I absolutely believe that art can be a form of food. However, it needs to be brought about in the right circumstance. In last week’s post I discussed how my father sculpted a flag all out of wood in tribute to 9/11. He was able to express himself and his patriotism through this piece that he created. Well I believe that the same goes for my mom as well. As far back as I can remember my mom has been making the absolute best, made from scratch dinner dishes that her mom (my grandmother) taught her to make when she was a little girl. These dishes show my mom’s heritage, her background, and her sense of culture just as my dad was able to do with his carving.
This is why I believe that slow, thoughtfully prepared food is an art form. This is due to the fact that an “aesthetic reaction” is brought about for both parties involved. An aesthetic reaction is referred to by J.O. Urmson as a kind of pleasure brought about to one of our 5 senses and I can honestly say that whenever I eat my mom’s food each one of these senses is overflowing with awesomeness. However, I feel that it’s not these 5 senses that bring about an “aesthetic reaction” for her when she cooks for us. There is another untold sense that brings her joy. One of the quotes by Tefler, I feel explains this extremely well when he says, “some of the most powerful aesthetic reactions involve being impressed by some unexpected or short lived phenomenon – perhaps something too quick to pay attention to” (10). Well I believe that this short lived phenomenon is the satisfaction that my mom gets for providing food for her children. Every time I ask her if she wants me to make dinner she turns me down and says absolutely not (and by no means do I argue). But this has always intrigued me. So I eventually asked her. I said, “mom why do you enjoy cooking so much”? And her answer really surprised me. She said I don’t really know how to explain it but whenever I cook and provide a meal for everyone I get a feeling of satisfaction and overwhelming accomplishment; like that of completing a project. This is my mom’s “aesthetic reaction”. She doesn’t necessarily get it from the smell and taste of her dishes that she makes (although I can’t see how not) but rather her aesthetic feeling comes from seeing my father, my brother and I clean up the beautiful meal that she prepared for us all.
Overall I believe that I take more of a post-modernist view when it comes to food rather than a modernist. I don’t put myself up in the elite category when I try and make a home cooked meal for my roommates and I don’t believe my mom does either. I agree that some food, especially at expensive restaurants, can be viewed as art due to the degree of the food and elegance of the preparation that the food was prepared with. However, this doesn’t mean that my mom’s food would stack up any differently. Dissanayake stated that art took into account human history, human cultures, and human psychology. On one hand you have the expensive restaurant that could be viewed in the mindset of human psychology, i.e. it looks great and I’m paying a lot for it so it must be art. Then on the other hand you have my mom whose cooking could be viewed as more part of a human culture because her cooking comes from her mother and her grandmother’s heritage. Both I would argue are pieces of art just in two separate categories.