April 4 2022 - Earth Not Round

 

The earth is not round.  So the BBC Earth Facebook channel tells me in a short video. Does that mean it is flat?  No, not that either.  They say that it is an oblate spheroid. And that it isn't a fixed shape.  This makes me think of my Flaming Pear Flexifly filters, as they all have mathematical names.  There's an oblate one or two. The tallest mountain, Mount Everest isn't the highest mountain from the centre of the Earth.  Mt. Chimborozo turns out to be the furthest from the centre of the Earth.  So there we are with another scientific correction. And what do scientists call the Earth's shape? They call the Earth roundish.  Doesn't science has its own way of being precise and being vague.   In comparison to scientists who are able to get more precise about the exact shape and its fluctuations, the members of the Flat Earth Society make up wild unproven theories that physicists can only scoff at.  Like the "US model" where the Sun and Moon are 50 km in diameter and circle the disc-shaped Earth at a height of 5500 km with the stars above this on a rotating dome.   Poor scientists, here they are with the tools to describe all the amazing aspects of the Earth and how its shape functions.  And what awaits them? The simpleton, child world of Flat-Earth conspiracy followers who are growing in numbers.  It turns out that conspiracy minded people are tuned into flat earth ideas. There is great worry over the growing number of conspiracy followers rather than science followers and this could overturn political and education systems. The advice within the science community today is to engage flat-Earthers thoughtfully and respectfully - a process acknowledged as going to be excruciatingly painful.  I just don't think that a sounds feasible or reasonable, either. I went another route, and spent a bit of time with my Flexifly filters, finding an oblate series. This is oblate north pole and then the oblate south pole to present the Pearl Morissette Menu.  This matches up with the Earth being more like a football than a soccer ball.   The bottom picture?  The beet red velvet cake with sorrel and false cardamon.  You can see how miniature it is with these paper thin layers of cake and filling.  An amazing experience.

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Sep 27 2021 - Cooking Schools

 

What about cooking schools/ apprenticeships?  How long ago might those schools or apprenticeships have started? There seems to be no history of cook/chef training on the internet. A search for the "history of italian cooking schools" brought 0 results in under 1 second.  There is some interesting history:  I found a note that Catherine De Medici arrived in France from Florence with a retinue of master chefs. “Catherine and her court crossed the Alps, bringing with them her cooks, products, and the recipes that she was used to in Italy. Their gastronomic culture would strongly influence French cuisine.” That was in 1533 and she is credited with the development of the French Cuisine.  She is credited with revolutionizing the dining experience and practices of the French.  Included in her court that she brought with her were waiters. Her greatest contribution to the table - the use of utensils and the fork.  And one star on the horizon appears: The French established the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris in 1896.  Cooking schools of other countries don't seem to be covered.  Lots of current day articles for where to take Italian cooking classes. "Le Cordon Bleu means 'blue ribbon' and has been used in relation to culinary excellence since the 16th century. In 1578, King Henry III formed a special order of knights called l'Ordre des Chevaliers du Saint Esprit. The symbol of this prestigious order was a cross hung on a blue ribbon, or cordon bleu, and the order was associated with extravagant banquets and feasts." And then documenting things really gets underway in the 20th century: the history of American cooking schools starts with the American Culinary Federation being founded in 1929, and Culinary Institutes following thereafter.  Of course, it is Julia Child with her French Chef television show starting in 1963 that captivated America's attention and launched a thousand cooking school ships. Our picture was taken at the Pearl Morissette restaurant in Jordan.  It got me thinking about chef training.

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