I’m jealous of chefs — people who, it seems to me, can find creative fulfillment from a medium that has both an immediate and conclusive result. There’s no ouroboric “editing process” once a dish has been cooked, and there’s a very easy way to tell if it’s any good or not. Plus, the reason for making it is always clear: we all need to eat.
(On the other hand, I did recently read an old Reddit AMA with Anthony Bourdain in which someone asked him which was harder to master, the art of cooking or the art of writing: “Cooking professionally is hard work. Writing is a privilege and a luxury. Anybody who whines about writers block should be forced to clean squid all day.”)
The question of whether or not food is a form of art is hacky, at this point — of course food can be art. What I really wanted to get into with this issue was whether or not people approach food the same way that they do music or film or other more traditional mediums. Can a recipe communicate an idea in the same way a song, a story, a painting can? Can food directly impart emotions, chef-to-eater? Do you feel moved by a really good bite in the same way that you’re moved by beautiful chord? Or are these things tapping into different, incomparable aspects of our humanity?
No one better to ask than the musicians, filmmakers, and chefs themselves. In this issue, you’ll find essays and conversations from Vicky Krieps, Sam Evian, Anthony Zambrano, Sohrab Habibion, PACKS, The Blessed Madonna, Colman Domingo, and Thalia Ho on the romance of food, as well as the politics of it. Squirrel Flower, Godcaster, Sheer Mag and Matty Matheson get into eating on tour, while Been Stellar and Liz Garbus give us a taste of their favorite restaurants, and Katy Kirby tells us why she loves the movie Babette’s Feast. Also, Jeff Baena shares an incredible chocolate chip cookie recipe that he developed. (I tested it — yes, it’s very fussy, but I promise it’s worth a try, even if just for the novelty of baking with a duck egg.)
You can read all of it when the issue comes out on April 15. It’ll be available digitally and in a limited print run — which you can pre-order now.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
