Washington 1

A Prospectus for a Project on the Art Form of Cooking

Overview
Cooking is a form of artistic expression that deals with the mind, body and soul. Some
people only see cooking as a task or something that needs to be done after a long day of work.
However, there is more to it a person who is truly passionate about the art form of cooking
understands the body of knowledge that is involved. There are many things that a cook on way to
greatness need to understand. First, the history of the behind cooking can be traced back for 1,000
of years. Cooking was a main way of survival, but cooking has now blossomed into something more,
as I stated previously it is a way that cooks can express themselves. Also, mastering the skills
associated with cooking are important aspects, cooks improving their skills can spend their time in a
smart and efficient way.

Project
I used Prezi for my form of presentation, it has many different features that made my topic
stand out. I ended up using one of the already made templates. Even though I used an already made
template I changed the transitions around to fit my presentation. I used a picture of a color kitchen
as my background and used white font so the words would stand out. I will be incorporated some
pictures of cooks preparing dishes. Videos are included in the presentation, at this point. I
incorporated different vides focusing on key points in the presentation, I had to search a while to
find the proper videos that would relate to each point. I used a lot of the information from my
formal essay to put together the presentation.

Washington 2

Rationale
Cooking has always been something I thought I was pretty good at and since Im from the
South I am very aware of the many different Southern dishes that is offered. I really got the passion
for cooking from watching my mom and family help cook and prepare meals, especially during
holidays. A lot of prep work went into all the dishes and as I got older I was able to participate more
in preparing the dishes. Cooking is a great to let a persons personality shine through. However, the
hard work and the skills of cooking does take time to master and I wanted to make sure that in this
project I elaborate on each aspect thoroughly.

Interpretation of texts
One of the sources I used was the Brittin and Bayans article International Journal of Consumer
Studies says, Food practices and food preferences are part of culture and are related to various
aspects of culture. Food practices and culture have had a local and regional history since civilization
began, and they are under continuing change (552). To explain the history of cooking in my
presentation. Another good source for my project would be the Crawford quotes. Crawford is a
philosopher and mechanic and in his book The World Beyond Your Head, the cook finds pleasure in
his ability to improvise: to meet the unpredictable demands of the situation, and to do so within the
structure imposed by the kitchen (57). In a way its easier for a cook when they have things
prepared. To know what ingredients are needed, and if something goes wrong they are able to
improvise and resolve the problem. Additionally, to be a master at this skill one must be mindful of
Crawfords words, Living skillfully requires that some things be settled (57). I found a great source
of improvisational cooking by Shallwani. They say "But improvisational cooking may not be for

Washington 3

everyone. Mark Bittman, author of "How to Cook Everything," says that for someone who doesn't
have some grounding in basic cooking methods such as roasting a chicken or properly heating a pan
before searing a piece of meat, recipe-less cooking will probably be a loss. And baking, which often
requires more precise measurements and temperatures, can be difficult to execute off the cuff"
(Shallwani). Additionally for the history slide I used the Artifacts Article by Steven. Steven says,
Cookbooks contain not only recipes, but hidden clues and cultural assumptions about class, race,
gender, and ethnicity. They reflect many of the dramatic transformations that have come to define
the boundaries of the modern public sphere. Academic Article in my project, by Tobias Stevens
Early American Cookbooks as Cultural Artifacts, Cookbooks contain not only recipes, but hidden clues
and cultural assumptions about class, race, gender, and ethnicity. They reflect many of the dramatic
transformations that have come to define the boundaries of the modern public sphere. The quote I
used for bringing up my point practicing skills was Ken Albalas article Toward A Historical Dialectic of
Culinary Styles, he gives an example about a cook, going on to say, He believes that the pies contain
a mishmash of ingredients chestnuts, figs and truffles, combinations of flavors that do not go
together, like sour ingredients with milk or cheese. So he has decided to write a new cookbook with
proper pairing of flavors (586). I also used one more quote for the practicing skills point by
Riveros-Cayo. Chef Guston Acurio says if he had to train somebody that has never heard about
ceviche, in the kitchen and the dining room, were talking about a completely different world than
that of the Italian restaurant. So what are my options? We had problems with service, so lets stop
and let it go. Or lets keep trying our best, make things different and learn in the process. And we are
learning through a trial and error experience sometimes (Riveros-Cayo).

Conclusion

Washington 4

What I would like to accomplish in this project is being able to give some history on a
particular style of cooking; in this case southern cooking. I would also like to elaborate on the things
that are required to be a great cook, as far as skills, effort, and time. I want to show that cooking is a
form of art and how cooks are able to express themselves through cooking.

Works Cited

Albala, Ken. Toward A Historical Dialectic of Culinary Styles. Historical Research 87.238 (2014):
581. Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Crawford, Matthew B. The World Beyond Your Head. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux,
2015. Print
Riveros-Cayo, Jorge. Living In Peru. 5 July 2013. Document. 11 December 2016.
Shallwani, Pervaiz. A Shift to Recipe-less Cooking. 1 April. 2009. Web. 11 December. 2013.
Tobias, Steven M. Early American Cookbooks as Cultural Artifacts. Papers on Language &
Literature 34.1 (1998): 3. MasterFILE Elite. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.