THE PIARIST BALLS
Very early in the history of the school, we introduced monthly dinners,
annual Piarist balls, and I tried to develop the food services in the spirit
of the philosophy of the school.
As indicated, Calasanctius School was founded for the education of
gifted children, for excellence in the education of "excellent" young people.
The school tried to remain faithful to this philosophy of "excellence"
in selecting its student body, presenting them with a many-sided curriculum
and challenging their minds and varied talents. We tried to create, even
in our campus and buildings, artistically high standards where beauty and
human friendliness surrounded students and faculty, and where growing human
beings were exposed to enriching experiences, where the graciousness of
human communication and respect for fundamental values were the prevailing
atmosphere. For these reasons we had no cafeteria, but rather a dining
hall, which, without exaggeration, was the most artistically developed
eating place in the area. Batik murals hung on the walls, Florentine chandeliers,
wall to wall carpeting, oak tables and chairs, all combined into a simple
but artistically planned dining area. Although we were unable to serve
excellent foods in our daily school lunches, even simple food served in
this environment assisted in the artistic education of our students. The
dining hall was frequently used for special occasions, as in meetings of
the Calasanctius Oenological Society (the local chapter of the International
Wine and Food Society), and for other groups who came together to enjoy
the beauty of art in food and wine.
Some may say, how can we enjoy food and wine when so many millions
are starving? How can we enjoy such luxuries when millions are deprived?
To answer these questions is not the task of the cookbook introduction,
but I would like to make some comments. How can anyone enjoy life and laugh
when millions and millions are sick and weeping? How can we enjoy the art
of love when millions and millions are in prisons and concentration camps,
or living in empty marriages and deprived of love? How can we enjoy each
others' company and family life, when millions live in or come from disturbed
families? In the United States alone there are five million adults and
children so retarded that they cannot enjoy literature and art, nor will
they ever enjoy the beauties of nature in their surroundings. Does this
mean that we should abolish the luxuries of art, music and literature?
Without poetry, art and music, without seemingly wasteful temples, churches,
palaces and museums, human life would be empty.
Our need to nourish ourselves can unfold on various levels. There is
the purely biological need for the intake of food and drink to promote
the basic process of metabolism and make survival and growth possible.
Without nourishment--calorie intake--we would die, the same as animals.
And when we are in danger of starvation, indeed, we care not what we eat
or how. But humans are not content to eat just to satisfy biological needs.
We eat and drink to communicate. We sit together, serve each other, enjoy
company, thus participating in the life of human community. We need not
stop here, but can extend the meaning of eating and drinking to the sphere
of spiritual values. We can make it an art motivated by love and care.
And, indeed, a lot of love goes into the preparation of food. It is not
an exaggeration to say that a well planned and served dinner is a love
symbol. There is a difference between the assembly line type of food service
where we are fed like cattle, and the art of creative cooking, where we
feel the riches and the care of the human behind each course and behind
the whole setting of the dinner. In this sense, eating has a spiritual
dimension, reflecting the beauty of the food given us through human toil
and work and unselfish love. The work of a cook is indeed unselfish, what
is offered will disappear and only its memory will remain.
The same is true with drink. We can very rapidly drink ourselves under
the table, to forget, to escape, or we can drink for communication, to
enjoy the sparkle of wine, friendship, spirited conversation, in a real
"symposium" on a spiritual level.
Food and drink can also carry a religious meaning, as in participation
of the Holy Eucharist, or in other spiritual religious banquets of great
traditions. But it is not only religious traditions that use the symbol
of eating and drinking. The traditional feasts of Thanksgiving, Christmas,
as well as state banquets and diplomatic receptions, all underline the
fact that eating and drinking are not mere biological acts, but can carry
spiritual meanings and should carry human meanings.
To eat and drink in an artful way is not necessarily expensive. I have
eaten excellent food prepared with love in the simplest peasant homes in
my native Hungary. On the other hand, I have eaten very poor food and paid
ridiculous prices for drinks in expensive restaurants. Good cooking is
not wasteful, quite the opposite. And the quality of preparation, the proper
combination of ingredients, is not only creative but rather a loving art.
In order to cook well, certainly we need good raw materials, but more
important, we need loving care and knowledge. You can make an excellent
dish from tripe or a poor dish from the most expensive beef tenderloin.
You can make a palatable cake from dry beans, as I was compelled to do
in Hungary after the war, and you can ruin the most expensive ingredients
through carelessness.
The menus of the Piarist Balls represent a great variety of foods from
many corners of the world. I have never been one who believed that certain
countries produce the best foods, for example, France, China or Hungary.
There are many excellent foods available from all around the world for
different occasions and settings. And, as monotony in the art of love makes
marriage dull, so too is there monotony in eating foods always prepared
the same way. Yes, there are psychological reasons--childhood conditioning--why
we eat certain foods, enjoying some more than others, but this does not
mean that the exploration and discovery of new experiences cannot be enjoyable
and exciting--not only in food, but in other forms of human activity as
well. With food there is not "best" or "worst", there is art and love,
there is excellence.