Is cooking art?

Fasten your seat belts for a non-standard post. No pictures! No recipe! Just a little rumination -- rumination without the cud, thank heavens (and if you think it's all cud, then please accept my apology).

I just made the perfect pizza.

This got me to thinking that cooking is the most ephemeral of all arts. Sometimes it's a utilitarian process -- we need to eat so we cook. Just like other art forms can be utilitarian. We need a house so we build it. We want some colour so we paint a wall. It is silent, so we hum.

But sometimes, something more sneaks into the utilitarian aspect. A building is made beautiful. Paint forms an image. A melody is set loose.

My pizza was like that today.

Food touches several senses: Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, and Taste. Some of these are common to other art forms, but we get more dimensions from food -- namely smell, and taste. These things touch the very core of what it is to be human. Remember the M*A*S*H* episode when Charles (I think) became obsessed with death, and he thought he was about to discover the essence of it all, and the dying soldier he was speaking to said "I smell bread"?

My pizza today was beyond utilitarian. The crust had a perfect crunch (touch and sound). The smell was a combination of smoke, aromatics (oregano and rosemary), and something I can only call thickness (from the fats in the olive oil, bacon, and cheese). The taste had other dimensions of saltiness, warmth, and spice. It was hot from the oven. It looked wonderful. And it was gone.

So it was ephemeral. It was designed to stimulate, then disappear. I may never make such a perfect pizza. I may never hit that note again. It's like a song that could never be sung again. Like a painting set alight the moment it was finished. Like a firework (if I may borrow from Katy Perry).

Then again, I may make a better one someday.

So my friends, cook and revel in the now. Eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy this day.

(Yes, it's St. Patrick's Day, and yes I had a beer or two, but still!)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to some of my favourite tunes and look at some of my favourite paintings, and maybe ruminate a little more....