Why do some economically well off cultures have good food and others do not? Wouldn’t making good food — by which I mean delicious food that you love to eat — be a prime directive of every land? They’ve had thousands of years to work on getting some great recipes down. After all, there are poor cultures that have great food. So, why do entire cultures screw up this most basic of human pleasures?

EXTRA CREDIT question: Last night I gave a talk and afterwards was taken to dinner (thank you very much for the food and conversation) at an Italian restaurant at which every dish had at least twelve ingredients: Rare roasted veal stuffed with striped bass crusted in romano crumbs roasted with fennel basted in onion pate fried in the oil of squid grown in olive oil and fed striped bass found inside the gullets of ocean-farmed veal. Question: Is this the sign of a chef who is insecure or imaginative? Creative or bored? (The right answer is probably the right answer to most questions: It depends.) [Tags: food cooking chefs puzzle doep]

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