The Significance of Food in like Water for Chocolate

Food equals memory and memory equals immortality. In the recipes we

pass down from generation to generation, in the food of our mothers, we

reawaken the past and make the present more real. In the novel, Like

Water for Chocolate, food is about history - with handed down recipes, the

chef can remember the past. When Tita cooked, she could remember Nacha and

her mother. Food is a major part of the story, and it is somewhat obvious as

the title itself is about food.

The title (Like Water for Chocolate) itself, is a Mexican

expression that refers to the making of hot chocolate: Water is used rather

than milk, and must be brought to a vigorous boil. Therefore, an extremely

agitated person is said to be "like water for chocolate," so is a person in

a state of sexual arousal.

A recurring symbol in Like Water for Chocolate is food (the title

is a good tip-off of that). Hardly a scene goes by without someone eating

or preparing a meal and some of the more hilarious sequences surround a

pair of banquets. Each of these scenes has a meaning beyond the obvious,

however. Food is equated with life and excitement, two subjects into which

this story pursues. Sex, food and magic are mixed in sparingly in the

story, 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. The

family servant, Nacha, Tita's surrogate mother, teaches the her secrets and

makes her the next in an ancient line of great family chefs. From Nacha

and her mother Tita learns the art of cooking. While all the food did not

center around Tita, most of it was. Even from the time of birth of Tita

she was a part of the cooking, for example when she was born and Nacha

scooped up the salt left behind from the broken water of Mama Elena after

the 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 of

cooking since her birth, making her emotional connection to the food she

cooked later in her life a new form of realism.

By family tradition, Tita, as the youngest daughter, is fated to

care for her mother till her mother's