This article serves to explore food preferences and behaviors and how this correlates with an individual's identity. Specifically, I want to examine why we eat what we do. For example, do I eat dessert after every meal because I think it tastes good, because I'm a woman, or is it simply because I can afford it? It's possible that all of these factors come into play in my food preferences. Individual identity and socially constructed identities such as gender and class are all closely linked to the food we eat and how we obtain it. In this article, I will use the work of many theorists, as well as two films A Question of Taste and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, to argue that we eat what we eat because we perceive food as we consume as a reflection of who we are and the place we occupy in the social hierarchy of our society. It is important to note that as members of society, our tastes, or consumption preferences, are largely conditioned by social factors. Our likes and dislikes are learned largely by observing and replicating the food preferences and consumption behaviors of those around us, such as our peers, members of a shared culture or social class. The French epicurean Brillat-Savarin theorizes that we are what we eat, but we are also what we do not eat (Belasco 1). Our identity is reflected in all the choices we make in life, but largely in what we choose to consume or not. Depending on the groups we identify with (man or woman, rich, worker or poor), we are socially conditioned to have different tastes. Although the topic of food has recently received much attention in academia,...... middle of paper......in films, consumers are members of the upper class who deserve to eat the best, so it must be prepared by the best, who are men. This notion that masculine cooking is an art form is amply illustrated in the opening kitchen scenes of A Matter of Taste and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. For example, in the scene where the viewer first discovers cooking in A Matter of Taste, there are men cutting different meats and sharpening knives, this gives a very masculine impression. The focus is on the men's hands as they carve, slice and dice and it's all done with this intensity and focus on precision. Additionally, while the food is being prepared, classical music plays in the background, which is a game of art and class. Classical music is often associated with inspiration and focus, but also with high class. These images perfectly represent