The throat is one of the capital sins, but being around a table is one of the most powerful elements of cohesion in any human community. Food, more than need of the body, involves sociability, which would be a need of the soul.

No matter whether it is the frugal meal of unsophisticated spirits, or the plentiful and almost "excessive" table of paintings by 17th-century Clara Peeters in Holland, eating becomes a physiological, social, and even a moral act (what is a sin, falling or resisting the conventual sweets of Josefa de Óbidos?).

The quintessential table is the one for large family occasions, where bonds or conflicts are strengthened. And because the relationship with food is like life, there are also tables ready for non-arriving guests and dinners that cool off the disappointment of anyone who knows that night will not be as one had imagined.