Just published in India Currents!
“Around the Table: food, creativity, community inspired
SACHI to plan a dynamic event at the San Jose Museum of Art, a
celebration of food and cuisine combined with outstanding scholarship and
a thought-provoking exhibition,” says Kalpana Desai, President of the
Society for Art and Cultural Heritage of India.
“SACHI is thrilled to present Harold McGee and Rachel Laudan to share groundbreaking
perspectives on the culture and science of cooking. ‘Epilogue’, a piece by
contemporary Indian artist Jitish Kallat, will be an inspiring backdrop for
our April 11th program The
World on Our Plates” explains Desai.
After refreshments and a
guided tour of the exhibit Rachel Laudan, author of Cuisine and Empire, will provide an illustrated talk about 2,000
years of food history. “South Asia was the cradle not only of several of the
world’s major religions but of the world’s major cuisines as well,” explains
Laudan. Food was a crucial component for both South Asian culture and religion.
“Monasteries spread ways of processing and cooking new dishes and foods such as
cane sugar, using sugar refining as a metaphor for spiritual progress.” Laudan
is particularly interested in the ways cuisine is linked to conversion, “Monks,
often with the agreement of the state, spread not only their religion but the
accompanying cuisine as well as the trade and farming to support it.”
Laudan is joined by Harold
McGee, author of the now classic On Food
and Cooking. A regular columnist for the New York Times, McGee has written extensively about the science of
cooking. “Science is all about exploring our world, looking below surface
appearances to understand how things work, and then using that understanding to
make and do things differently.” He believes cooks were the first scientists, “They
observed how heat energy could transform natural materials, and developed their
craft according.” McGee will illuminate the kitchen science of popular
restaurant chefs and talk about the second edition of On Food and Cooking, “I essentially rewrote it from beginning to
end and expanded it significantly, because readers had become both more
interested and more knowledgeable.”
“Religious leaders told
understandable stories about food, whether of the Buddha partaking of sweet
grain dishes after his enlightenment or of Vishnu ordering the churning of the
primordial ocean of milk” says Laudan. Food was central to the teaching and
spread of religion in South Asia, and retains its centrality in our own
kitchens today. Join Rachel Laudan and Harold McGee for an evening of art, cooking,
and science that explores and reaffirms the place of food in our families and
communities.
The World on our Plates: Epic Journeys in Food and Cuisine
Friday, April 11th, 6:00pm-9:30pm
San Jose Museum of Art
110 S. Market Street, San Jose
Tickets begin at $20
e-mail info@sachi.org or call
650-918-6335 for tickets
http://www.sachi.org/
