Fabio Parasecoli, an associate professor and coordinator of food studies in New York, wrote an article for the Huffington Post called Is Food Art? Chefs, Creativity, and the Restaurant Business? He discusses why he believes food is art by drawing the connections between the two and giving comparisons of the food scene and the art scene. Parasecoli brings up a completely valid argument saying how “some chefs – or groups of chefs – actually express their visions and their goals in cookbook introductions, interviews, or Internet profiles that are similar in intention and tone to the manifestos of the avant-garde movements of the past” (Parasecoli). He’s arguing how a chef and an artist have much more in common than one might think, just as a food critic and an art critic would.
Elizabeth Tefler and Fabio Parasecoli have very similar arguments on why they believe that food can be art. For instance, Tefler states how “people who use the phrase ‘work of art’ in this evaluative way are from one point of view commending the things that they call works of art, but it does not follow that they consider all works of art to be good ones” (Tefler 13). This relates back to how Parasecoli argues that young gifted chefs do not tend to worry about whether “narrow-minded customers” will appreciate their work (Parasecoli). Both of them know that certain people may not appreciate a work of art or a food dish as much as someone else would be. Everyone has their own opinions as to what art can be and there are definitely people out there who argue that food is not art, no matter how aesthetically and physically appealing it may look in appearance.
I think a perfect example of why food can be art is the Food Network. There are so many different shows on that network that are dedicated to food being presented and made in a beautiful and creative manner. For instance, the show Cupcake Wars is a competition style show where four different pastry chefs come together to compete to win a large amount of money and get national recognition for not just how their cupcakes taste, but how they look. The way that they make the cupcakes look is just as important as how they make it taste. Several competitors have been sent home because their cupcakes did not look as nice as their fellow chefs. Tefler helps to support these claims by discussing a famous pastrycook named Careme and how she believes that “food…is likewise often arranged or decorated in creative or attractive ways which constitute a visual work of art” (Tefler 14). I completely agree with this because I believe that the visual aspect of food is just as important as how the food tastes. Parasecoli adds to this argument by stating how chefs are not just artists or craftsmen, they are basically expected to offer customers and critics various selections on the menu that “stimulate and surprise them, find new methods to manipulate ingredients, and interact with technology and design in ways that keep them on the cutting edge and ensure coverage from the press, TV, and the Internet” (Parasecoli). I think that this argument completely relates back to the Food Network and all of the shows that it offers to viewers. No one will continue to watch the shows if the food stayed the same each time. The chefs are expected to make unique, beautiful and delicious dishes in order to not just win the competition, but to intrigue viewers with how appealing their dish looks since the viewer is not able to actually taste the dish. In a majority of the cooking competition shows, the chefs are required to make a dish with out-of-the-ordinary ingredients that most people would not include in the specific type of dish they are creating. So they must use their creativity and knowledge of the culinary industry to make the food look and taste amazing.
In conclusion, I believe that food can be considered to be art because you can express your creativity through cooking. However, chefs need to make sure to use their creativity in a way that isn’t just appealing to them, but is appealing to the majority of their customers. Fabio Parasecoli reiterates this perfectly when he states how “if creativity in the kitchen produces income, it is highly praised as a cultural achievement and valued as a commercial asset. But if creativity becomes excessive, intimidating, or turns away customers, investors will not hesitate to demand a different attitude from the chefs whose salaries they pay.”
Sources:
Parasecoli, Fabio. “Is Food Art? Chefs, Creativity, and the Restaurant Business?” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fabio-parasecoli/food-art_b_3830791.html>.
Tefler, E. (2002). Food as Art. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 2). New York, NY: Routledge.