.
Week Six: The Teacher in the Kitchen - Learning, Mastery, and Food Knowledge
Behind every good cook lies a story of learning. This theme explores food as a site of education, skill development, failure, and mastery.
BONUSES
*Seven Phases of preparations for creating your own Legacy Recipe Book
*Sensory Writing Tips
*Exercises and Prompts to Help With Memory Recollection
*Food Memory Writing Craft Tips
*Family Interviewing Guide
*Recipe Contribution Guide
This lesson will include an intro to sensory writing, examples and getting to know the group through writing exercises.
Week Two: The Flavor of Home - Belonging and Rootedness
What tastes like "home" to you? This theme explores the deep connection between food and our sense of belonging, examining how certain flavors, dishes, and eating rituals anchor us to place, culture, and identity.
Week Three: Breaking Bread Together Food and Human Connection
Food is fundamentally social. This theme examines the relational aspects of eating: the meals shared, the tables gathered around, the conversations over coffee, potlucks and dinner parties, the restaurant dates and family celebrations.
Week Four: Seasons of the Appetite - Food Across the Life Cycle
Our relationship with food changes as we age. This theme traces the evolution of appetite, taste, and eating practices across the lifespan, from the first foods of infancy through childhood pickiness, teenage appetites, young adult experimentation, midlife changes, and elder eating.
Week Five: Desire, Deprivation, and Abundance
Food carries moral weight in our culture. This theme explores the emotional and psychological territory of desire, denial, guilt, pleasure, and abundance around eating.
Week Six: The Teacher in the Kitchen - Learning, Mastery, and Food Knowledge
Behind every good cook lies a story of learning. This theme explores food as a site of education, skill development, failure, and mastery.
BONUSES
*Seven Phases of preparations for creating your own Legacy Recipe Book
*Sensory Writing Tips
*Exercises and Prompts to Help With Memory Recollection
*Food Memory Writing Craft Tips
*Family Interviewing Guide
*Recipe Contribution Guide
