The Italian movement, founded by Thomas Marinetti, rightly and wrongly associated with fascism cultivated a modern mythology of speed.  In his 1909 Futurist Manifesto, he charts a violent, energetic movement that sings “the man at the wheel, the ideal axis of which crosses the earth, itself hurled along its orbit.” http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html

Here is an excerpt from the 1931 Futurist Cookbook  that felt appropriate for upcoming Valentine’s Day. It makes us ask, what is the taste of love and desire? And, by extension……..What would my 2014 menu show? I’ll have to think about this one and get back to you.

I desire you: antipasto composed of a myriad selection of exquisite tid-bits, which the waiter will only let them admire, while She contents herself with bread and butter.

Flesh Adored: A big plate made from a shining mirror. In the centre, chicken slices perfumed with amber and covered with a thin layer of cherry jam. She while eating, will admire her reflection in the plate.

This is How I’ll Love You: Little tubes of pastry filled with many different flavours, one of plums, one of apples cooked in rum, one of potatoes drenched in cognac, one of sweet rice, etc. She, without batting an eyelid, will eat them all.

Super Passion: A very compact cake of sweet pastry with small cavities on the top filled with anise, glacier mints, rum, juniper and Amaro.

Tonight With Me: A very ripe orange enclosed in a large hollowed-out sweet pepper, embedded in a thick zabaglione flavoured with juniper and salted with little bits of oyster and drops of sea water.