Vaquero—Fishing in the Papal States

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May 082012
 
Trabaccolo

The stereotype of the Neapolitan and papal economies as stagnant under alternating policies at once too laissez faire and then too controlled is one widely disseminated in the years following Italy’s unification in 1860. In a recent article, Manuel Vaquero Piñeiro contests that characterization by following the story of the intervention of the papal states to invigorate fishing on the Tyrhennian Sea. Tracing the story through various archives, the author describes eighteenth papal authorities carrying out a complicated plan to construct a number of trabaccoli, or fishing boats, and man them with fishing families transplanted from the Adriatic shore of Romagna to the coast near Civitavecchia, the principal port of the Papal States. Though the subsidized experiment eventually foundered on the inadequacy of the Adriatic ship on the rougher Tyrhennian seas, as well as a number of administrative and economic problems, it gives a new perspective on the ability apostolic administrators had and the length to which they went to bolster the supply of fish and direct economic intervention.  ZN

 

The article is unfortunately in Italian, though its abstract is in English.

(Full bibliographic citation: “I trabaccoli pontifici nel XVIII secolo,”  in Pesci, barche, pescatori nell’area mediterranea dal medioevo all’età moderna, Ed. Franco Angeli, Milano 2010, pp. 321-332)

 Posted by on May 8, 2012  Tagged with: , ,

Laudan—“The French Terroir Strategy, and Culinary Modernism”

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Apr 162012
 
Slow Food The Case for Taste

Slow Foodists are unlikely to take kindly to this cogent and blistering criticism of the Slow Food movement and its gourmand-chief, Carlo Petrini. Rachel Laudan’s piece on Slow Food is ostensibly a review of Petrini’s 2004 book Slow Food: The Case for Taste, is in fact a history of the (conscious) development of terroir—pointedly referred to as a “strategy”—and what Laudan considers an analogous and to some extent equally vacuous concept, Slow Food’s pithy pseudo-slogan of doing good through eating well. In addition to a thorough explanation of what Laudan refers to as “culinary modernism” (i.e. affordable, varied food for everyone) and its critics (Moore Lappé, Pollan, and Petrini), the author provides a number of examples from Italy’s culinary past. The essay concludes with a pointed attack on the limits of what Slow Food can actually do, reigning in what Laudan sees as gastronomes enjoying themselves with a clear conscience.

“[Gastronomy] took eating out of the public realm and made it a matter of private pleasure. It modestly increased work for cooks, restaurant owners, shop keepers, farmers and gardeners, and tradesman. Of course it tended to breed tiresome snobbery and one-upmanship. But irritating as these traits are, they are not the greatest of human failings.” Laudan contends, though, that arguing that Slow Food will save the world without leaving out the world’s poor is disingenuous. I would add that like the locavore movement, it also misdirects (however well-intentioned the actors are) a lot of energy and thinking towards practices which are inefficient solutions to our problems.

This essay is an excellent reminder that there is no free lunch. Highly recommended.  ZN

 

The full bibliographic citation is:  “Slow Food: The French Terroir Strategy, and Culinary Modernism.  An Essay Review of Carlo Petrini, trans. William McCuaig.  Slow Food: The Case for Taste (New York: Columbia University Press).  Food Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 7. 2. (2004), 133-144.

 The original essay is available in free pdf format here:

 

 Posted by on April 16, 2012  Tagged with: , , ,

Peace — “Political Theater and Ritual Rhetoric in the Slow Food Movement”

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Apr 022012
 
Carlo Petrini Slow Food

Adrian Peace’s 2008 piece about Slow Food’s Terra Madre event in 2006 is, despite the chronology, quite relevant today. Professor Peace, an anthropologist, attended the gathering in Turin in 2006 and describes it without the wide-eyed excitement of so many observers of Slow Food’s culinary (secular) mass. Peace mentions the standard critique of Slow Food–that it is simply the manifestation of the West’s middle class casting about for both a new means of distinction and some sort of meaning through (invented) authenticity–but goes far beyond it. She analyzes SF founder Carlo Petrini’s shamanic performance, and dissects the notion that artisanal producers are somehow inherently more “sustainable.”. While Peace  notes that “[f]etishizing the dignity of the small-scale producer within the figment of ‘a natural economy’ can easily result int he failure to recognize the indignities and inequalities imposed on numerous others within the narrow bounds of the rural community.” One wishes more anthropologists would turn their gaze towards Slow Food.  ZN

Gastronomica 8, no.2 (Spring 2008):31-39.

 Posted by on April 2, 2012  Tagged with:

Siporin — “a Contemporary Legend From Italy”

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Mar 262012
 

wedding ring in Easter EggFor those of us who love a good food myth, reading Professor Steve Siporin’s article “A Contemporary Legend from Italy” is a chocolately pleasure. This urban legend, collected by the author in Perugia in 2008, relates the story of a would-be groom who has the engagement ring for his would-be fiancée placed inside a dark chocolate Easter egg, which he then gives to his beloved. The woman, who doesn’t like dark chocolate, returns the egg to a local confectioner, who then resells it. A bittersweet ending ensues: another customer finds and returns the ring, but the couple does not take their relationship to the next step.

The beauty of Siporin’s article is the detective work done (the author interviewed journalists who did stories on the supposed occurrence, and even tried to get a comment from the famed Perugian lawyer who had supposedly been involved), as well as the analysis of the tale within the framework of European folktales. An excellent read.

Journal of Folklore Research 45, no.2 (2008): 171-192.

Grazie a Steve Siporin per la copia dell’articolo.

 Posted by on March 26, 2012  Tagged with: , ,

Holloway Et Al.— “Managing Sustainable Farmed Landscape…”

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Mar 162012
 
sheep in italy

It is difficult to find research published in English on sustainable food in Italy, and it’s a happy find especially when the article is a valuable source. This 2006 article’s full title is “Managing sustainable farmed landscapes through ‘alternative’ food networks: a case study from Italy.” Its authors review an intriguing farm scheme from the mountains of Abruzzo, where an entreprising sheep farmer has created an Adopt-A-Sheep program. For €190 annually, you can get several shipments of high-quality raw milk cheeses, invitations to mountain festivals, and the satisfaction that you are helping small farmers high in the mountains maintain livestock traditions (transhumance) that are fast disappearing.

The article itself highlights how enterprising “ecological entrepreneurs” can re-embed economic practices in their traditional context for the betterment not only of the seller, but also of the buyer. This initiative is a sort of community-supported agriculture (CSA) variant, but one that (unlike the agriturimo programs) does not rely on government intervention but rather on direct exchanges with sponsors all over the globe. I am practically allergic to the word “tradition” in the context of Italian food history, but the authors are careful to note that there has necessarily been a (re-) invention of it here to make the entreprise economically viable (e.g. local breeds but adoptions sold over the internet). ZN

The Geographic Journal 172, no.3 (September 2006): 219-229.

Adopt a sheep here.

 Posted by on March 16, 2012  Tagged with: , ,

Curtis– “in Defense of Garum”

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Feb 132012
 
garum amphora

This mosaic from Pompeii shows an amphora of "flower of garum," the highest quality sauce.

As Robert Curtis explains, “Garum and its related sauces (liquamen, allec, and muria) suffer from a bad press. The mere mention of these fish sauces, products widely used both as a condiment and a medicine, usually evokes the image of an expensive, ill-smelling product derived from the fermentation of fish.” Curtis goes on to argue that more than likely the smell was no more offensive than modern day Asian fish sauce, or garlic, or Limburger cheese. Drawing on an extensive body of archeological evidence and clever inference, the author shows that while there were different gradations of price (as in, say wine then and today), garum was both widely available and widely enjoyed. De gustibus non disputandum est (One can’t argue about tastes), as the Romans said. An excellent article on the uses of garum and its related fish products, with a full bibliography. The Classical Journal, 78, pp.232-240 (1983).  ZN

 Posted by on February 13, 2012  Tagged with: , ,

De Lorenzo Et Al.— La Cucina Nella Formazione Dell’identità Nazionale, 1861-2011

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Jan 142012
 

The one hundred and fiftieth year of unification of the Italian peninsula, first under the Savoyard monarchy and after 1948 under a republican constitution, has generated heated discussions in all fields, not the least culinary. We have argued in many posts that the “fame” of Italian food has been relatively recent, and that many of the mythical peasant diets—the so-called Mediterranean Diet and the cucina povera (peasant fare)—are more retroactive inventions than historical “cuisines.” Luckily the Accademia Italiana della Cucina has not fallen into the trap of mythmaking with the objective of unification-through-cuisine, and an able team of scholars from the Accademia has put together an excellent new publication.

This most recent volume, La Cucina nella formazione dell’identità nazionale, 1861-2011 (Cuisine in the Formation of National Identity, 1861-2011), is the first new book anyone interested in Italian food history should add to their shelves this year. The book begins with an overview of Italian food history from the mid-1800s to the present day, including even such up-to-date topics as molecular gastronomy and its place in Italian food culture (I for one had no idea there had been a Manifesto della cucina molecular italiana). The volume then proceeds with an in-depth treatment of each of the Italians regions and their contributions to the national cuisine of today, as well as noting where some of these traditions have been relegated to museums. The bibliography is both extensive and excellent. A personal note related to my research: while the book gives geography as the reason for Umbria’s unsalted bread, it does (rightly) regard the Pizza Margherita story of 1889 as an urban legend.  (Accademia Italiana della Cucina, 2011)  ZN

 Posted by on January 14, 2012  Tagged with: , ,

GMO Meets DOP in Italy

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Jan 102012
 
genetically modified mais

Can cheeses and meats made with products from animals fed with GMO corn and soy be "traditional"?

How “traditional” are Italy’s typical products (i.e. those with denominations liks IGP) if they are made with genetically modified (GM) mais and soy? Authors Archimede Mordenti and Paolo De Castro (both of the Department of Veterinary Morph-Physiology and Animal Production of the University of Bologna) explore this question in their article “Genetically modified organisms and typical food-products in Italy.” Italy’s “denominated” products are primarily (98%) those derived from livestock: cheese (62.5%) and cured pork meat (35.8%).

Despite a de facto EU moratorium on producing genetically modified organisms (GMO), their import is completely licit. Indeed, much of the soy used to feed livestock is imported (2.5% in 2001). The authors conclude that while domestic non-GMO mais is sufficient to feed the animals used for typical products, the soy is not, hence Italian cheeses and cured pork products must be made with GMO soy and mais. This author, after reading James McWilliams’ book Just Food, is much less skeptical about the safety of GMO foods, but whether you agree with that stance or not, it is clear that today’s Italian “typical foods” have a lack of continuity with their alimentary forebearers.  ZN

 

The paper, available here, was published in the Proceedings of the International Congress “In the Wake of the Double Helix: From the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution”, 27-31 May 2003, Bologna, Italy, pp.627-633. The entire Proceedings are available here. They are an excellent resource for anyone interested in these themes.

 

Grazie a Henry Marsh e Jeff Willich per la segnalazione.

 Posted by on January 10, 2012  Tagged with: , , ,

Ceccarini—’Pizza and Pizzaioli in Japan’

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Oct 112011
 
Pizza in Japan

An advertisment for Domino's new pizza in Japan.

Written by Rossella Ceccarini, the full title of this article is “Food Workers as Individual Agents of Culinary Globalization: Pizza and Pizzaioli in Japan.” Ceccarini highlights the fact that most studies of “foreign food” in Japan has focused on the consumer as having been glocalized and created the demand for certain food products. While this is an important part of the culinary equation, the author shifts the focus to the actual producers of the pizza, the pizzaioli (pizza-makers). Through interviews with both Japanese and Italian pizzaioli working in Japan, she discusses the creation of cultural capital necessary for pizza-making out of its “native area,” and how environmental and social constraints in Japan have necessitated a process of hybridization. The article appeared in Globalization, Food and Social Identities in the Asia Pacific Region, ed. James Farrer. Tokyo: Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture (2010).  ZN
The full paper is available as a pdf here.

 

and it appeared in

 Posted by on October 11, 2011  Tagged with: , , ,

Grimm-Samuel ‘on the Mushroom That Deified the Emperor Claudius’

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Aug 132011
 

October 54 the Emperor Claudius died of poisoning, ascribed by contemporaries to the ingestion of a mushroom. The Roman court being, well, the Roman court Claudius’s death was naturally taken as an act of murder. In this well-argued giallo-article the author first attempts to identify the mushroom that brought Claudius to the gods through an examination of Roman diet and Claudius’ symptoms. She then suggests that it was carelessness rather than high politics that led to Claudius’ death. Grimm-Samuel, Veronika ‘On the Mushroom That Deified the Emperor Claudius’, Classical Quarterly, 41 (1991), 178-182.

 Posted by on August 13, 2011  Tagged with: ,
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