A Zoo At The Last Supper
The reason we should all sit and eat together more.
“The table — the one that we come together to share food — is one of the most important cultural sites in the modern world, but the common table is in a state of peril… we don’t eat together anymore.” –Michael Hebberoy
Imagine zebras, giraffes, cattle, monkeys, and cats around the table in Michaelangelo’s iconic Last Supper as if Noah unleashed his ark on that Passover feast.
It would most likely end in carnage, no? The lion would eat the lamb and the leopard devour the goat. Animals will always feed, and humans feast/dine. We Homo sapiens are the only species to prepare and celebrate our food. Which begs the argument, does the act of eating together humanize us?
Michael Hebberoy would say so. The Seattle based “underground restaurateur, impresario and provocateur” has positioned himself as a cross disciplinary table maker. The table as he argues is the modern incarnation of the primordial fire. Before we had tables, the fire was our cooking and gathering space.
His practice has evolved since he began exploring the art of table making over ten years ago and over the years he has made tables with Hillary Clinton, Gore Vidal, and Spike Lee. But one thing drives this exploration: the belief that the table is the most valuable vehicle that we have to drive social change.
“In order for the food movement to gain real culture shifting momentum we need to put the proverbial horse back in front of the cart. Real progress will allude us if we don’t think about new models for eating local food.”
And we ought not look over such a seemingly simple archetype in this clean food movement. We must rethink how we share food, and the table is one of the most natural ways to do so.
“Eating is an agricultural act.” -Wendell Berry
It’s also a deeply cultural act. The word culture actually derives from the Latin word for agriculture (agricultura- ‘agri’ feild; ‘cultura’ growing, cultivating). Some historians would even argue that the culture as we know it was derives from the transition from hunting and gathering to cultivation of the land.
This question burns: What happens to our culture when we stop eating together? No doubt, we have seen the adulteration of ours.
The “table” — delineated to its most primordial state — is simply a fire or hearth. Before there was structure there was a simple common space where people gathered to sustain themselves. It represents the shared meal and a spark of warmth unmatched. It’s where we learn basic manners to interact within society at large; and it’s where we face our neighbors, our enemies, and ourselves.
The table gathering reminds us that we not only need food to survive, but we need the earth and we need each other. Thus, the loss of the “table” and the slow meal decays toward a loss of humanity.
We tip our hats to the many who have or are using “tablemaking” (outside of the restaurant) to push this movement forward. And may they inspire more experiments in tablemaking.
Originally posted on Barnraiser.us
Follow @csantaferraro
