ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author supports the essential role of improvisation both in making and in perceiving. He uses food and gustatory taste as a particular case study, placing argument in a broader framework, namely the ecological approach to knowledge and perception. The cooking process, thus, seems to have little to do with creativity and even less with improvisation. Western modernity, since the 18th century on, created a widespread framework according to which the space for creativity lies in the head of the cook, who becomes a chef when he is particularly talented. One of the most famous chefs in the world, Massimo Bottura, once said that there could not be improvisation in cooking techniques, while there can be improvisation in the ideas. Taste is improvisation because it is a task like a fluid joint, a knot of different features interwoven. Because of its openness, “task” indicates a qualitative and narrative dimension, not an explicative one.
