What it feels like to be one year old

One year ago today, I started writing The Voluptuous Table.  It would be an understatement to say that it's been a lot of fun.  I've been in both the most creative place and the most joyous place in my life that I can ever remember being in.

During the past year, I've learned a lot about blogging (that's not over yet), I've learned a lot about cooking (that's not over yet), I've learned a lot about writing about cooking (that's not over yet) and I'm starting to learn a lot about food photography (that's just begun).  I still have a lot of fear and trepidation about taking photos and posting them on the blog.  Lighting?  Angle?  Underexposed?  Overexposed?  Background?  Foreground?  You get the, ah, picture.

What's wrong with this picture?

I have a lot of people to thank for helping me get to be the ripe old age of one.  First of all, I deeply appreciate my readers.  Without them, there would have been no reason to dedicate so much time and intensity to cooking and writing.  It's been like having my own little fan club.  So thank you, thank you, thank you.  You have no idea what it's like to hear from your readers that you have changed the way they eat, the way they look at food and the kinds of food they now choose to feed their families.  That is most gratifying.

I also want to thank my wine guys at Spec's, one of which took off for Napa last fall and is now a successful permanent staff member at Spottswoode Estate Vineyard and Winery.  Mr. "I'd Rather Be Making Wine in California" first knocked my socks off with his extraordinary palate and preferences in wine, then he knocked his future employer's socks off as a temporary harvest worker.  Then he was offered a position created just for him with his own office and fabulous other perks.  We all knew he would succeed and are terribly happy for him now that he is finally in his element, but we miss him sorely.  I'm glad that he's still available to talk with me on the phone into the wee hours about food and wine.

My remaining wine guy, tied to Texas and to his extended family, continues to be a great source of information, humor and inspiration.  He writes a wonderful weekly column for his customers and has been instrumental in helping me launch The Voluptuous Table as a virtual entity.  I'm grateful for his on-the-spot advice and cheerful help with just about any idea I throw his way.  We've discussed many menus together, cooked and shared meals together, but have not tasted not nearly enough wine.  I look forward to that and think of it as my "ongoing research."

I am thankful for my blog consultant, who unfailingly gives me good advice (like "you should add pictures to break up your writing a bit") and great suggestions as to how to improve format, traffic and all things digital.  He's been wonderfully supportive and a great resource.  Since I'm practically a neo-Luddite, I think it's a near-miracle that he's been able to break through my resistance about how I think writing should be and to nudge me into the 21st century.

Can you find the lentil in this picture?

I especially want to thank my closest friends and family, who (mostly eagerly and expectantly) were the guinea pigs in my many in vivo experiments and who consistently supported me and gave me honest feedback.  And I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to my husband.  Without his love, support and encouragement, I don't think the blog, or anything relating to the The Voluptuous Table, would have been so successful.  And without his creative labor, I literally would not have a Voluptuous Table for my guests to gather around.  Thanks, honey, for all you do for me and especially for those times you put up with my "less-than-one-hour-before-guests-arrive-and-I'm-in-the-weeds" meltdowns.

Finally, I want to mention my dear friend, TXMama, who left us very suddenly at the end of last year.  My friendship with her was initiated by our mutual love of food and centered around food and cooking.  We did a lot of that together for many years.  She was a strong supporter of my blog when I first started writing and told me that she experienced a lot of joy in hearing about all things Voluptuous Table even though her health prohibited her from all her formerly favorite activities.  Although she can no longer join me in the kitchen as she had many times, she remains with me in spirit.  I'm convinced that her guardian angel status now protects me from cutting and burning myself, because I haven't done that very much since she went to that Great Dream Kitchen in the Sky where I am sure that she is at least sous chef to St. Peter.

So happy birthday, Voluptuous Table!  May your tastebuds keep dancing!

Soft core food porn

The use of food and the reliance on it for pleasure is ages old.  No, I do not have a reference here, but think about it for a moment.  Think about the habits of ancient Romans and Grecians, who were historically excessive in their pursuit of pleasure.  Throwing a toga party?  Then that meant a feast, dancing women, and a lot of wine.  Heaping platters of meats, fruits, confections.  In Medieval times not much changed except that that rich were richer and the poor were poorer.  Trying to forget a hard day on the rack?  Have a feast with dancing women, and a lot of wine if you can afford it.  Serve heaping platters of meats, fruits, confections.   The Renaissance brought with it even more attention to rich foods and pleasurable experiences, especially during entertaining.  Fast forward to the Gilded Age and everything is sparkling and oppulent for those who entertain with feasts, dancing women, and a lot of wine.  Heaping platters of meats, fruits, and confections.  And present day?  At Vindaloo's Bordello of Boudin there are frequently feasts, dancing women, and a lot of wine.  Heaping platters of meats, fruits and confections.  Why break with tradition?

Historically, food and pleasure are inextricably linked and the appreciation of food is entwined with the appreciation of other pleasurable activities.  We could certainly have a discussion about dopamine receptors and pleasure/reward and endorphins and satiation levels, but let's leave those details to the behaviorists.  What I'm really interested in is the creation and presentation of food and pleasurable food experiences.  That's really the whole reason that The Voluptuous Table even exists.  I have an almost unflagging desire to transform something that all humans must do on a regular basis into something more than mundanely life-sustaining.  I want food to be a revelation, a gift, a way of entertaining yourself and others, a source of pleasure every day. 

The best way that I can bring that to you as my readers, short of having you as guests in my home, is to give you a virtual experience of pleasurable food experiences through my writing.  The use of imagination, language, imagery and visualization is important in my attempts to do this.  Several of you have asked about photographs of the food I cook and write about.  I have thought about this option for several weeks now and have come to the same conclusion each time the question arises.  Photography is not where Vindaloo's skills lie.  Many people will include pictures with their food blogs and that's great.  Vindaloo is just as visually and gustatorially stimulated by a beautiful plate of osso bucco as the next person.  The aromas, textures, and flavors are easily recalled and I think: "Now, let's go get some veal shanks for dinner," which is what the picture is designed to do--trigger my sense of desire for an unctious, aromatic plate of osso bucco.  Apparently this phenomenon also happens to Guy Fieri, who has commented that his tastebuds do the "Niagra Falls effect."

Recently, several food writers have noted the connection between the food production industry in visual media and the pornography industry.  Hence the term "food porn."  If some of you are surprised or even shocked by this analogy, consider this chain of references from a popular cultural information website:  "'Food porn" specifically refers to food photography and styling that presents food glamorously or provocatively, as in glamour photography or pornographic photography."  Although I normally wouldn't use Wikipedia to support my claims (being trained in more scholarly research methods by the good folk who hang out in the ivory towers), I thought it was the most succinct and relevant reference point.

Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations, whom I absolutely adore for his Bad Boy antics on the Travel Channel and elsewhere (follow him on Twitter, he's pretty amusing), popularized the concept of food porn by producing several episodes of shows that "present[ed] a XXX selection of all that's lip-smacking and luscious in the world of food. For hardcore viewers only."  Notice the the use of terminology formerly linked specifically to pornography: "For hardcore viewers only."  The photography and editing were pretty intense and, I thought, pretty provocative.  For Mr. Bourdain's analysis of this series, specifically the concept of the "money shot" see here.  There is nothing more titillating to Vindaloo than a Bad Boy who is also a Thinker!

But I believe that we are visually over-stimulated in our culture.  We are constantly bombarded with images, both subliminal and overt.  In some studies, visual imagery has been linked with the power to deliver a significant load of dopamine to the pleasure center of the brain.  However, it is as if we are on stimulation overload all the time in our culture.  To make a blatant point, visual overload is what the porn industry relies on.  On another, but certainly not unrelated level, the food industry relies on visual overload to 1.) capture your attention; 2.) trigger dopamine release and pleasure; and 3.) induce desire for a specific food.  If you're still doubtful of my claims, do a little in vivo, highly subjective experiment and pay close attention to the number of times food is glamorized and even sexualized in the printed media, or to the next fast-food hamburger commercial you see on TV.  Remember the controversy and uproar over the Paris Hilton ad for Carl's Jr. hamburgers?  Pay close attention to what happens when you see these images.  I do realize that some of us are just not triggered by images of hamburgers, or by images of hamburgers being eaten by a wet, sudsy Paris Hilton.  But put a food magazine in my hands and my dopamine receptors almost short-circuit if I'm looking at those gorgeous pictures.  In another vein, I have a good friend who says that she can't watch the Food Network at night because it makes her too hungry. 

The way that I want to entice and excite my readers is through visual imagery that relies on much more subtle ways of stimulating those dopamine receptors.  I want to write "soft core food porn," if you please, and plan to supplement my writing with no cheesecake.  As I observe the way in which technology is moving, I fear that writing in such a way is becoming a lost art, swallowed up by the visual media industry.  There are very few food blogs that rely on the printed word only.  But I want to write about the foods I cook, present and enjoy in such a way that you will want to try to create your own pleasureable experiences, simply after reading my posts.  I want you to see the food in your mind, to smell it and taste it in anticipation of a pleasurable experience.  In other words, I want you to use that part of your brain called "imagination."  The comments from many of you so far have indicated that I'm headed in the right direction.

So think of Vindaloo, if you will, as the Anais Nin of food writing.  Or think of Vindaloo as an old-fashioned girl, if you must.  I'm not saying that I will never include pictures of what I'm cooking in my blog, but I am saying that my main focus is on the written word.  It is still a very powerful and persuasive way of connecting to others.  Those of you who enjoy reading already know that.

May your tastebuds continue to dance!