Culinary Arts

I recently tried a dish that a friend of mine made, consisting of vegetables and spices, which was completely covered in aluminum foil and cooked over a fire.  A simple recipe, but delicious and nutritious.  Is this art?  Does its simplicity keep it from being art?  Is it more likely to be art if my friend made up the recipe himself?  Or does the fact that its aesthetic value lies not in the way it looks or sounds, but in the way it tastes and smells, keep it from being art?  It was mentioned in class that the eyes and ears are more objective than the tongue, and that physical tastes are harder to gauge or judge (I forget the exact wording).  But what about acquired tastes?