A Dream in the Art of Food

Escaping reality is something many of us do every night by dreaming. Dreams can cause many feelings in our lives and for some artists, dreams caused inspiration. Dreams help us escape reality and are known to be surreal. However, with dreams a lot can happen that can not happen in real life so how does one show what happens in their dreams? Many artists expressed what their dreams formed through their artwork. This formed into a movement labeled Surrealism and the people who participated are called surrealists. One of the most famous surrealists, often known for his well-known curled mustache, is Dali. Along with his mustache, his piece The Persistence of Memory (La persistencia de la memoria) that he made in 1931 is his most well-known piece. However, the dish tonight was inspired by a different piece titled Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening. This piece presents a lot of different aspects including a nude woman laying down, animals (2 lions, a distorted elephant, and a fish), broken sections of concrete, and other smaller aspects such as water droplets.

It is an oil on wood painting that was painted in 1944 and the woman laying down represents his wife, Gala. This piece focuses on the theme of sexuality. The dream state presented in this piece is the epitome of surrealism with the distorted figures, skyish background, and interaction between the animals. When I first saw this piece was immediately hooked with the use of color and the subjects involved. I adore how surrealists can transform us to that dream state through their art. It is quite lovely and at times can get a little dark. Dali was inspired by Sigmund Freud, a psychologist, and his ideas revolving around the unconscious mind. He was fascinated by odd juxtapositions that occur in a dream state. While Dali adored surrealism through art, he also adored expressing it through food. Similar to Claude Monet, Dali was also a cook. He wrote his own cookbook with the recipes made by chefs at cuisine classiques such as Maxim’s, a restaurant in Paris that is considered the worlds most famous restaurant by many food critics. Dali used to host dinner parties with elaborate costumes and food served in satin slippers so he is very comfortable as well as elaborate with food. The grand gestures he had were presented through this cookbook. He had a strong connection with his cooking and his art to the point where his cookbook has photos of food in a surreal style. He incorporated collaging in his cookbook as well and it displays different unique combinations of food and art. In this book, Dali highlights the importance of presentation in a dish which he gives steps to do so through his recipes. His recipes are interesting! Some are as over the top as you think they would be and some are confusing. The way a cookbook is written is very important and while some recipes were written well, others were not.

I chose one that had a more simple recipe but I prefer mine more detailed. For example, the recipe I used just said to cook them for 1-½ uncovered but did not specify whether on low, medium, or high. Small things like that are key to executing a recipe. With the recipes being a little confusing, the meals were also lengthy. Some meals take 3 hours while others take 24 hours. This is one of the cookbooks where you read the recipe beforehand. In theory, my recipe was supposed to take around 4 hours without prep but I cut it down to 2 hours with prep. I modified this recipe a little by replacing the beef with chicken and using less cooking time. Some recipes are super extravagant such as his crayfish recipe where he never fully gives the ingredients (to respect the chef’s wishes) but still explains how to cook them along with how to organize them in his elaborate dome. That dish is an eye-catcher and has a picture along with a painting of it being displayed. The recipe I chose was the sweet and sour beef round. The good thing about his recipes is that theft tends to come with aside from what I saw.

One recipe would be one meal instead of separated by entree and side. This recipe included a cauliflower mashed potato dish alongside the sweet and sour beef round. For one, the cauliflower mashed potato was genius and I was surprised I never heard of it or even thought to try to make something similar. Best believe that one was added to my recipe book. The sweet and sour beef round was an experience to make. The recipe was very minimal so I tried my best with it. I replaced the meat as stated earlier but I also replaced the wine vinegar with sherry vinegar. I cut the recipe in half as well just because I was feeding two people. What I started to realize during this journey is that not many of the recipes I have looked at involved seasoning. I like how it gives that freedom to the cook for them to season however they would like. However, if you follow the recipe exactly without seasoning then it might taste bland so keep that in mind! The chicken (a.k.a beef round) was very delicious. I feel as if it lived up to its

name of being sweet and sour. The vinegar gave it more of a tang instead of a sour. To me, when I hear sour, I think of sour candy. I promise it was not sour candy. The mashed potatoes were my favorite part of the dish. I love sly ways to slide vegetables into comfort food. Since it does not say what temperature to cook the meat with the tomatoes on, I settled for medium-low but I kept checking to make sure it was not burning. The recipe requires it to cook for 1 and a half hours but I did not have that kind of time. So I settled to cook it for how long the tomatoes turn into their own sauce which was around 30 minutes. Even the vinegar was supposed to cook for another hour and I cooked that for 30 as well. However, the dish was really good. I bet it would have tasted better with beef but the chicken was just as good! I would suggest looking into his cookbook because it is an experience. It also shows the connection art can have with food and artists with food which is always lovely.