Cooking: The Quintessential Art (California Studies in Food and Culture)
Among the arts, culinary art ranks as one of the least objectively defined, yet it’s one universally enjoyed. In recent years, molecular gastronomy’s deconstructions have forced some deeper thought about taste and its relationship to other senses of smell, sight, touch, and even hearing. To illustrate his theories of taste in classic style, This invents dialogues among characters representing different schools of philosophical thought. He seeks to develop a scholarly aesthetic of taste that can stand up to the same sort of analysis that the visual arts enjoy. French chef Gagnaire applies This’ theory to kitchen practice. The recipes he offers assume command of all the skills required in classical French cooking as well as access to pristinely fresh ingredients, such as foie gras and kidneys. This’ work is an intellectual exercise wholly removed from food-entertainment television. --Mark Knoblauch