[Sca-cooks] From Today's NY Times

[Martin G. Diehl]

"Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius" wrote:

> >November 30, 2002
> >
> >A Neoplatonic Feast (It's Ideal Soul Food)
> >By EMILY EAKIN

[snip]

> >Ms. Young, 33, is one of a new breed of food studies
> >scholars who view meals ... as windows onto a culture's
> >most pressing concerns. While food historians have
> >tended to focus on broad dietary trends and culinary
> >historians have studied recipes, Ms. Young zeros in on
> >a single repast, extracting from it a wealth of social
> >meaning. As she summed up the approach in her opening
> >remarks: "To dine is not merely to eat."

The Publishers Weekly rexiew on Amazon.com begins ...

	Feasting on history, Young, a lecturer in
	culinary history at Sotheby's ...

> >Clearly, the evening at the Morgan, which was sponsored
> >by the Italian Cultural Foundation of America and
> >Sotheby's Institute of Art, was intended as a vivid
> >illustration of that point. Drawing on a chapter from
> >her new book, "Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver:
> Stories of Dinner as a Work of Art" (Simon & Schuster),

Amazon.com lists it for $24.95 new or $17.50 used
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743222024/qid%3D1038666616/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-9116794-2914251

BTW, if you have the book, you could give the first
review by an Amazon customer.

[snip]

> >Held at the Villa Careggi on Nov. 7, 1468, the banquet,
> >Ms. Young argued, was a revolutionary event. While no
> >complete record of it survives (the menu was never
> >written down),

Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh ... wonder how she chose the dishes to
recreate the feast?

[snip]

> >More radically, he advocated the pursuit of sensual
> >pleasure. At the time, such a view was considered
> >almost heretical. Ms. Young cited Ficino's friend
> >Platina, who was arrested by the pope and tortured
> >for daring to include the word pleasure in the title
> >of his cookbook.

... haden't heard that before.

[snip]

> >"Ficino believed that `only the meal embraces all
> >parts of man,' " she said. "It was about feeding our
> >ideas and the exchange of friendship as well as about
> >feeding the body."
> >
> >"Shall we feast?" she concluded. There were no
> >objections.

We should invite her to an event.

--
Martin G. Diehl

Reality -- That which remains after you stop thinking
about it.