Valentine Hewson. “Eating healthy things does not make us holy”

His favorite The art of food (1), Valentine Hewson revisits the Enlightenment phrase, “Dare to Think.” (Sapere aude:) turn it into Dare to Taste. Because for him knowledge is also the history of taste, the art of eating, the art of loving and eating, philosophically vital; how can we really imagine going to the good life when we are hungry? In a joyful and delicious essay, the philosopher combines ethics and aesthetics, the history of thought, the history of gastronomy, and ecological (even geopolitical!) reflection to better discover the cause of the “bon vivant” who makes his way to enjoy life to the fullest…

Madame Figaro. – First is cuisine, second is literature, then philosophy, you say. What do you mean? ?
Valentine Hewson. – If we have developed the intellectual and physiological qualities that are ours and constitute our humanity, it is because of cooking. Anthropologists agree that it was around fire, cooking food, and therefore cooking that the nights became longer and more conducive to storytelling, which Jean-Jacques Rousseau already noted in his book: Essay on the origin of languages. Cuisine is first because it is fundamental to the beginning of humanity, and literature is second, in the form of history. I think that sensuality is primary, that literature also comes from a sensual relationship with language. Philosophy and theory come only later.

But in cooking, according to you, there is a philosophical “puritanism”. ?
Philosophy has traditionally favored the mind over the body, and I tried to reclaim what it considered secondary. I wanted to show that what is good comes first with the good, and that the five senses come first with respect to theoretical meaning… between V^e century and 19th century^e century, almost two and a half millennia, no philosopher mentioned his way of eating. Wanting to gain self-control through reason and intellect, philosophers favor heavenly foods over earthly foods and hold instincts, bodily impulses, sensuality, and sexuality in low esteem. What Nietzsche would condemn Twilight of the Idols Speaking of Socrates as “a great despiser of life.” For Plato’s master, in fact, “the body is the grave of the soul”, that is, one must cut off the body to be a soul and join the paradise of ideas. This is the beginning of our philosophical West, which glorifies the ascetic life as the only possible path to wisdom…

Unloved by philosophy, can cooking still be considered an art? ?
Kant, who is not much of a sensuous or corporeal philosopher (he finds examples a way to prostitute philosophy and, like any intellectual, appreciates the concept, but thinks examples should be left to poets and men of letters, whom he hardly appreciates) , but gives an example, in Criticism of the faculty of judgment, what’s better – canary wine. Good, but this “good” is subjective and cannot be universally shared, unlike a sunset or a painting, which are beautiful, i.e. universally shareable. That’s why we say. “Look how beautiful it is!” assuming the other has a shared aesthetic meaning. Whereas what we eat, what we drink, would only be pleasant… However, I think it is false; on social networks we never stop sharing the dishes we have tasted in restaurants, for example, if there is still something universal in gastronomy. . In addition, we can absolutely exclaim. “Taste this!” Cooking belongs to the fine arts, although food is more ephemeral than sculpture…

Philosophers favor heavenly food over earthly food and downplay instincts, bodily impulses, sensuality, sexuality.

Cooking can also play a key role in another art: negotiation. Tell us about “gastrodiplomacy”? ?
First of all, it is a diplomatic tradition invented by the French. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when Louis XVIII sent Talleyrand to remake the playing cards of Europe, he entrusted him with a list of suggestions, and Talleyrand famously replied: and pans.” He leaves with Antonin Karem and tries to ensure that France is not harmed in the negotiations through gastronomic temptation. Good cooking softens relations when signing contracts or agreements; over a dinner where no politics were required, an agreement was finally reached on nuclear power. Iran in 2015… There is another form of gastrodiplomacy. Countries such as Thailand or Peru fund the establishment of restaurants serving local cuisine in foreign countries to encourage tourism at home. The economic policy of creating a national cuisine, which is also successfully implemented by France…

On another level, you stress that food is also an ecological problem…
We can no longer think about cooking without thinking about respecting the seasons, the producers and the environment. All chefs try to adapt their practices in this regard. Alain Passard said these beautiful words. “I change jobs four times a year.” You have to reinvent yourself in winter, spring, summer and autumn, respect ecosystems, love short trips when you are not growing your own vegetables… Especially since the prospects today are that human food will inevitably have. become less and less meat-based. Intensive livestock farming is responsible for 15% of carbon emissions. I’m not advocating for veganism, but reducing meat consumption is necessary to protect the environment and life on earth in general. The meaning of history is the usurpation of nature by humans, boarding, arbitrariness, but we must recognize rights to this nature and ecosystems, if only because in order to move towards the good life preached by philosophy, we must; before you go beyond that, have a life at all.

Heritage

A chef is a child of his time like a philosopher…
Ecology is indeed one of the great ideas (one of the great concerns) of our time. Chefs are onto something zeitgeist, about the spirit of the times, and have themselves evolved over the centuries. The character of the chef was born with the man called “the chef of kings and the king of chefs”, Antonin Karem, passionate about architecture, for whom cooking should not only be good, but also beautiful. This is how he invented the wedding cake. a veritable cabbage temple. We are its heirs, which have become an integral step in the culinary process of restaurants. Another great chef, Escoffier, invented the Taylorization of work with teams and the division of tasks between the cook, the second, the clerk… And it is also from Escoffier that the chef wants to leave his name. It is to him that we owe the poetic expressions of menus, starting a tradition that reaches back to Alain Passard.

Chefs are onto something zeitgeistabout the spirit of the times

Valentine Hewson

The latter calls his ravioli consommé trilogy under this name “Fragrant fragrance, transparent watercolor”…
We get to the famous “signature dishes”. So what is it about? ?
Signature dishes into which the chef puts all his personality. In the case of Guy Savoie’s artichoke soup, the vegetable in question represents his humble origins, the truffle his quest for excellence, and the brioche his child’s soul. For Alain Passard, we can mention the ravioli I mentioned. A fabulous dish where the broth was not broth but perfume, I told the chef. To which he replied: “No, it’s spring water.” This says a lot about this invention of vegetable cuisine, who revolutionized world gastronomy and is so well described by the words of Brillat-Savarin: Alain Passard moved from meat to vegetables, and he became a chef, among other things, thanks to this dish, which gives the impression of savoring the time we find ourselves in, the broth-like filling evolving with the seasons. Starring vegetables, long considered only an accompaniment, he was able to add depth to dishes and make simple complex…

What do you think about this popular hashtag? #porn food ?
#pornofood really puts a person’s existence in the sensual dimension. we share our relationship with the body, pleasure and sensuality. He who lives well takes his revenge on right thinking. We’re told to exercise, and we’re right, to eat less fat, and we’re right, but cooking with butter remains tempting and comforting… #pornfood brings us back to the comforting realm of food when diet arguments leave us with a a little heavy. as I often say, eating healthy things does not make us holy. Why glorify health at the expense of pleasure? Vegetable cuisine is delicious, but is it a reason to despise, especially at this time, raclette, fondue, foie gras? #pornfood promotes lightness and sensuality as opposed to the guilt-inducing diet recommended by a nutritionist.

You would rather be a proponent of “dieting” and what you call good living ?
Feuerbach asserts that man is what he eats. I actually think our relationship with food says something about our relationship with existence. The enjoyer is in the act of devouring the unlimited, while the ascetic, the ascetic, eats only to sustain himself. Aristotle spoke of virtue as the mean, the mean, the right standard, and the bon vivant represents a middle way; he is one who eats with appetite but cares for his mountain. He enjoys what is offered to him, when the enjoyer swallows until he sinks; we imagine him collapsing from exhaustion after twelve bottles and as many dishes. Bon vivant maintains its momentum and believes that a good life is also a life with taste. What is good for morality is as important as what is good for morality…