Interestingly, some philosophers think that it is not and that claims about the artistic value of food are misguided. They would tell us that all but one of our putative “artistic” experiences during our Roman day is of art; all, that is, but our dinner. One reason historically cited is what I call the “problem of consumption”: food is often dismissed as a genuine artistic medium on the grounds that the object of culinary art is consumed as it is enjoyed. A perfectly prepared veal chop, unlike Renoir’s masterpiece, exists only as long as it takes a diner to eat it. The objects of higher art forms, like painting and sculpture, do not suffer from this defect and, so the thinking goes, are proper art objects, while food is not.

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