BROADCASTS.com

b'Why Cook Well.\\nWe eat because we have to.\\nCivilization is nothing more than a ten thousand year old human experiment to test the freakish theory that mankind could eat without being eaten. \\xa0Four million years earlier, our australopithecine ancestors crawled down from some God-forsaken trees to run with sweaty persistence after the meaty goodness left for scavenger animals.\\xa0\\nThis, they called a meal.\\nThe world we have inherited is only a savannah away from that prehistoric reality. \\xa0We have to eat to survive, but it\\u2019s what we eat and the quality of that food which gives our lives pleasure and meaning.\\nThe question our human experiment should answer is \\u201cWhy should we cook well?\\u201d\\nIf survival is the purpose of culinary consumption then what benefit is served by eating food of higher quality, flavor and beauty? \\xa0Would not our human condition be sufficiently served through the daily ingestion of ground chicken speckled cheese spread sprayed from a can?\\nWe eat because we have to, we cook because we care.\\xa0\\nThrough trial and tribulation (and falling out of trees) modern man has come to understand that a meal is much more than a life sustaining substance. \\xa0A meal is a celebration of life: it is an expression of art and love and a way to communicate through preparation, presentation and sharing.\\nWe eat because we have to, we cook because we care, we share a meal because a meal is a \\xa0manifestation of our passion for life and each other.\\xa0\\nTo cook well is to take a food source of vegetable or meaty goodness and convert it into something of pleasing sensations of taste, smell, and texture. \\xa0It is an act of purest altruism, a performance of sincerity and joy.\\nWhy would a self diagnosed intelligent species take the time and energy to prepare food for the culinary delight of others? \\xa0 Why bother with the triviality of recipes and technique when rawhide shoved into pile of burning coals would sufficiently make food more digestible and a better energy source?\\nBecause we know, instinctually, that life is short, though long enough. \\xa0We understand that our mortality is wondrous thing, allowing us the luxury of savoring the good things brought before us.\\nThe art of preparing food, and creating from it a meal goes beyond the act of cutting, slicing, baking, boiling or frying: it is the culmination of a ten thousand year in progress experiment where mankind is learning that he might not only eat without being eaten, but that he can cook and care, share and love and live our lives to the top.\\nWe eat because we want to, we cook because we love.\\nPlease vote for my essay and help me get published: http://bourdainmediumraw.com/essays/view/76'