Is Cooking an Art?

Is Cooking an Art? Can Cooks be termed Artists? I have often heard both arguments that "Cooking is an Art" or "Cooking is a Science". Well for be it is both. I could not have found a better way of saying this but Alton Brown put it so beautifully. This is exactly how I feel.

"No matter how much creativity goes into it, cooking is an art or perhaps I should say a craft. It abides by absolute rules of physics and chemistry and that means unless you understand the science you can't reach the art. Cooking is like engineering and there is great beauty in it".

My two passions in life have been cooking and painting and they do have certain similarities like the creative aspects. But cooking does involve a lot more of the scientific aspects. The tastes, smells, textures and working with endless herbs and spices does require the knowledge of their properties and how they compliment each other. I heard this often from my mom that knowing the egg in details helps you scramble it better :) and that has stuck with me ever since. I like to understand the flavors, textures, smells and properties of each element before I can put them together. This cannot be accomplished overnight, it has taken me years of trial and error to be able to pull out stuff at random from my refrigerator and open up my spice cabinets and create a recipe instantly. It is second nature now, I don't even think about it.

Last night was a classic example of such a creation. I had put zero thought into what we would be eating for dinner and we had had an overdose of Indian, non-vegetarian food over the weekend so at about 5'O clock all I wanted was a simple and light dish full of vegetables. I opened up my fridge and got out a medeley of vegetables, pasta and random seasonings and spices to make "Mixed Vegetable Pasta with Pesto" I had the dinner ready in less than 30 minutes.

3 Step Pasta:

1. Chop all your vegetables, I used Onions, Zucchini, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Green beans, Carrots and Corn. Heat some olive oil and saute them on high heat so they get a little brown on the edges.
2. While the veggies are cooking, make the pasta according to package directions. I used the tri-colored spirals readily avalable at any grocery store. Drain and set aside.
3. For the pesto since I did not have fresh spices i made my own dried spice blend with Basil, Parsely, Salt, cornstarch, garlic powder and parmesan cheese. Added these to some marsala wine to make a paste. When ready to eat I tossed the veggies, pasta and pesto and heated it up a little.

For me, cooking is definately an Art that involves a whole lot of science to accomplish the end result; a delicious meal that gets all the oohs and aahs. Without the creativity the meals can be really blah and boring.

What do you think?