I do a radio program for WTTU 88.5 FM called "Cooking with Sound." Much like everything else I do, it is a collage of fiction, food, and music. I enjoy making up the stories for all the characters I use, and in some cases, those characters either are real people or resemble real people. I exaggerate their music preferences in order to allow a semblance of character to shine. When I do talk about food, it is usually based on something one of them had taught me.
I plan on developing my idea when my show starts again in January. It is always evolving, I can't really figure out how to define what I wish to convey, but I know there is something lurking that must be expressed. By allowing the show to rely a great deal on spontaneity, I believe it assumes an organic quality. How's that for paradox? Music generated through some digital means, transmitted, and either streamed from the internet or played on a radio. I don't own a radio. How can it be organic if all the ingredients for the show are synthetic? For one, the idea emanates from an organic entity, me. I'm the one who chooses the songs, contrives the stories, and shares them with other organic entities who might be listening. It is like sitting around a glowing screen of fire while we describe our daily experiences. Only this is a one way street where it's just me talking. There lies another issue. How can something be labeled a lie if there is some kernel of truth from which it sprouts? I have heard people say all of communication is essentially a lie because to convey our relationship with reality requires media reliant upon the creator. Therefore, this subjective interpretation of reality is relayed and subsequently, removed from the truth of a thing. But once something exists, even in a field of symbols, it too achieves a life of its own. It becomes another construct that infiltrates consciousness and shapes it. Maybe it is all one big lie, but it is a lie that is innocent in its infancy. All we have is what we experience. Maybe the idea of truth is the greatest delusion of all.
The one thing that amazes me about cooking is how precise it is in application. There are shortcuts and alterations, but essentially the process either works or it doesn't. Try making whipped cream out of heavy cream in a food processor. Walk away to check on something else and return several minutes later. Now you see that it has turned into butter, which isn't such a bad thing, but one that does not serve a likely purpose on that Strawberry Shortbread Delight that has delighted the clientele since 1990. My point is that there are parameters within cooking that must be followed or else your end product ends up hardly resembling the vision of it. So maybe a marinara sauce lacking an anchovy undernote could be considered a lie. Or a buerre blanc that fails to utilize vinegar. You probably shouldn't use ham hocks to make a chocolate cake or add olive oil to your fluffy meringue. There is a degree of translation involved in food preparation. Common sense most often prevails in most procedures, no chewing gum with the pasta, no crushed clam shells in the creme brulee. It may sound ridiculous.
If what we perceive, before we even start to think about it, constitutes the truth, and what we interpret after is a lie, then there's really no debate. All attempts at communicating are inherently flawed and cannot be trusted. As evidenced by things in this world that have been made, whether buildings or dandelion wine, there is something beyond our inclination to call something lie or truth. Some things work, some things fail. Whether truth or lie is all an illusion. What works, works. What doesn't ends up being another idea, equally real but less effective.
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