The Performance of Food Art

I don't know if anyone still follows this blog, but I see no harm in posting as I see fit. I was browsing the New York Times today, and came across this interesting article about a piece of food "performance art."

A quick google search brought me to the artist's website, linked here:

To pull a few quotes from her bio section:

Jennifer Rubell creates participatory large-scale food projects that are a hybrid of performance art, installation art, and happenings. Often taking place inside a traditional art-world occasion -- gala dinner, opening night, gallery opening – her work deconstructs the meal or ritual, and reshapes it into a series of installations that prompt participants to partake without any instruction or guidance...

The projects fulfill the essential functions of the event itself while completely ignoring classic order, format and service. The event often unfolds in a series of spaces, through a series of installations that engage with the history of modern and contemporary art while at the same time providing food, drink, and wonder.

I can recall a time when I would scoff at such assertions and dismiss works like Rubell's as not art, but merely a stunt trying to play itself off as art, but now, I am not so sure. While I still insist that Jackson Pollack and Damien Hirst are not artists proper (rather, they are confidence artists, distorting the meaning of art for purely selfish goals), I see some merit and value in Rubell's works.

I shall leave a question for any who care to explore it: do Rubell's works, "performance pieces using food," fit into a traditional definition of art? Are works such as hers useful for exploring and understanding our natures? Or is it merely fun, a lesser sort of "decorative art," unfit to be put into the same category as the "high arts" of painting, sculpture, and classical music?