Chef Daniel Boulud considers himself an artist. He expresses himself through food. He says that guests at his restaurants in New York, Palm Beach, Las Vegas, and Beijing should see his gourmand offerings as a cultural experience.

Exquisite food, Boulud told the Straight, enriches a person's mind and spirit, just like any other fine art.

“I think there is not a city in the world that does not wish to have a great restaurant,” he said in an interview at his Vancouver restaurant on December 1, days before Lumière reopened under his gentle gaze. “This is on par with the highest cultural offering a city can give. It's not for everyone, but ballet and symphony is not for everyone either.”

Is food art? During a recession, the implications are crucial. If restaurants start to close their doors as discretionary spending dries up, should they qualify for government arts funding?

Certainly, if restaurant food is art, Canadians prefer it to the fine-art fare that's served up by the Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada, and other agencies. According to Hill Strategies Research, just one in three Canadians visited an art gallery in 2005, while one in five went to the theatre. But Statistics Canada notes that a quarter of household food spending goes to restaurants, about $175 per month.

When asked, Canada Council for the Arts public-relations officer Carole Breton simply said food is not part of the council's mandate. Case closed.

The executive director of the B.C. Arts Council, Jeremy Long, thinks it should be debated—and he has just the forum for it. The council is currently holding stakeholder meetings across B.C., including one in Vancouver. If there's interest in including culinary arts in the council's mandate, he said, this is the time to raise it.

Elizabeth Keurvorst, executive director of the Creative City Network of Canada, said there should be more connection between arts and food.

“What's really tough in a recession is getting people out,” she said, “to continue to engage the community outside of the ”˜popcorn and DVD in their own houses' choice.”¦So to hear Daniel [Boulud] talking that way, I think the cultural people in Vancouver are going to be really happy to hear that from a restaurateur. I agree with him that it's an important part of culture.”

But the most affirmative answer came from Carl Martin, who is helping to coordinate B.C. Scene this May at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The festival is bringing 600 of this province's artists to the nation's capital to showcase their work. It includes visual artists, actors, musicians, and, yes, culinary artists.

“Culinary has always been part of the fest,” Martin told the Straight. “We make a big deal out of it because it is an art form and we treat it as such.”

However, a requirement for most arts funding is having nonprofit-society status. That alone disqualifies Lumière. But if the recession growls at Vancouver, you never know whether Canada's arts establishment will be forced to change its tune.