In 1943 Abraham Maslow proposed a theory called "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" in the psychological field. Food, placed at the lowest level of the hierarchy, represents one of man's primary physiological needs for survival. From my point of view, food is a carrier that contains all the meanings of other levels and is transmitted together with cultural transmission. In books by Sheila Ferguson, Martha Stewart, and Julia Child, everyone seems to be talking about cooking a particular kind of food and enjoying it. In fact, they really convey the idea that food is not just about the food itself, but about the people, who have sculpted a unique personality thanks to the particular social status they have and the different meaning they attribute to food. Refer to Fernadez-Armesto, “…that we eat not because we need them to survive but because we want them to change us for the better: we want them to give us some of their virtue.” (27) “Virtue”, I believe, indicates the meaning that people previously attributed, and we want to share the wisdom of the ancestors about the meaning of food. Cooking therefore represents in a certain sense an altitude of insistence on one's lifestyle; it will be passed down from generation to generation. These three authors each describe a different type of cuisine, an art-like imaginative French cuisine, a thoughtful black food for the familiar soul, and a delicate hostess cuisine, these distinctions are created by the different social status of the person who invented and cooked. Being an old imperialist country, France, the trend of luxury is embodied in extravagant meals. Since those meals were served to hedonistic, picky and vain lords or aristocracies, so French cuisine should be able to show the highest social status and power...... middle of paper ......sed 23 May 2012. < https://resources.oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/group/SU12-BL-ENG-W350-1974/Primary%20Sources%20for%20Critical%20Essay/Julia%20Child%2C%20Mastering% 20the %20Art%20of%20French%20Cooking.pdf >Martha Stewart, Entertaining, 1982. Accessed May 23, 2012. Sheila Ferguson, Soul Food, 1994. Accessed May 23, 2012. < https://resources.oncourse.iu.edu/ access /content/group/SU12-BL-ENG-W350-1974/Primary%20Sources%20for%20Critical%20Essay/Sheila%20Ferguson%2C%20Soul%20Food.pdf>Abraham Maslow, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, 1943. Accessed May 23, 2012. Tom Standage, A History of the World in Six Glasses, 2005.