When writing about food and wine, I constantly scour news sources everywhere, looking for topics to bring to the proverbial table. Every once in a while, I find a subject that really makes me think.
Climbing through www.good.is a few weeks ago, I stumbled on a photo essay based on refrigerators by Mark Menjivar. If your eyes are windows to the soul, then your refrigerator is a window to your life. At least that's what I concluded after looking at numerous refrigerators. Looking into someone's fridge is like looking into their medicine cabinets. Sometimes a fridge photo is more revealing.
I decided to put together my own group of photos by hitting up friends, coworkers, their friends and business associates, and had a great time with the research. Sometimes the photos weren't great and sometimes I got more than I asked for, but overall, I enjoyed getting a glimpse into other peoples lives. I actually learned a little something about the participants and found out more about those I consider friends.
Of course, those participants who work in the wine business, as I do, tend to have wine in their refrigerators, so that was mostly a running constant. Other than that, I didn't see any other trends, but maybe you will, as a viewer over the next few weeks. Please feel free to drop me a note and let me know what you think, or better yet, send me a photo of your fridge!
No really empty refrigerators turned up; we thought that some of our "workaholic" friends would have fridges devoid of food except for old take out boxes, that turned out to be not true with this group. Most of the participants seem to fall into the "foodie" classification, with fairly stocked fridges. One fridge had three or more dozen eggs, which confused me (what do you do with all those eggs and it's not even Easter???)
We saw some family pets included with the photos and before and after pics (party), which were interesting. All in all, it was an entertaining exercise. I'll include five or six each week, including some data on each participant, until we've run through them all. Please click on each photo to get a closer look at each refrigerator's contents.
Marketing Consultant ~ St. James, NY ~ 5 person household ~ note: I thought this was one of the nicer quality refrigerators in the group, I was jealous!
Operations Coordinator, wine e-tailer ~ San Ramon, CA ~ 1.5 - person household "but definitely feeding two on a weekly basis." note: this probably won the neatest fridge prize!
Account Manager, wine shipping company ~ Napa, CA ~ 4-person household ~ inside of fridge Part I
Account Manager, wine shipping company ~ Part II, outside of fridge ~ Quote: "I think the outside tells much more about you than the inside. Also, the inside on Fridays looks very different than on a Sunday (after I did the precooking for the coming week.) One more thing, I just passed my US citizenship last Wedns, there is more wine & beer in the fridge than normal. I promise..."
Chief Marketing Officer, wine e-tailer ~ NY, NY ~ 1-person household ~ quote: "From a bad late nite cell phone shot...recognize any wines? Sad but true, this is quite full for my fridge."
Order Processing Manager, wine shipping company ~ Vallejo, CA ~ 5-person household ~ note: almost nada in the vegetable bins, and what are they going to do with all those eggs?
OK, that's it for this week. I'll be featuring five or six more next week and the week after.
Stay tuned.
