Day fifty six

A courtesy of

Is food an art or craft?

Last day of classes for this week! It feels like Friday.

Math was easy - we learned ratios. What it is and how to use. Really simple. The good example is pie dough 3:2:1 (3 parts of flour, 2 parts of fat, and 1 part of water). What you should be careful is to check is it by weight or by volume. For this example for dough the ratio is by weight (for bakeshop is usually by weight). Ratio can use volume or weight, but never mixed.

Gastronomy was again, very provocative. We talk about human being, what makes us happy, what role food are playing in our lives (except for feeding to live). Is food a craft or an art? There is no single answer. First you need to cook food and this is probably craft. You should possess
a set of skills to prepare a dish (I do not say about invention of a new dish). Then you should plate and present it and this is more an art. If you are hungry and starving, the presentation may be not so important. However to enjoy food the appearance is very important (for some of us, not for all).

You may check this link Dessert from Alinea.

Nutrition was about vitamins and micronutrients. Also we saw a video from TED Talk, where Mark Bittman discussed the issues with high meat consumption. This is really fascinating that we eat much more meat than ever before. Meat is extremely cheap, due to a number of reasons (animals are corn fed, the government subsidizes agriculture, and so on). As meat is cheap, people will buy more meat. Demand increases production and so on. Consumption of large amount of meat is not good the your health. It will increase cholesterol (which is bad for a number of reasons) and it will reduce calcium in your body. Should we become vegetarians? Of  course not, but do not eat meat three times a day. What was funny, that after this video I was craving for a nice steak:-) Should do it may be next weekend...