"Man invented cooking before he thought of nutrition. To be sure, food keeps us alive, but that is only its smallest and most temporary work. Its eternal purpose is to furnish our sensibilities against the day when we shall sit down at the heavenly banquet and see how gracious the Lord is. Nourishment is necessary only for a while; what we shall need forever is taste...
"Language is no utilitarian abstraction; English, French, Greek, and Latin are concrete delights, relishings by which the flavor of words and syntax are rolled over the tongue. And so in their own way are all the declensions and conjugations of beef, lamb, pork, and veal. Food is the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness, ordained for a continual remembrance that the world will always be more delicious than it is useful. Necessity is the mother only of cliches. It takes playfulness to make poetry."
-Robert Farrar Capon in The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection (1967), p. 40
Isn't that book great, and did I turn you on to it?
ReplyDeleteYes, it's fantastic. I didn't know you were a fan, though I'm not surprised. A guy at church (who is also a subscriber of the blog) loves it and recommended it.
ReplyDelete