Cuisine and the Revolution
All hail Stephen Budiansky! I had a happy weekend (Italy beat England, and will play Germany next, the power went off all over the neighborhood but our generator worked, and we had a terrific dinner party with a bunch of scintillating people who ate and drank enthusiastically) and on Sunday evening I sat down to read the book reviews in the Wall Street Journal, and found Mr. Budiansky beginning his devastating and enlightening commentary on four new books on food as follows: “If you want to keep abreast of America’s evolving food obsession, there is no more reliable guide than the phrases that appear after the ominous word ‘preferably’ in the recipes printed in the New York Times.”
So I knew it was going to be good, but it just got better and better, and about halfway through I was laughing out loud, resisting the urge to give the man a standing o. Budiansky knows that political correctness has gotten its canines into our cuisine, and he loathes it, as I do.
Digression: many years ago James Schlesinger said, in my presence, “the decline of America began with the replacement of hamburgers and bourbon with quiche and chardonnay.” End digression.
His writing is a pleasure, and he is so good at chopping, dicing, frying and simmering authors who have set his teeth on edge that I want to cheer. “As a writer he has a far better eye than Ms Gustavson for quotes, color and human quirks, though he also has an irritating tendency toward business-consultant bromides…as well as what Strunk and White nailed a long time ago as ‘affecting a breezy manner.’”
It is clear from the four books under discussion that food has now been thoroughly politicized, which is a terrible thing, although on the bright side there is no doubt that the quality of food has improved a great deal since my childhood days, when fruit and veggies didn’t taste of anything (as the Italians say). Like so many others who lived abroad–or even ate abroad–the discovery of the actual flavors of basic food was a turning point, and it’s one of the reasons I wrote a book about Naples, which has truly fabulous food.
In my world, there’s lots of great food, and on a given evening you can get a fabulous dinner with a French or Oriental or Spanish accent. But for day in, day out, great cuisine, nothing matches Italian food, because the whole emphasis is on the ingredients rather than the herbs, sauces, or spices. The Italian culinary enterprise is devoted to releasing the maximum wonderfulness of the ingredients. And it works in large part because they strictly respect the seasons. No winter strawberries! No artichokes out of season! You’ve got to wait for their season. So when we’re there–happily quite a lot these days–we are often happy to act like vegetarians (which we aren’t; not at all). Our most recent trip was enlivened by porcini mushrooms, about which the trick is to make sure the little worms didn’t get there before you did.
Sounds tasty; I’ve never heard of “tonarelli,” but I bet my local Italian market has it.
My late brother was married into a Sicilian family. They would swear up and down no one else in Italy knew how to cook.
I blame the politicisation of food on Bush.
H.W., not W. When he announced at that press conference, impromptu, that he hated broccoli (who doesn’t?) the farmers all sent him trucks of the stuff, and it became the politically correct vegetable of the ’90s. Bush hated it, so it must be good, and good for you. Suddenly I couldn’t go to a restaurant without one of those half-cooked miniature trees on my plate…and they never put the proper amount of cheese sauce on them, either!
I’m in California, where we supposedly try and eat healthy.
Anyway, from then on food was political. Now you’ve got localvores and sustainable snobs and the whole thing, and you get these pretentious idiots who run restaurants where you need a second mortgage to have dinner, and they’re telling you how they’re about feeding poor people or making “simple” food for the masses.
Just annoying…
I blame the radical vegetarians and the idiots who think “organic” is a sign of virtue, not of being based on carbon chemistry.
What is sad to me is the total politicization of food at the hands of Mark Bittman of the New York Times. He has been a good food writer, author of some essential cookbooks, and his Minimalist column has been the source of many satisfying recipes over the years.
But in the last several years he has gone completely off the deep end, flirting with veganism (is there a more intolerant and rigidly totalitarian mindset than that of a typical vegan?) and many, many columns anguishing about food production, obesity, and the need as he sees it for righteous Government to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ALL.
You read the NYT?
Tsk tsk.
As Lileks says,
“A culture that redefines food choices as moral issues will demonize the people who don’t share the tastes of the priest class. A culture that elevates eating to some holistic act of ethical self-definition – localvore, low-carbon-impact food, fair trade, artisanal cheese – will find the casual carefree choices of the less-enlightened as an affront to their belief system. Leave it to Americans to invent a Puritan strain of Epicurianism.”
I have this theory that the level of “Puritanism” stays constant in a society over time. The stigmas and shame that used to be ascribed to any sexual activity–go ahead, do whatever you want with anyone you want, any time, anywhere! No matter what the risk of disease, injury, or emotional pain to yourself or other people! Tell everyone about it, online, or do it right out in the middle of the street, if you like!–have been transferred to food. Food Victorianism.
Agree! Although I also attribute environmentalism and global warmism to the same Puritan streak. Different denominations of Protestantism?
What irritates the heck out of me is that these selfsame people for whom food choice is a theater of moral vanity think I’m crazy because I eat kosher…
The Church of Food is yet another trendy preoccupation of upper-middle class people. It’s simply one more manifestation of class prejudice.
Thanks for the recipe. My mouth is watering.
While I usually eschew fancey food,I must say that I have a weakness for Kielbassa Wellington,and Polish Sausage Pizza. Someday they’ll create a Coca-Cola Cookbook,but in the meantime I’ll rest content with Bagel Dogs and Chocolate Croissants.
Having worked with Steve at USNews when it was actually a magazine, I have to heartily endorse the first sentence of this piece. He was the best essayist the magazine had and a reporter of keen and discerning intellect. I doubt I’ll always agree with him on politics but I darn sure will respect his opinions.
Bravo, Michael. You’re absolutely right that Italian food is more concerned with ingredients, not spices. I find this is particularly true of second-generation Italian-Americans. My own theory is that it has to do with the deprivation they faced during the depression, when one needed to be efficient and frugal. Italian cooking methods suited that era really well. My Italian grandmother can maximize the flavor in anything. Even a simple dish like spaghetti con aglio e olio becomes a masterpiece.
What do you think of Italian restaurants in New York? I still think they’re the best.
I don’t know much about NY restaurants. there’s a fine italian place in DC, al Tiramisu, he’s from Basilicata and i love it. and him.
If you read the great book on cuisine by Jean-Francois Revel you’ll see that good cooking goes back a very long way in Italy, never mind the war…here you go: http://books.google.com/books/about/Culture_and_cuisine.html?id=r9HWAAAAMAAJ
aglio e olio IS a masterpiece.
I wonder about food, but I shouldn’t say much.
I’m over 50 and I smoke (I can hear gasps from all the non-smokers reading)but I honestly believe that food doesn’t taste as good as it used to.
Food producers have done amazing work over the past few decades. They’ve proven Malthus wrong by producing more food than ever before. We grow so much corn these days that we can put it in almost everything we eat and still have enough to burn in cars as fuel. Food prices have not been going up as fast as the overall inflation rate and in America, where many people were malnourished just fifty years ago, has an obesity problem fueled an overabundance of inexpensive food.
But in producing so much and having it immaculate (apples used to have spots on them, now they don’t) I often wonder if the flavor has been sacrificed. I live in an Italian neighborhood (and there was a great street party after Italia beat England) and many of my neighbors grow their own tomatoes. If you ask them why they’ll tell you that tomatoes from the supermarket have no taste. If you try the tomatoes they grow you can’t argue with them. I thank my next-door neighbor every year when he gives me lettuce and tomatoes. I can’t eat supermarket tomatoes now either. His wine isn’t so good (sorry Emilio if you’re reading this), but his garden produces produce that has flavor rather than just good looks. I could talk about his plum tree or his beans, but nothing beats a BLT made with his tomatoes and lettuce.
I might just be losing my sense of taste to age and nicotine, but if I can taste the difference it’s probably because food producers ignore taste for looks and yield.
please read the WSJ article, it deals with some of these themes.
You might try a few zinc tablets to get your sense of taste back.
But as a contrarian, I must tell you that I have grown my own tomatoes, including a few heirlooms, and I can’t tell the difference between home-grown Big Boys and supermarket tomatoes that RIPENED IN SEASON.
So, Michael and his Italian friends (and mine) are right when they advise eating food in season that ripened naturally.
I eat only organic food. The inorganic stuff breaks my teeth.
I also don’t eat Brussel Sprouts. They make me phlegmish.
Micheal:
I can’t believe you forgot the garlic!!
haha. different recipe, hoHO
The secret to preserve great taste in tomatoes, as well as peaches and apricots, is to never put them in the refrigerator (assuming, of course, they’ve been picked ripe).
And most of the supermarkets buy them green and store in the fridge for longer shelf life.