Cooking in the Wrong Century

this is a short novella i read back and forth on the train (gifted by @pushkinpress_us ) that takes place over the course of a night-long dinner party. it feels like a modern ‘mrs.dalloway’ by virginia woolf. there’s a lot of commentary on social media presence and overall use in general. commentary on culture and things we do to fit into our place in society (despite us not wanting to do them), or not doing them at all and acting like we did. for example, posing and taking photos of being together, filters to smoothen the imperfections of the night. a critique on ‘foodporn’-why is that we take pictures of our food? do we want to remember the meal? this is not a thing that really was done before a cell phone, except yes it was. old masters created oil paintings of citrus, peels dangling lazily off the sides. figs and fish and other delicacies to show and immortalize their wealth. is that what we do now when we post a photo of our matcha or our $20 erewhon smoothie on instagram? is that what we do when we invite people over, buying the name brand store items, the best dessert, the most expensive bottle of wine? i enjoyed this read, and if you enjoy food and gatherings and sometimes get fed up with the fauxness of it all, you probably will too.