On the first course, and what it is really for.
The first course is not there to feed you. It is there to give your hands something to do while you decide whether this is going to work.
The first course is not, and has never been, about the food. It is a diplomatic device. A small edible object designed to sit between two people who are not yet quite sure what to do with each other.
This is why the great first courses of the world are all — without exception — the sort of things you eat slowly, in small pieces, without a great deal of concentration. A few olives. A single oyster. A slice of prosciutto folded like a letter. A spoon of soup.
Nothing that requires a knife. Nothing that requires a decision. Nothing you have to compliment.
The first course is a place to put your hands while your eyes do the harder work.
