October 16, 2002

THE AMERICAN OBSERVER finds much to deplore in these strangely tranquil prewar days, but the future is perhaps not as bleak as readers of the morning newspaper might suppose. For there are children among us, and they are bright with life and hope, as children are wont to be, and they know a little something about food – at least if they are in Annie Wong's fifth-grade class at the George Peabody School.

I stopped in one morning last week to find the class, under the nimble guest tutelage of Palio d'Asti executive chef Daniel Scherotter, considering the five basic tastes and how they do and don't go together. The presentation was part of a "Days of Taste" program organized by the American Institute of Wine and Food, and while the betoqued fifth graders clearly had plenty of room to learn about edibles (the only use they could think of for mint was as a flavoring for toothpaste) and were perhaps overfond of the sugar cubes distributed to them – along with pretzels, radicchio, unsweetened chocolate, and pickled ginger, exemplars of the other four tastes – they struck me, on the whole, as surprisingly well informed about gastronomy.

Although the class was predominantly Asian, for instance, a forest of hands shot up eagerly when Scherotter asked if anyone liked chicharrones, the deep-fried pork skins found in Latin American markets. The class also identified seasonality of ingredients as a major factor in deciding what to make for dinner, and cow's milk as an issue for the lactose intolerant.

On the other hand, there was the toothpaste business, and the citing of waffles as a favorite food of spring ("Do you have a waffle tree growing in your garden at home?" Scherotter asked, to general hilarity). And plainly the children did not like the idea of eating monkey brains, or the proposition that controlled decay results in many delicacies, from cheese to ham to kimchee.

"Cheese is rotten milk!" Scherotter proclaimed. "Sorry to spoil your day!"

Actually, it would have taken far more than the airing of dirty laundry about cheese to ruin what turned out to be an appealing mix of pedagogy and fun. And perhaps that was the deeper lesson of Scherotter's appearance. Food is serious business, of course – it is an essential cultural point of reference, and the ways in which it is produced, prepared, and enjoyed matter alike to human health and the health of the wide world around us – but at the same time it is endlessly absorbing and pleasurable. Food is, in fact, the perfect occasion for whispering, giggling, and guffawing, but of course no fifth grader needs to be taught that lesson.