Everybody has to eat, but what makes someone an expert in food?
It’s thinking about the food that you eat. No critic has eaten more meals in a lifetime, I think, than someone who doesn’t write about it. The expertise comes from sitting down and thinking about every aspect of the meal and being able to put the meals in perspective with other things that you’ve eaten and being able to grade them. It’s the difference, I suppose, between going to movies a lot and being a movie critic. Do you consider cooking a high art? Cooking is an art, certainly. I’m not sure about a “high art” because it’s more of a performance-type thing. However exquisite the dish that was cooked for you, however wonderful it was, however much it was seared into the memories of the people who have eaten it, it’s gone at the end of the day and you have to make a new one the next day. I don’t think what one would consider high art principles really come much into play. That being said, there are certainly chefs in the country who try to think of cooking as a high art and who are tr
