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Slow Food Movement Spreading
By Seared Lightly They haven’t been given any credit since Roman times for military or political success on the global scale, but the Italians have taken a worldwide lead in battling for the preservation of gastronomic tradition. This crusade’s banner reads The Slow Food Movement…for the defense and right to pleasure and its symbol is the Snail.
Founded in Bra, Italy, in 1986, this uplifting effort was instigated by one Carlo Petrini, who was incited to action by McDonalds’ invasion of Rome. Opposing the spread of the ‘fast food’ concept, Petrini issued a manifesto declaring war on “our enslavement by speed. Quiet material pleasure should be a goal and its defense can begin at the table.” This has proven to be no mere tilting at windmills. The Slow Food Movement now boasts some 60,000 members of chapters in 35 countries. The membership pursues a combination of knowledge and pleasure, creating a public presence that “preserves agricultural heritage, a biodiversity of crops and craft-based traditional food production and protects the historical, artistic…heritage of…places of gastronomic pleasure”, i.e. restaurants and retail shops. Wine is a particular focus of the Slow Food movement. See a discussion of this in the Decanting with Delkin column on these pages. America is enemy headquarters ‘Fast food’ is an original American concept circling the globe.
The Slow Food Movement sees it threatening to displace regional cuisine.
These crusaders accuse us of “mistaking frenzy for efficiency.” They
also criticize us for leading the way in genetic modification of traditional
crops and packaging enhanced and mass produced food products. Our
invention of, and reliance upon, the Microwave has been targeted and the
movement urges mothers to “show your love, cook for your kids.” Now
altogether out there, “don’t snatch it, savor it!”
The excellent Slow Food web site (we urge a visit to www.slowfood.com) links to www.worldfoodmediaawards.com , which lists the current “Ladle Awards” winners. These honorees display a distinctly non-American makeup. The only notable U.S.-based enterprises are Saveur and Taste magazines. The TV Ladles are dominated by United Kingdom and Australian efforts…unsurprising, since the awards, presented every two years, were founded, and continue, in the land of the Kangaroo. All is not lost on the homefront, however, as the growing popularity of our new cable television Food Network is demonstrating. Leading light Emeril Lagasse, along with other show hosts, concentrates upon the traditional regional cuisines of our nation. Here in Oregon, we benefit from being a major outpost in a nationwide revival of the traditional Farmer’s Market, where we can purchase a wide variety of non-adulterated crops and products direct from dedicated small producers. Speaking of tradition ‘Tis Turkey time beneath the Stars and Stripes, and we offer our readers an original family recipe concocted by your columnist’s wife. No, it’s not another way to prepare the sainted bird. We’ve dubbed this ideal component in a Thanksgiving feast as Marlene’s Communist Soup, since it was inspired by a dish served at a rest stop during a bus tour of then Communist East Berlin. There’s a current bounty in our marketplace of Oregon wild mushrooms, key to this preparation’s enjoyment: 2 large Potatoes, grated 3 cups sliced Wild Mushrooms
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