When you read you begin with ABC, when you cook you begin with GREG AND ME.

I will start with my relationship that is most strongly governed by food, and (as Maria would recommend) I will “start at the very beginning”...

Greg and I went to the same secondary school. We 'moved in the same circles' but had never particularly been friends. So when we started sixth form, and found that we were sole companions in our free periods, it was a case of trying to establish common ground. We found that, like most human beings, one thing we had in common, was that we both ate. So, food eased us into companionship. We would wander down to the small row of shops and cafés near our school, and buy sandwiches and cakes. (Sometimes we even bought full roast dinners, that we would have to eat rather speedily to fit into the one hour we had.) Food gave us an activity for the hour and provided conversation, allowing us to become more than just acquaintances. It also filled the gaps in our conversation; if we had nothing to say, we could always absorb ourselves in the food (and we all know its rude to talk with your mouth full). More than just alleviating social awkwardness, the animalistic nature of eating established an immediate intimacy and familiarity between us. Our relationship developed through our senses as well as conversation. 

One day, we bought a tube of tomato purée and a loaf of bread, and sat in a nearby field eating them together. Greg soon decided that squirting the tomato purée on me, rather than the bread, was more appealing, resulting in my having to spend the rest of the day at sixth form with what looked like bloodstains all over my top. We had progressed from just a café companionship, to a friendship that was founded on food.