Title: Cooking : the quintessential art /
Authors: This, Hervé; Gagnaire, Pierre, 1950-
Publisher: University of California Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Gastronomy History
Abstract: "From its intriguing opening question - "How can we reasonably judge a meal?" - to its richly rewarding conclusion, this beautifully designed book picks up where Brillat-Savarin left off almost two centuries ago. Herve This, a cofounder of molecular gastronomy, the influential new approach to studying the scientific basis of cooking, investigates the question of culinary beauty in a series of playful, lively, and erudite dialogues - a drama in five acts that more closely resembles a detective story than an arid treatise on aesthetics. In considering the place of cuisine in Western culture, This explores an astonishing variety of topics and elaborates a revolutionary method for judging the art of cooking. The ideas he introduces in this culinary romance are illustrated by dishes created by Pierre Gagnaire, whose engaging and highly personal commentaries provide the reader with rare insights into the thinking and creative inspiration of one of the world's foremost chefs. The result is an enthralling, sophisticated, freewheeling dinner party of a book that also makes a powerful case for openness and change in the way we think about food."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: Two introductions -- pt. 1: The beautiful is the good -- The existence of a culinary art -- Artisanal versus artistic cuisine -- Tradition and love -- The question of nature -- The recognition of a culinary art -- pt. 2: Classical ideas of beauty ---The origin of beauty -- Beauty by numbers -- The idea of flavor -- Aristotle and subtlety -- pt. 3: Beauty in the Middle Ages -- The path to the mystical good -- Of cooking and cathedrals -- Boethius and the brain -- Thomas Aquinas and the green of the grass -- Drawing Earth nearer to heaven -- pt. 4: Artistic creativity unbound -- Medieval ramifications -- The occult influence of Aristotle lives on -- The dawn of the Renaissance -- From the Renaissance onward -- The enlightenment in the West and the East -- Nature overcome -- pt. 5: The present and future of cookingc -- The many strands of modernity -- Yesterday -- And tomorrow? -- Simplicity and completeness -- The illusion of the perfect bouillon -- List of recipes.