Blank Food

Abstract

Eating is not merely a means of survival, it is tied to the mechanisms, with all the rules and underlying connotations, in establishing social relations: in other words, sociality shaped through shared meals. In this perspective, food presentation plays a fundamental role, acquiring in its appearance an aesthetic virtue. In today’s social imaginary, we ask ourselves: what is the new frontier of food aesthetics? Moreover, assuming aesthetics clearly shows a specific social outlook, what does this suggest on a value basis? The growing ostentation of food and, above all, creative cooking, serve dishes hard to define as ingredients intend to decorate. A culinary experience thus turns into a social ritual of deliberately abrogating the role and logic of nutrition.