For some people—perhaps you, fair reader?—food isn’t just fuel for living, but part of what makes life beautiful. Hence, foodies can be just as obsessed with the preparation and presentation of their meals as an art connoisseur with a painting’s color composition or a sculpture’s texture and form.

Few chefs would argue against cooking as an art form. So who is anyone to fight the comparison between art appreciation and purposefully consuming fine cuisine? Both require passion, skill and discerning taste (literally and figuratively).

This month the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance is embracing this idea with an event called “The Art of Food,” in which some of Tucson’s finest chefs will use new technologies and cooking techniques to present dishes and desserts as visual art—even cultural statements. Some plates of food will look like colorful paintings; others may appear in sculptural form.

Have you ever been to an art museum where photographs smell scrumptious, installations taste divine, and paintings sizzle delightfully? Doubtful. So forget that trip to MOMA and book a place at a table offered by SAACA. Neither your artistic sensibilities nor your taste buds will be disappointed.

The Art of Food is on Tues., Sept. 13, at 5 p.m., at the Monark Premium Appliance Co. Showroom, 3850 W. Orange Grove Road. Tickets are $25. Call 797-3959.