The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection
From Neoredemptive
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Robert Farrar Capon
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An Episcopal priest, father, husband, and lover of good food and good wine reflects on cooking, food, theology, and philosophy as he walks us slowly through his centerpiece recipe "Lamb for Eight People Four Times".
Doc's Take
This book was truly delightful in the truest sense of the word: it is filled with delights. There are delights for the palate (Capon loves butter in a way only a true Christian could), delights for the gear-head (he sings the praises of commercial appliances, professional cookware, and sharpening your own wavy-edged carbon steel bread knife), for the heart (his deconstruction of cocktail parties is brilliant), and for the theological thinker (Capon's repeated reflection on the sheer superfluity and unnecessity of creation could, if taken seriously, set much of what is wrong with theology in our own day aright). Self-important foodies beware, the book is devoted largely to ferial and not festial cooking, delighting in the extraordinary of the everyday. Self-important doctrinaires beware, there is no theologizing for its own sake here.
I certainly don't agree with every jot and tittle in the book (Capon makes a typical Anglican appeal to natural theology which, in my opinion, can not bear the burden he wants it to) and some of the details have become quite dated (including brands and dollar amounts), but the book is so refreshingly light-hearted, loving, and uncompromising that such trifles can be easily forgiven.
