By Martha Stewart
As a professional cook, cookbook author and teacher, I have a noticed a shift in the role that food plays in our lives and in our culture. Food has become more than one of life’s great pleasures. It has become a signifier of style, too. The notion that “you are what you eat” extends beyond the virtues of a nutritious, well-balanced diet. These days, it often seems that you are what you purchase in the supermarket or at the farmer’s market; your grocery list is a reflection of your values and your identity. Chefs are as celebrated as designers (move over, Armani, here’s Batali!) and eating and entertaining have become haute couture: Food is the new fashion.