Food is one of our basic sources of our energy, and our good spirits, indeed how much do we enjoy life, is very much determined by what we eat, and culinary artistry can help us to achieve thesse goals.
All over the world there are academic institutions on food studies. The foundation-stone of American culinary artistry is, the California Culinary Academy, established in 1977. There are lots of culinary artistry encyclopedias or guidebooks. Among present-day authors on culinary artistry are: W. J. Belasco, D. W. Curtin, and L. M. Heldke.
What is culinary artistry ?
Academic food studies examine many aspects of food, in the light of medicine, anthropology, history, society, agriculture, gastronomy, nutrition, and art. Whereas Culinary artistry is a creative, aesthetic, and philosophical approach towards cooking.
Restaurant culinars (cooks, chefs) are artists of cooking. They know how to combine ingredients wisely, making the food healthy and pleasant to the eye. Professional culinars know all about healthy recipes, food and diets. Traditionally, people consider cooking is mostly a women’s business, however half of culinary professionals are men – and they prove to be real masters in it.
The grandfather of the American cuisine is James Beard, who conducted regular TV lessons on American catering in the 40s. The most significant moment in the history of American culinary artistry, was the establishment of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in 1946. American public got acquainted with French culinary tradition through Julia Child cookbooks in 1961. She became one of the key figures of the present-day culinary artistry.
Culinary artistry determined by country and culture
The word cuisine is widely used, meaning a particular type of cooking tradition and region, i.e. National, Asian, Italian, French, etc. Ingredients used in a particular cuisine are typical for the geographic area it comes from. A given cuisine is a traditional food of a country and culture, and is predetermined by climate, natural resources, laws, and beliefs.
For example in Central and South America, maize is widely used; in northern Europe – meat, rye, wheat; whereas in southern Europe – it is rice, pasta and olive. In Chinese traditional, rice and sea products (mostly noodle) are preferred. In Middle East – lamb, rice, spices and lemons. In Korea and Indonesia, food is very spicy, whereas in India, vegetarianism predominates.
Food experts, connoisseurs and chefs admit that Culinary Artistry by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page is one of the most significant modern books on culinary. The book is based on extensive number of interviews given to the authors by leading U.S. chefs. The professionals in culinary artistry share their experience and discuss nuances of sensory perceptions, flavor compositions, dish combination, menus, etc.
Guided by the authors, the reader discovers sensuality in food preparation, and the process of consuming food with a renewed attitude. The book gives practical advice, secrets of food pairing, and provides lots of healthy recipes, alongside the creatively written text. Culinary Artistry helps one to reach a better understanding of gustatory sensitivity, interrelation of quality of life and quality of food, and speaks about celebrity chefs and all key professions of the food market.
Challenged by health problems and ecology issues we begin to critically reconsider our eating habits. We begin to understand that better quality of life, first of all means quality products and healthy food – and that’s exactly what culinary artistry is about.