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American celebrity chef and architect of California cuisine Jeremiah Tower talks about the erotic relationship between food and sex and other desires, including religious beliefs. Warning: this talk will include explicit content.

Tower looks at the aphrodisiac, from the well-known oyster to the lesser known experiences of Agnes Blannbekin ((1244-1315), who was known for her visions of Christ and for the pleasure she gained from eating foreskins.  He explains the power of eating something if the belief in that power is strong enough, and explores what sparks desire and what kills it.

Tower trained as an architect but, finding himself short of money, he took a job at the then unknown Chez Panisse restaurant in California, where he worked with the chef/founder Alice Waters. Within a year he was equal partners with the owners of the restaurant and in charge of the kitchen. He went on to open the San Francisco restaurant Stars – among the top-grossing restaurants in the US for a decade – and to become one of the most influential figures in the American food scene. He has written several books, including Start the Fire: How I Began a Food Revolution in America, Jeremiah Tower’s New American Classics, and Table Manners: How to Behave in the Modern World and Why Bother. He has appeared on many leading US television shows including Good Morning America and The Late Show with David Letterman.

Tower also oversees the menu for this year’s black tie literary dinner on Saturday 1 April and introduces a showing of the film of his life on March 26.