Ode to an Egg by Michelle Wildgen is flush with bourgeoisie flare, whereas Let’s be Frank by Sandra Tsing Loh is more middle America in both style and humbleness.
Wildgren uses the French language to accentuate her place as a connoisseur. “The husband never abandons his joyful consumption of oeufs au jambon and eventually finds happiness in love and work”(Hughes 349). That could have been written eggs and ham, but it would have lost much of the authority Wildgren attempts to draw from the reader. Throught her piece Wildgren emphasizes that she has the authority to speak of eggs, going so far as to implying that a particularly sexy food cannot be handled and therefore not written about by men.
Sandra Tsing Loh is an author attempting to convey her authority be relating to her readers, not by attempting to impress them with her linguistic abilities. Loh begins by trying to point out how un-cool or un-hip she is. Loh, like most of America, is average. Loh goes to a beach for average people, has an average family, and has an average persons diet. Loh draws in readers by letting them see her not as a distant critic.
It's interesting that you say Loh is sending her authority, since she seems the more laid back of the two. She's trying to sound engaging, though, by NOT being snooty about food. In that way she's a pretty stark contrast to the egg piece.
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