This week after watching Pedro’s Plant, Garden, Cook, Eat video lecture I was inspired to look into culinary art. Culinary art incorporates both the cooking and presentation of food in a way that is aesthetically appealing as well as delectable.
What has always fascinated me is the variation between cultures of culinary art across the world. One of my favourite dishes, Mochi, is considered to be a delicacy in Japan and is a piece of art created through many hours of manual labor (hand pressing and moulding rice around warmed ice cream. However, Mochi (Pictured above) in the western hemisphere is not valued as artistic in any way shape or form, which demonstrates the stark variations in what is considered and appreciated as culinary art across the globe.
Culinary art is something that I have strove for when cooking my own dishes and for the most part fallen short of achieving. Modern culinary art centres around thermodynamics, chemistry, butchering, human nutrition and presentation. I would advocate for the introduction of a class involving culinary art here at Duke, which would allow students to develop their cooking abilities in a distinct way that would serve them for life.