Episode 56: The Art of Eating
Welcome……
There is something about food that weaves its way in and out of life, that we cannot deny. When I wrote this some time back I was in the middle of the day to day yet, musing over women and food, and how everything was pulsing around me, the orchard, the sunshine, the books on the shelf, the mentors I would seek to understand through the many resources on my bookshelf….. Julia Child, Elizabeth David, Nigella Lawson, Diana Henry. These writers and culinary mentors were singing to me, and somehow I was in the middle of it all, somewhere between the daily and the sublime, reaching for a pear, scrawling down words, moments, memories, menus, and recipes. This is the art of eating and everything I love about life.
“All culinary tasks should be performed with reverential love, don’t you think so? To say that a cook must possess the requisite outfit of culinary skills and temperament that is hardly more than saying that a soldier must appear in uniform. You can have a bad soldier in uniform. The true cook must have not only these externals, but a large dose of general worldly experience. He is the perfect blend, the only perfect blend, of artist and philosopher. He knows his worth: he holds in his palm the happiness of mankind, the welfare of generations yet unborn……If she drinks a little, why, it is all to the good. It shows that she’s fully equipped on the other side of her dual nature. It proves that she possesses the prime requisite of the artist; sensitiveness and a capacity for enthusiasm”.
By Norman Douglas, South Wind
Shownotes:
Podcasts to Listen to that have inspired this share:
Stories Behind the Story: Better Reading - Nigella Lawson: On why Cook, Eat, Repeat is the Story of her Life - 3rd December, 2020
River Cafe 4: Nigella Lawson - 28th December 2021
Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith: Olia Hercules: Home Food (a recent podcast that captured the mood and reflected on the past few months of Hercules motherland, the Ukraine) has links to help support Ukraine via Hercules Fund Raising Appeal..
Books Mentioned:
Nigellissima: Easy Italian Inspired Recipes: A Cookbook by Nigella Lawson
La Scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well) also referred to as “The Arts” by Pellegrino Artusi
How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories and Places by Diana Henry
Istria: Recipes and Stories from the Hidden Heart of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia by Paola Bacchia
The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones
My Life in France by Julia Child
Their Other Side: Six American Women and the Lure of Italy by Helen Barolini
Mediterranean Cooking, An Omelette and a Glass of Wine and Italian Food by Elizabeth David
The Edible Atlas: Around the World in 39 Cuisines by Mina Holland
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrot - Netflix Series…. “Chef and Food Writer Samin Nosrat travels around the world to demystify and explore the central principles of what makes food delicious”
