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Food as Art?

August 2nd, 2007

Food is art, as presented on each plate by the chef. The chef’s personality and style goes into each masterpiece, like a signature on every plate. A dish speaks to a diner like how a picture paints a thousand words.

To quote Chef Ferran Adria of El Bulli:

“I have no doubt that art can manifest itself in gastronomy, as much in the creation as in the perception of the diner. In my view, the true artists are the diners who are able to experience emotion as they confront a plate, to touch something that is difficult to conceive without resort to metaphor, or (and why not?) to bright ideas like that of a good Andalusian friend of mine: “Art is the experience of a shiver down the spine”.”

How certain “comfort foods” help us get through particular moods or cravings is just a simple example of how food brings forth (or suppresses?) emotions. Food is as powerful as a picture or a song that transports us back in time, evoking memories and feelings. It is soulful when it makes you smile or gasp or weep; intellectual, when it makes you think…wonder…reflect…