This month on Food and Horror – Octavia Cade on THE ART OF COOKING: HAUTE CUISINE AND HANNIBAL LECTER Octavia Cade is the author of Book Smugglers Publishing’s The Mussel Eater. Food & Horror is a regular monthly column from Octavia, in which she examines the close relationship between the things we eat and the horrific. THE ART OF COOKING: HAUTE CUISINE AND HANNIBAL LECTER Food & Horror: Episode 12 “I learned very early a scalpel cuts better points than a pencil sharpener” – Hannibal Lecter (“Aperitif”). Last month I talked about the horrific effects of industrialisation, of mechanism, on food. Potential dehumanisation moving in lockstep with factory ideals, the removal of food production and preparation from daily life. This month I focus on the mirror-opposite, for if the capacity for science is one of the hallmarks of humanity (however its application may disenfranchise the individual) then the capacity for art is equally characteristic. It’s not accurate to say that no other animal produces art – individual apes have been known to paint, for instance, as have elephants. More accurate is to say that no other species uses art as we do, for purpose. No-one has ever claimed that such […]