Food As Art

Does our food define us ? Do we define food as art?Or art as food? These are the questions raised in a fascinating new book by Dwight Furrow. Read  this interesting to find out;

The book , Food As Art In America - How Americans Have Changed The Way We Eat (Rowan & Littlefield Publishers ) is a meaty chew of a read that questions almost everything.It's a book for serious foodies and even professional chefs that delves all sorts of aspects of culinary ideas and movements.He goes into great detail about the Slow Food Movement, started by Carlo Petrini who was aghast by American fast food taking over elegant Italian dining.Mr. Furrow also gives us interesting ruminations about food as art and the trends that take over. He devotes  entire pages to the 18th Century philosopher Emmanuel Kant along with passages devoted to Mick Jagger and Italian grandmothers. Foodies may cringe or may not like when he describes eating is violent - and when you think about it - it really is.It is  slaughtering meat and plucking fruit and veggies from their habitats. It's then cooking on top of a high flame and then being devoured later. That pasta or lobster may look pretty on the plate but they're going to get savaged and ravished in a few minutes.

Foodies may enjoy the chapter on reading into a meal. He writes intensively about what homeyness means  and brings up Thanksgiving and apples. Without the holiday the turkey is just a bird, without the story of Eve and the snake, the apple is just another piece of fruit. Mr. Furrow also delves into the food of love and aphrodisiacs through the centuries. That's followed by an interesting interpretation of we are what we eat. Of course there is a section on vegans along with the different kind of vegetarianism and what it all means. He also dissects haute cuisine and home cooking in a wittily titled chapter called "Can Tuna Casserole Be A Work Of Art?" There is also a chapter dedicated to keeping food traditions in an ever changing world and what is authenticity. In this he mentions Mexican border food, the cuisine that gave us the beloved tortilla. Mexican food purists scoff at it saying it's not true to the country, yet it has been around for generations.Mr. Furrow ends the book with more ruminations on the future of taste along with his worries of food mediocrity and mass globalization of tastes.

Food As Art in America How Americans Have Changed The Way We Eat is a fascinating insight into our modern foods tastes and loves. Read it to understand why we need to preserve food as art. It's full of insights to chew on.