Eating Alone Sometimes, you just have to do it

banner image table set for one

person listening to table for one audio in marqueeAt the beginning of April, during the Hearsay International Audio Arts Festival, a little marquee in the main square of Kilfinane, a small mountain village, saw a steady stream of visitors enter. They would put on a pair of headphones, listen for a few minutes, and come out beaming a big smile. They had just heard one of the stories in a specially curated installation called Table for One.

After listening to one of the stories myself, I was inspired to reflect on my own thoughts about eating alone, and that prompted me to buttonhole people as they came out of the marquee.

This is the result.

Notes

  1. Huge thanks to Lucy Dearlove for creating the Table for One stories. You can easily hear the four of them on Audioboom, and they were also part of her regular food podcast, Lecker.
  2. In addition to Lucy Dearlove, the voices included those of Marije Schuurman Hess, Aislinn Stembridge, Mair Bosworth, Tom Fisher, Mike Williams and Diarmuid O’Leary. Many of them make wonderful audio themselves. Thanks to them all.
  3. I really mean it about wanting to hear your thoughts on eating alone. WikiHow offers outline instructions for iPhone, Android and Windows phones, and there are lots of other tutorials around.

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41 Comments

  1. teri

    Hello Jeremy,
    I very much enjoyed the Podcast on eating alone. Both the topic and the format.
    In thinking about your question I would give a perspective from a family view where some children still live in the home ( adult children) . Your podcast made me think about the all of the meals in the day ,how we approach them and our preferences towards food. here’s a little perspective from my day:

    1. Breakfast is my alone meal. Everyone has left the house and I prepare a nice breakfast and good beverage. I sit at the dining room table taking my time , enjoying the quiet, savoring the food and good coffee. I like to look out the window and watch the day unfold and organize my day . Its my favorite meal time.

    2. lunch is spent alone as well, and this is the worst habit I have when it comes to eating. I spend it while working in front of my computer , even if I go to the commissary I will take it to go back to my office and keep plugging away at work while noshing on some sort of just an OK meal . I would say being at work during the day has brought on some pretty bad eating habits. If there is a meeting the company inevitably calls it over lunch time and provides a Box lunch or pizza while you are discussing major issues. This is not eating alone but has the same feel. is the least important meal to me.

    3. I have always viewed dinner as the time to eat together with someone, mainly family a planned meals we mutually love to eat with whom ever is home. We have some routines like meatless monday, and taco tuesday and we tend to sit together at the table. Sometimes we talk over things going on. We always have a full meal and desert.

    I cherish the alone meal, Breakfast, it gives me a chance to plan my day , relax, enjoy the moment, no stress. Lunch is just a duty a response to the urge to eat. Dinner has always been focused on family and pleasing each other . Part of that comes from family heritage of growing up in an Italian/ Czechoslovakian home. evening meals are very important to Europeans.

    Thank you this was a very fun topic and really got me thinking about the whole concept of eating alone. Oh and I am going to put flowers on my breakfast table.
    Warmest regards
    Teri Culletto

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