It has been stated quite rightly that the school kitchen, where children are taught to cook, as well as being a fundamental learning for life – especially for those whose vocation will later lead them to become professionals of the stove – is also a great source of mathematical inspiration. Shaping dough for cookies or pasta (one of the first things taught) can be oriented to highlight geometric shapes. Working the dough to make rectangular, round, square pasta, to make balls then spheres, cylinders (little logs), using pastry cutters to form the dough into various shapes, knives (which can be plastic) to cut triangular cookies – these are all activities for younger children that can incorporate the technical language of geometry and which, in addition, with trial and error, and by comparing end results, will gradually build up basic geometric ideas.
This is one aspect of geometry in early childhood. But at the professional level, what is important is not only the beautiful and evocative presentation of each dish but also the personal touch presented in geometric form by the containers used (the countless shapes of plates, rectangular, oval, square or round in current tableware) and also in the contents.
In the communication of daily cookery, there are influences that are linked to geometry in various ways. On the one hand, geometry plays an important role in the technical aspects of preparing a dish: Sometimes this arises naturally from the form of the raw materials themselves or the need to take advantage of specific parts with specific geometry. In other cases, the geometric components of a dish can be imposed by the need to expand the outward appearance of the material to be cooked, both for better use of its constituents and for better interaction with the taste buds. And in almost all cases, in its final presentation, the design of a dish must always play with shapes and colours that convey more.
At this final stage, objective influences are involved, art, communication and contemporary culture itself, adapted by the subjectivity of taste and the sensitivity of the cook; also conveying the groundbreaking concept of subverting reality, essentially turning a squid into an empty circle or a round-shaped apple into a square. The squaring of the circle?
