Woman Who Froze The Last Meal Her Mom Ever Cooked Finally Gets To Eat It 5 Years After Her Passing
YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV | Shutterstock Mizuki Takaraya lost her mother suddenly, and their grief was immense. In the aftermath of an empty home, Takaraya and her father were too devastated to eat the food the family's beloved matriarch had cooked the morning before she passed, but they also couldn't imagine throwing it away. Instead, they preserved the dish in the freezer, sitting as a makeshift memorial for the love and care she had given them. Five years later, Takaraya got to experience that meal again.
Grief isn't as definitive as an hourglass. Coming in with a low tide and returning in waves of remembrance, loss digs deep. A person lost can't come back, but they leave behind possessions we can attempt to salvage and tuck away, prolonging their past in our living present, in a closed cabinet ... or a freezer?
A woman froze the last meal her mom ever cooked before passing, and safely ate it 5 years later.
Food transcends cultures as a representation of everything from celebrations to a mother's love. There's nothing quite as comforting as mom's home cooking, and that was certainly the case for Takaraya and her dad.
Takaraya's mom passed away suddenly and unexpectedly due to a brain hemorrhage. It just so happened that right before she passed, she had cooked a favorite family dish, pork stew. Heartbroken, Takaraya's dad put the dish in the freezer, where it sat for 5 years before they were ready to revisit the flavors and memories it would undoubtedly evoke.
Takaraya reached out to a Japanese variety show, “Detective Knight Scoop,” in the hopes they could help her safely reheat the meal so it would not lose its flavor, but also not make her or her dad sick. The show contacted Chef Hayashi, who emotionally made their dream come true.
Father and daughter were overcome with emotion after tasting mom's last cooked meal.
Before breaking down in happy tears, both father and daughter exclaimed, "It's delicious," when tasting the stew. The taste of the dish brought back a slew of memories and emotions that even Chef Hayashi cried over the experience.
The story even made it to Reddit, where users were overcome with their own emotional attachment to their moms' meals. One noted, "That’s not just food that’s love preserved what an incredible way to taste a memory one more time." Another shared, My grandmother made the best apple pies I've ever had and after she passed we discovered she had made one and put it in the freezer. It was such a bittersweet treat to be able to experience her apple pie one last time, but also knowing we'd never taste it again because she made basically everything from memory, so there was no recipe to be found." They wisely added, "Food made with love just hits different."
For some families, food is more than just nourishment. It's love.
Monkey Business Images | Shutterstock
When food is crafted with love and care, it can evoke a range of emotions that go well beyond just being tasty. Everything from the choice of cuisine to the execution reflects the love the person who prepared the meal has for those eating it. When it's appreciated and enjoyed, the love is reciprocated.
It's more than just that. Food represents coming together. Food is centered around holidays, celebrations, coming together as a family at the end of the day, and even falling in love. Food heals when we are sad. It provides comfort when we need a pick-me-up. It marks milestones, even the painful ones.
Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, insists that food and love are intertwined in the best ways possible and that deep emotional attachment to nourishment and the person who prepares said meals begins in infancy. He explained, "From the instant we’re born, the infant’s experience of food is directly intertwined with being held, being touched, hearing the mother’s soothing voice, feeling her skin, her warmth, and her love. To the as yet undeveloped nervous system of an infant, all these experiences are encoded in the nervous system as one event. The infant brain does not distinguish between isolated sensations. Meaning the infant isn’t saying to itself, 'oh yes, this is the sound of my mother’s voice, and this is the taste of the milk on my tongue, this is the feeling of love…' – Again, it’s all experienced as one and the same."
Eating together and preparing food for others is an act of love in the purest sense, and David makes a strong case that this is directly embedded in our neurological wiring.
Next time you sit down for a meal with loved ones, take a moment to appreciate the entire act. From the boisterous conversation to the delight when dessert is presented, be sure to express your gratitude and thanks to the founders of the feast. And if you can't imagine a world without your grandma's apple pie, why not plan an afternoon to bake one with her? Sharing the act together and recreating those flavors will be memories you will always cherish and perhaps pass on as well.
Emi Magaña is a writer from Los Angeles with a bachelor's in English. She covers entertainment, news, and the real human experience.
