“In The Devil's Garden” Review and Commentary by D. Vour Part 4 of 4

Review and Commentary by D. Vour
Gourmand and Food Critic at “The Home“

“In The Devil's Garden” - “A Sinful History Of Forbidden Food”
Ballantine Books
by
Stewart Lee Allen

Chapter Four – Conclusion

How we prepare foods is a big part of the food taboo story. Rules and recipes abound on precise ways to make, bake and prepare things 'legally'. Variations – authorized or unauthorized – have caused chaos, and all hell breaking loose when food violations occur. The Roman Catholic church, and Greek Orthodox church for example. Someone added yeast to the recipe to the communion wafers, and made little mini loafs instead of wafers, and war broke out between the factions 'til they split, a schism lasting over 900 years, until resolved in the 1960's... all that drama over a touch of some yeast bacteria - it's quite a remarkable story!

Great Chefs are almost a modern form of high priest today, but they have always held special places in society throughout the centuries. In some cultures the highest chef was even made the King-Priest! There is a direct symbolic relationship to a priest giving a wafer, and a chef serving a meal! Chefs are our modern high priests! Each one teasing us with greater and greater culinary heights and delights, vying with each other in social acceptance, and celebrity, like modern day gunslingers, each pulling us into their orbit of gastronomic experimentation with nearly spiritual food experiences! Each modern bite prepared by these wizards of food prep, can be virtually a quasi-religious-spiritual and orgasmic experience at once! Modern chefs are expanding culinary horizons to places seemingly without rules .. can this mean the end of civilization as we know it, or are new rules evolving? Perhaps the yardstick has simply been temporarily pulled out, like a golf flag, and will be moved a bit farther out ?

Every food we enjoy today has been banned in history at some point. Garlic and onions could bring a death penalty, as have at one time or another, eggs, all types of meats, vegetables, almost every spice, many methods of preparation, and even what ingredients may, or may not, be used to 'correctly make' something - some even had punishments worse than instant death for the hapless chef (often in horrible ways related to the ill used food.. boiling in oil, roasting in an oven, or flayed and cooked along with the meal, or buried in salt!) The famous French Chef to Louis the 14th – Vatel, is noted to have committed suicide by falling on his sword when the fish to be served arrived a half hour late for the Kings dinner !

Each of the seven sins is well covered here with great erudition and wit .. and it reads easily and quickly .. perfect for a kindle and limited read time .. short segments tied together for easy chapters on Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Greed, Envy, and Anger, and he even offers an intriguing 8th sin – “When Everything Is Allowed, And Nothing Has Flavor.” !

This whole idea of forbidden foods bumps up against a future where we currently have vast foodie 'lawlessness' – where the classic rules are tossed out in ever more adventurous culinary feats. In severe contrast, this trend is fighting against a growing wasteland of corporate food conformity.

Modern attitudes to dining, encourage creative chefs to reach out and try new things; allowing, and encouraging the meeting of disparate ingredients not traditionally used together, breaking new ground, and food laws too, whilst seeking exotic flavor profiles, and ever more complex taste horizons. These valiant modern priest-chefs seek to sate the demand for 'Amuse-bouches' that are more over the top than the previous efforts. Battalions, and cadres of new young chefs work to fulfill ever exotic culinary demands by modern gourmands – in some irony – or homage – mirroring the extreme explorations of olden time chefs trying to meet the demands for sumptuous meals and feasts of their own times. Now, good foods are in reach of everyone, and no longer consigned to the rarefied dining of only the aristocracy.

However, on the other side of that approach, could we just as easily be facing a looming and darker corporate food future in the not too distant future; one fraught with the dangers of mass food conformity, trying to feed the increasing masses? This portends a dreary corporate sterility – a world without many food options – everything cardboard flavored, but “approved”? (Soylent Green comes to mind !?)

We have to be watchful about our modern food rules, laws, and taboos. We could just as easily be evolving to a place where the only foods being offering are those officially approved! No other foods need apply! Whoever controls the food chain controls this issue.

Where do you stand on food conformity, or genetic modifications, or mass production of your grub? The western food supply lines are getting more and more tenuous, in spite of the amazing range of seeming abundance, and choices that we enjoy in fancy western markets. Will our modern western cornucopia endure forever? Genetic modifed grains, droughts, sever weather and storms, global climate changes, all will play a role in our food supply in years to come. Are we prepared for it?

What about places in the world that barely have one item of food for the masses; limited local grains, rice, or corn - and that's it!? Do we need to have guilt about our abundance of choice, while others have none? Is this a form of subjugation that we unwittingly play a part in ? Food laws and taboos are ever evolving, and challenging us all to stay alert and aware.

There are forces at play that want to control your food, and all your ideas about food, thus controlling your thoughts and emotions especially, so that you buy and eat what “they” want you to. Food taboos and laws are the means to control you !

It's a crazy, modern, adventurous, and even dangerous food world out there, but delicious and exciting, good, and wholesome foods still await the adventurous – enjoy, but be sure to follow the rules, and remember, only allow your “right” foods in !

End

In The Devil's Garden
A Sinful History Of Forbidden Food