A culinary experience begins with what we see. If you are blessed with sight, you have been attracted or repelled by food simply by looking at it. This primal mechanism was once a way, along with scent and touch, to determine if something was wholesome to eat. Today, this instinct has been elevated to an art form known as Haute Cuisine—the art of beautiful food.
Of course, the look of beautifully designed and prepared food must also be accompanied by sublime flavor and aroma in the form of balanced taste, smell, texture, and viscosity. This perfect blend of culinary knowledge is what distinguishes art for the palate from everyday fare. Great chefs of the world have made it their life’s work to find quintessential recipes that combine feasts for the eyes with soul-moving sensual experiences—exalted palatial adventures that speak freely in their own language.
One such chef is Shaun Hergatt, a Manhattan-based creative modernist known for his technically precise cooking and painterly presentations. Chef Shaun has elevated his beautifully designed plates, which are tableau-like in their arrangements, to food that is reminiscent of natural landscapes and abstract art in both taste language and his beautiful modeling. His Cherry Ripe, for example, is a dessert that triples the cherry essence while maximizing the symbolic image of the ideal cherry. He garnishes it with flavorful textures to set his vision into a nest and adorns it with edible leaves and stem. This pure juxtaposition of flavor with object d’art, which when paired together support and describe each other, is the very heart of beautiful food.
Conceptual masterpieces of the culinary arts are a product of classical training, an understanding of the human heart, and the quest for beauty as a sublime experience. “My whole life is about art,” says Hergatt. “My search for perfection of flavor profiles is the driving force of my work.” The pursuit of ingesting loveliness for the thrill of unique sensations extends into every aspect of culture. It is no coincidence that the word "taste" has the double meaning of refined and artful choices as well as how we recognize flavor combinations that delight or subdue the palate. It has become a shibboleth—a measure of culture and education—to understand this art form. The expert chef feeds his client’s sense of self-worth through culinary excellence. This is tasting the mastery.