“Il pranzo di Babette”: l'artista come chef

In Babette's Feast – Il pranzo di Babette – Karen Blixen paints a vivid picture of an extraordinary feast that, celebrating food as art and the chef as artist, creates a kind of allegorical dimension in which the artistry of food reveals the superb artistry of literary creation. Beginning with the analysis of the cultural aspects concerned with that allegorical dimension, the article moves on to investigate the complex interactions among the metaphorical binomials food/art, chef/artist and diners/audience. A close reading of the text reveals how each diner/reader is involved in a journey of discovery of his/her own identity and highlights Blixen's perspective on literature and any creative act: art is capable of sustaining a great variety of reactions and interpretations and, above all, offering us the opportunity to experience the world in a unique and personal way.