What is the Gustatory Gospel...?

..."Relating to the sense of taste or to the action or experience of tasting something. Something believed to be absolutely and unquestionably true."

This is a philosophy of food, of cooking, as physical and spiritual enrichment.

The idea is that spending more time in the kitchen, going to market, searching for fresh and local ingredients, taking that time prepare a meal, sharing your food, involves sacrifice. It isn't necessarily a frugal approach, and as a novice, it is admittedly time consuming. Painstaking. But, you start to pay attention to your food. You work to create for yourself. You pay attention to details, you finely chop. You peel garlic. Later on, you peel heirloom garlic. Because you develop a heightened appreciation for your food. As elevated prose is poetry, cooking from scratch is pure and simple truth, beautifully expressed. You take it seriously, and you do it well.

The recipes and ideas are not new, in fact they are antiquated.

Fresh herbs in everything. Quality extra virgin olive oil. Butter that you've made. Local chevre. Same day seafood. Beef from a cow you've met before. The bounty of your garden.

Beets, and beet greens. Turnips, and turnip greens.

The more energy you expend collecting and preparing a meal, the better it tastes, the healthier you eat. Eating less, but maybe richer, whole.

I want to share a link to the recent NY Times Magazine article by the Michael Pollan, the most famous man in food right now. I haven't read his books, and I didn't see Food Inc. I get it. It is an old an simple equation. Stop eating processed trash, convenience foods, snacks, and eat vegetables, exercise, be active. The benefits of this dietary approach are well documented and widely extolled. But, this is a different topic. The article is about the importance of cooking. It is about the success of food. Food the media personality, food the television superstar and megapitchman. I really enjoyed this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02cooking-t.html?_r=1&hpw

There is a great quote from Mario Batali, running through the perceived stereotype personalities doing business on the Food Network.