Food for Thought

From a book review in today's WSJ about a celebrity chef, wherein the author describes the "most astonishing meal" of his life, ingested at a Chicago restaurant called Alinea:

"The 24-course dinner, called the Grand Tour, lasted a dizzying five hours...intricate, jewel-like creations, so delicate they're plated with tweezers, came to the table on prongs, pins and antennae or were hung from small metal trapezes. They were brightly colored, edible works of art."

Meanwhile, back in reality, 15 percent of US households, translating into 17.4 million families or about 50 million people, were too poor to buy adequate food last year, according to a new report from the US Department of Agriculture. More than a third of these households, with as many as one million children, were missing meals on a regular basis, the study found.