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Thursday, December 28, 2006
The Secret of Life
In Heat, New Yorker writer Bill Buford interns with New York chef Mario Batali, to learn about cooking. Here's one of the things he learns:
The practice [of making the daily meal for the kitchen staff] seemed to illustrate a principle I was always hearing referred to as "cooking with love." A dish was a failure because it hadn't been cooked with love. A dish was a success because the love was so obvious. If you're cooking with love, every plate is a unique event—you never allow yourself to forget that a person is waiting to eat it: your food, made with your hands, arranged with your fingers, tasted with your tongue.
One Saturday, when neither Andy nor Elisa was around, Memo took me aside again. "Let me show you how to cook with love." He suddenly wanted to make an impromptu family supper. He'd found some beef tongues in the walk-in... It bore no resemblance to any taco I'd seen before... but it remains the best taco I've eaten.
You can't really cook like this when you're in a busy kitchen, but somehow everyone, at some point, made the time to prepare something intimate. It seemed to be at the heart of why you were a cook.
It's the same for architecture.
December 28, 2006 in Architecture, Books, Classicism, Food and Drink, Quote of the Day | Permalink
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Once I have written a text dedicated to a friend architect about the relationship between "the cuisine" and architecture. The text is in portuguese, ( I´m sorry, it`s the original) but, if you don`t Know portuguese, and since you are a teacher, perhaps you can find someone to translate it. I´m sure you`ll enjoy it. Hoping you have already recover from your "modernistic brain wash education" , have a good 007.-------------------------------
-"Relações"-
Haverá uma articulação relacional entre arquitectura e culinária. Explicar a razão porque os cominhos ficam bem nas "tripas à moda do porto", ou porque os coentros são essênciais aos "pézinhos", ou o conhaque flambé sobre o "pato de cabidela", é tarefa que se pode fazer em paralelo com o trabalho de estirador.
Sim a arquitectura pode-se relacionar com umas perdizes se acompanhadas com carícias , como nos movimentos sobre estanhados planos ou no afago do reboco. E o lume brando das salas horizontais com vista discreta sobre a piscina em tarde de patés e tostas, explica a inexplicavel devoção de tantos arquitectos pela manutenção do lume . E para que o lume não se apague, o incontornavél "champagne bruto" ou a melodiosa descoberta do "Alvarinho" relacionando enrolados de espargos com salmão fumado e puré de abacate, o que fica sempre bem no palacete.
Percorrer os espaços é bem melhor depois de uma passagem pela cozinha, enquanto se enrolam no sofá os pombos, percorremdo os odores que se escapam nos tectos altos, os pés-direitos triplos para que o ar não esqueça, e que o burburinho sobre o mármore da cozinha não esmoreça, mesmo depois das obras á mesa, novamente os pombos.
Sim insisto que relacionar arquitectura e culinária não é disparate , as obras têm uma receita, têm ingredientes, de respeitáveis proveniências , as proporções exatas, o tempo certo, a química e as mãos .
As mãos que se descobrem e se perdem no manusear das leveduras , na busca do prazer de a ver crescer , para depois ir ao forno e no rubro, cozer.
E após a passagem pela escola, é tempo de verificar a presença da vegetação nas cadeiras, á noite, quando se volta ao exterior para que o jardim se percorra entre labirínticas passagens de tílias e bétulas já sem folhas, descobrindo a almofada vegetal sob a digestão do tempo.
-----------------------------
Foi o que mais me surpreendeu naquela tarde de encontro de arquitectos, a frase da Alexandra dizendo precisamente, durante o jantar , " a arquitectura e a culinária relacionam-se..."
Para a Alexandra, lembrando Távora e a sua escola de arquitectura, cujo único limite é a vida,
lhe ofereço este texto.
H.Ventura
É possivel continuarmos a arquitectura se alimentados bem. Condição essêncial á plenitude do gesto artístico, segundo o arq. Távora.
Posted by: h.Ventura at Dec 30, 2006 7:27:36 PM
Here's the obviously incomplete Babel Fish Translation.
In English:
-"Relações" - It will have a relationary joint between architecture and culinária. To explain the reason because the cumins are well in the "guts to the fashion of the port", or because the coentros are essênciais to the "pézinhos", or the brandy flambé on the "duck of cabidela", is task that if can make in parallel with the estirador work. Yes the architecture can be related with folloied partridges if with caresses, as in the tinned movements on plain or in I fondle it of I tow it. E the fire brando of the horizontal rooms with discrete sight on the swimming pool in afternoon of patés and biscottes, explains inexplicavel devotion of as many arquitectos for the maintenance of the fire. E so that the fire if does not erase, incontornavél "champagne rude" or the discovered melodiosa of the "Alvarinho" relating rolled of espargos with smoked salmon and puré of avocado, what it is always well in palacete. To cover the spaces is well better after a ticket for the kitchen, while the pigeons roll themselves in the sofa, percorremdo the odors that if escape in tecto the high ones, the triple foot-rights so that air does not forget, and that burburinho on the marble of the kitchen not esmoreça, exactly after the workmanships á table, again the pigeons. Yes I insist that to relate architecture and culinária it is not nonsense, the workmanships they have a prescription, they have ingredients, of respectable proveniências, the accurate ratios, the certain time, chemistry and the hands. The hands that if they discover and if lose in handling of the leavenings, in the search of the pleasure of seeing to grow, stop later going to the oven and in rubro, to cook. E after the ticket for the school, is time to verify the presence of the vegetation in the chairs, á night, when it is turned to the exterior so that the garden if covers between labirínticas tickets of tílias and birches already without leves, discovering the vegetal cushion under the digestion of the time. It was what more it surprised me in that afternoon of meeting of arquitectos, the phrase of the Alexandra saying necessarily, during the supper, "the architecture and the culinária becomes related..." For the Alexandra, remembering Távora and its school of architecture, whose only limit is the life, I offer this text to it. H.Ventura He is possivel to continue the architecture if fed well. Essêncial condition á fullness of the artistic gesture, according to arq. Távora.
Posted by: john at Dec 30, 2006 9:19:13 PM
