fun at work

i'm writing an article for our online object of the month collection on fannie farmer. i've been reading the boston cooking-school cook book and chafing dish possibilities, along with plenty of biographical entries on fannie farmer to do this. i wanted to share some real *food for thought*:

Cookery is the art of preparing food for the nourishment of the body.
Prehistoric man may have lived on uncooked foods, but there are no savage races to-day who do not practice cookery in some way, however crude. Progress in civilization has been accompanied by progress in cookery. (p17 of the original facsimile edition of the boston cooking-school cook book, 1896)

Food is anything which nourishes the body. Thirteen elements enter into the composition of the body: oxygen, 62 1/2%; carbon, 21 1/2%; hydrogen, 10%; nitrogen, 3%; calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, chlorine, sodium, magnesium, iron, and fluorine the remaining 3%. [...] Food is necessary for growth, repair, and energy; therefore the elements composing the body must be found in the food. The thirteen elements named are formed into chemical compounds by the animal and vegetable kingdom to support the highest order of being, man. (p1 of the original facsimile edition of the boston cooking-school cook book, 1896)

I wish more people today thought so highly of food and its preparation!