The meal is ready, and the table is spread. The guests take their seats. Now what? Do they each take up a copy of the recipe manual, pore over a list of the meal's constituent proteins, vitamins and minerals and so on? Are they content merely to discuss the spread before them, commenting on its appearance, its nutritional value, its benefits for life, energy and vigour? Do they rummage in their bag or pocket for their mobile gizmo in order to photograph the board as a keepsake? Do they badger their host for the recipe? And leave it at that? Or what? Was that the purpose of the spread? Surely, the guests will reach for knife and fork with anticipation. They know the food has to be eaten and digested. Only then can the proteins, the vitamins and the minerals yield their benefits and do their work, and do it for them. And the whole experience is not meant to be a dry, boring exercise, nor merely confined to the cerebral, but something to be savoured with gratitude. |