When a lot of people hear the word cuisine, the first thing that comes to mind is food. The truth however, is that cuisine is a lot more. It’s possible for cuisine to be food, but the vice versa is not always the case. Cuisine is actually a French word that refers to the art, practices and techniques of preparing food or drink. With regard to food, it’s both an art as well as a craft; a combination of ingredients, flavors and cooking techniques.
Cuisine involves a lot of creativity and passion. Since cuisine involves covering several distinct methods that are used across different cultures throughout the world, this stresses the absolute importance in requiring a deep knowledge of food. Because cuisines vary from country to country, in order to prepare a particular cuisine, one must know that nation’s history, cultural influences, social structure, economy, religious preferences and climate, in order to most effectively produce actual cuisine and not merely food.
Hand in hand with cuisine is gastronomy, and both are very closely linked to one another. Gastronomy is the study of food, cooking, eating habits and culture. Cuisine is the practice of preparing food for consumption; it was originally intended to refer specifically to high-quality cuisine.
