ABSTRACT
This paper is situated within architecture’s awkward relationship with ‘this thing called
theory’, particularly theory closely read from philosophy. More precisely, it is situated
within a discussion concerning the precession, conjunction or lag that this thing called
theory enjoys with the matter, and the formed material, of architecture. It brings together
three protagonists: the philosophers Plato and Henri Bergson, and the artist Gordon
Matta-Clark. Admittedly, they are unusual bedfellows; what brings them together here
is their shared interest in cooking, which each uses (metaphorically or literally) when
discussing method, be it philosophical, artistic or architectural.
