Sensual Side of Food class explores relationship between sex, what we eat
By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic
In Print: Wednesday, October 7, 2009
John Saxton of Urban Culinary Cuisine in Tampa leads one of his Sensual Side of Food classes. The sessions explore foods that can result in a good sex life, and how to share them with your lover. “People prefer one of the four tastes, so if you like bitter and your lover likes sour, there’s a problem.”
TAMPA — When John Saxton was younger, his mother had his number. With a degree in health science and training as a chef's apprentice at New York's fabled Windows on the World, he was mulling over career options.
His mother said, "You're going to teach people to make love, aren't you? That's all you care about, food and sex."
"No," Saxton answered his mother solemnly, "I care about making the world a better place."
To which his mom responded, "Like I said, food and sex."
Fast forward to 2009. Saxton and his wife, Rose, own Urban Culinary Cuisine, a suburban Tampa restaurant on Cross Creek Boulevard specializing in "upscale African-American cuisine." And every other Friday night, from 9 to 11, he teaches a class on the sensual side of food.
Mmm-hmm, food and sex.
School in session
Saxton's classes are run like workshops, couples learning about the effects of food on the body. There are exercises to improve kissing, exercises to explore likes and dislikes and a couple of exercises that seem expressly designed to make journalists blush and fidget with their notebooks. Along the way, Saxton gives tips on what to eat for a long, strong sex life.
It used to be that lovers ate the same food. "Now, we go to a restaurant and a husband gets a burger and the wife orders sushi. People fall out of love because they don't like the way each other smells. People prefer one of the four tastes, so if you like bitter and your lover likes sour, there's a problem."
So what are sexy foods?
"No chocolate, no oysters. Aim for things that are more soothing to the system. How about toast with tea and jelly? No worrying about bad breath, no worries about belching."
Tea and toast? That's his secret weapon?
Not really.
"Sensual foods are about being conciliatory and remembering. If you met your woman over a plate of Lobster Thermidor, then bring that back. Go back to foods from a time when things were simple."
Saxton lets fly with a dizzying litany of nutritional information: Citrus is good for men, its folic acid found to boost sperm count (true) and its other acids a natural acne remedy (signs point to yes, alpha-hydroxy acids help reduce acne). Strawberries calm women's nerves (hmm, maybe). Blueberries help with the ill effects of gravity on men (couldn't find anything to corroborate this one, though their antioxidants are celebrated as disease fighters).
But more important, he talks about how men and women think differently.
"Men, a woman is 10 steps ahead of us every day. That's the way God made them. That's why guys like to watch a woman walk down the street. Gentlemen, when she thinks too much, calm her down, and make sure she has you in her thoughts every day.
"You think you've been married to the same woman for 30 years? No, she's a different woman from week to week. Women are constantly changing."
The class nibbles pastries that hint at the human form — a cookie roll that represents man, a spicy, buttery gypsy wrap that represents woman — and contemplates the gender differences Saxton describes.
Despite the great Mars-Venus divide, or because of it, Saxton speaks of Rose, to whom he has been married more than 30 years and with whom he has three teenagers.
"God only gave us a handful of things that make us truly happy. Beyond food and sex, you have to find your own things. She is my puzzle piece, the one who fits me perfectly."
At evening's end, Saxton busts out a gorgeous recitation of Shakespeare's 44th sonnet. It's one about the narrator's absent lover and the destructive distance between them. Nothing tea and toast couldn't cure.
Laura Reiley can be reached at lreiley@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2293. Her blog, the Mouth of Tampa Bay, is at blogs.tampabay.com/dining.
. If you go
Sensual Side of Food
For more information on Urban Culinary Cuisine's classes, call (813) 994-3800 or visit urbanculinarycuisine.com. Classes are $15 and the restaurant is at 10016 Cross Creek Blvd., Tampa.
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