sex and the fettuccine?

I should preface this by saying that I’m well aware that the Daily Telegraph is not exactly hard-hitting journalism.  It’s more like an extremely light, almost frothy, read – bordering on completely biased reporting.  Having said that, every now and then there is an article that catches my eye, thus I bring you this little gem from last week entitled “Sex and the fettucine – our saucy secret’s out’*.  Apparently, studies have been conducted that conclusively show that romance begins in the kitchen.  Who knew?  This is completely new information.

Not.

Surely I’m not the only one who thinks that food and romance are inextricably linked?  I was under the impression that an array of sensuous foodstuffs prepared with love and shared with someone spesh is a universally tried and tested method that will get pretty much anyone in the mood for sexy time.**  Doesn’t everyone do this?  Actually, for some people just the anticipation of gourmet goodness is enough to get them going.

Which brings to mind one of my favourite books of all time – La Cucina by Lily Prior.  The descriptions of how l’Inglese woos Rosa Fiore with his passion and culinary hedonism, and how he seduces her by eating spaghetti off her body will quite literally make your toes curl, and I can guarantee that you will never look at oysters the same way again.

Speaking of culinary adventures, the dude that was kicked off MasterChef the other week made a comment that I found particularly interesting.  He said something about how being a contestant on the show had taught him the difference between being able to prepare meals and being able to cook, and that obviously now he considered himself able to cook.  I’d never really thought about from this perspective before, but I think he’s right.  Anyone that can read is able to follow a recipe and prepare a meal.  But, I reckon that when you put your passion and creativity into the food that you prepare, that’s when you’re actually able to cook. I would say that there’s a good chance there will be many disasters with this approach, which might not happen as regularly with someone that can only follow a recipe.  But, true foodie greatness is what happens when you improvise and put your own spin on things.

Just as a side point, on that same episode of MasterChef I thought it was interesting that the judges commented on how the personality of the cook comes through in an apple pie. I don’t have any apples at the moment, but this weekend I plan on making a Beef and Guinness pie…. I wonder what that says about my personality….

*I’m assuming that this is a poor attempt at a play on words…Sex and the City maybe?  Seriously, who writes this stuff?

**add a decent bottle of red to the mix and it’s all over.