The first time I eat an olive.

I have a powerful memory of the first time I eat an olive. I was a page boy at my cousins wedding and the wedding reception was at the Bull Hotel in Peterborough. The wedding its self was a very splendid occasion at the time and the food was laid out on a table for all to eat. And in a bowl on the table were a load of green olives with red peppers threw them. I had never seen a buffet like that before as it had salmon, not out of a tin, and little black fish eggs as well, in a boiled egg white. Strange and wonderful things. I remember taking some of the olives and being told that I would not like them. It was the general consensus that I would waste them if I took too many. So I took just one. I ate it and I liked it. Sharp but flavourful, a new experience that I liked. So I went back for more. It was that day I had my first caviar, smoked salmon, real pate not meat spread and that olive. The olive I always remember as it was the first that lead to me trying all the other things.

So now when I have a green olive that has been pickle in brine, normally when I am on holiday in a bar looking over the sea. A part of me is transported back to that day as a page boy in the posh hotel.

And that is the great thing about food. Food connects us with memoires as it is such a power full thing in out lives. That and you can react with it on so many levels. Taste, touch and smell to start to name but a few and then how it makes you feel. If you are hungry the feeling of having something to eat is very satisfying.

Along with this we build up a bank of memories of food and eating that we alone carry. Like every thing in life we all perceive every thing in our own way. I may eat a jacket potato and have a good memory about it and find pleasure in it. Another person will have that same thing and hate it. Every thing about it is subjective and whole down to the individual how they react to it.

Then we have the food groups that give us a chemical reaction in our selves. The main one that spring to mind is chocolate.

I do not know the science behind it, or how you use the smell of fresh baked bread and fresh ground coffee to sell things in shops.

All I know is that it can be a very powerful thing. So now I always ask my daughter to try just a little. If they do not like it then no big deal, and if they do great. I am not saying that it is a grate policy but at the moment they will try almost every thing. Neither of them like the same and some times it is hard to pleas them both. But for young people who like , game , rare beef, fresh squid and octopus I would say we are on the right track so far.