I Wish I Could Sell You a $200 Wooden Spoon
‘I want Ariele Alasko's discipline. I want her world. And I want the kind
of life, the financial confidence, the guts, that it takes to make a $200
spoon.’
Me...not so much. I have some lovely wooden spoons that I like using they
are pictured above on a marble slab. All of them I am pretty sure were hand
crafted. All of them are functional and I am not afraid to use them, their
beauty notwithstanding. None of them cost $200.
A Plea for Culinary Modernism
‘The (Culinary) Luddites’ fable of disaster, of a fall from grace, smacks
more of wishful thinking than of digging through archives. It gains credence
not from scholarship but from evocative dichotomies: fresh and natural versus
processed and preserved; local versus global; slow versus fast: artisanal and
traditional versus urban and industrial; healthful versus contaminated and
fatty. History shows, I believe, that the Luddites have things back to front.’
I like much of the myth busting and grounding in this article but I also
think the some of the arguments misrepresent the positions of those who
undoubtedly would fall into the author’s Culinary Luddite camp - Michael Pollan for one, Alice Waters, and,
often, me. I don’t think outside of the raw foodists anyone is advocating for
not processing grains, vegetables, fruit, or meat, nor for preserving them –
smoked, dried, cured, jarred, canned or otherwise. I don’t have any absolute
objection to industrial practices for processing or preserving. I do have
objections to purely market driven practices that put crap in food to make it
taste sweeter, or fattier, or dumb down food knowledge under the guise of
convenience. Equally I have concerns for industrial practices that are
dangerous to mental and physical well being of those engaged in them and that
do not pay fair wages, and I find it curious from that perspetive that this
article is in Jacobin which describes itself as ‘a leading voice of the
American Left, offering a socialist perspective on politics, economics and
culture’ and at no point examines the labour issue in current industrial and
commercial foodways.
What Master Chef teaches us about food and the food
industry
‘So
while MasterChef might teach us a lot about food and food trends, it also
glosses over some of the harsher realities of the industry that produces this
food. The unsociable work hours, the bullying, the heat – this is not part of
the culinary cultural capital that we learn from MasterChef.
MasterChef offers contestants and viewers a taste of the cooking
techniques and presentation style of the restaurant industry, and presents
these to us in ways that make them seem both aspirational and desirable.
This has given MasterChef the ratings boost it so desperately
needed, but it has done this without engaging with the realities of the
industry that the show is essentially promoting.’
But
was Master Chef even remotely intended to ground anyone in the reality of the
industry? Or does anyone watch it with that intention? Of course not. It’s a
vanity show, not a reality show despite the name for its genre.
Fair Food
‘A collaboration between the Australian Food Sovereignty
Alliance (AFSA) and food publishers and facilitators The Field
Institute, Fair Food documents the people pioneering new approaches
to food production and distribution. Watch the trailer.’
Darn, I again am going to miss a showing of this Aussie doco, but maybe
you can get along.
Local government and public place gardening – imposing
limitations?
‘When
we consider community food production in our cities, one particular area in
desperate need of reform in local government is its anti-democratic approach to
dealing with complaints. Two cases I know of involved people making footpath
gardens. What happened was that one person on the street complained and council
decided that, on the basis of this single complaint rather that the large
number who signed a petition to retain the garden, the gardens had to go. This
was a unilateral decision by council that ignored due process in negotiating
disagreements among citizens. Citizens saw it as profoundly unfair.’
We set up our footpath garden – not a full on vegie patch but a mix of
herbs and citrus and non-edible plants – at the time that Marrickville Council
had no policy on this. Happily their position was as long as we kept reasonable
footpath access for pedestrians they had no worries. Now they do have an
enabling policy. No-one in the street has ever complained – in fact, I have had
people dobbed in to me by neighbours for nicking the parsley J
France to force big supermarkets to give unsold food
to charities
‘French supermarkets will be banned from throwing away or destroying
unsold food and must instead donate it to charities or for animal feed, under a
law set to crack down on food waste... Supermarkets will
be barred from deliberately spoiling unsold food so it cannot be eaten. Those
with a footprint of 4,305 sq ft (400 sq m) or more will have to sign contracts
with charities by July next year or face penalties including fines of up to
€75,000 (£53,000) or two years in jail.’
Supermarkets do what! Do they in Aus does anyone know? And while I
applaud the proposal I worry about the impact on Les Fregans Francais L
Kitchen gadget review: The Garlic Zoom a leprechaun’s
Perspex stagecoach
‘According to the packaging,
Garlic Zoom was created by “David A Holcombe, Famous Inventor”. The words are
self-undermining, but I like the attitude. It is what an eight-year-old would
write on his pencil case. In fact, with big green wheels and mini blades that
resemble ninja throwing stars, the Garlic Zoom does feel a bit child-designed.’
I am thoroughly enjoying this
series. And if using this stagecoach gets kids started off helping in the
kitchen, I’m for it J [He says, not wanting to admit that playing while prepping
would be just peachy by him, too].
The Lexicon of Sustainability
A site I have just come across that looks worth the exploring. I have
dipped into the Lexicon of Food and the Food List.
Ethical eating: the plants (and animals) are watching
us
‘Think of the scene in the 1999 movie Notting
Hill in which William, played by Hugh Grant, has
dinner with Keziah, a self-described frutarian, who believes that fruits and
vegetables have feelings, and so will only eat things that have spontaneously
fallen off the vine. “So these carrots…?” ventures William. “Have been
murdered,” responds Keziah.’
And of course we know that mandrake screams as it is pulled from the
ground. The discussion being had in various places about what constitutes
intelligence does raise fascinating new insights into how plnts interact with
all aspects of their environment includinf humans, but I still think most
cabbbages are dumb as. Ta all the same to Colin for this article.
The new religion: How the emphasis on ‘clean eating’
has created a moral hierarchy
‘She argues that the rise in food movements has coincided with a decline
of religion in society, with many people seeking familiar values such
as purity, ethics, goodness. But these movements also tend to encourage
behaviours that have steered a generation away from religion: Judgment,
self-righteousness, an us-versus-them mentality. And, she adds, many seek a
fulfilment that cannot be satisfied with food.’
Another from Colin. I think it’s a pretty long bow that’s being drawn here,
and, dare I say it, it’s typical Stateside with its obsession with religion. The
decline in religion I suspect if historically charted would show bugger all
relationship to the rise of vegetarianism, veganism or any other foodism. Which
is not to say the food restrictions have not been used as religious
distinction, but as Colin said in his email to me, what would Mary Douglas
think about this.
