Fast Times and Slow Food

In the foreword to Carlo Petrini's book Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair, Alice Waters writes:

"When my friends and I opened the doors of our new restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971, we thought of ourselves as agents of seduction whose mission it was to change the way people ate. We were reacting against the uniformity and blandness of the food of the day. We soon discovered that the best-tasting food came from local farmers, ranchers, foragers, and fishermen who were committed to sound and sustainable practices. Years later, meeting Carlo Petrini for the fist time, I realized that we had been a Slow Food restaurant from the start. Like Carlo, we were trying to connect pleasure and politics--by delighting our customers we could get them to pay attention to the politics of food.
Carlo Petrini is the founder of the Slow Food movement and an astonishing visionary. Unlike me, he grew up in a part of the world with a deeply traditional way of eating and living, where he learned an abiding love for the simple, life-affirming pleasures of the table. When he saw this way of eating in Italy start to disappear, he decided to do something about it. Slow Food began as an ad hoc protest against fast-food restaurants in Rome, but it has grown into an international movement built on the principles he sets forth in these pages."

Although I agree with Alice Waters in her praise of Petrini and appreciate her devotion to the Slow Food movement, I was really disappointed in her appearance on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.



I think she had an opportunity to make Slow Food seem more accessible, responsible, and fun, but instead she came across as out of touch with reality. Because I really do support the tenets of Slow Food, I was hoping that she would use the cooking segment to show that anyone can cook meals that are both nutritious and easy. On the contrary, she made an elaborate breakfast which included cooking an egg in the open fire hearth that she has in her kitchen.



If this show of opulence wasn't enough to convince people that Slow Food and eating organic are elitist markers, then the food prices and Waters' rejection of frozen vegetables is enough of a turn-off. My worry is that this segment will likely repulse most Americans--people who don't live in the Bay Area and don't have access to farmer's markets year round.

In the segment, the camera crew also follows Waters as she walks through the Slow Food Festival that was held in San Francisco last summer. I wanted to go to the festival until I realized that tickets for the food pavilion were $45-65.00. With so many Americans struggling to pay bills it seemed untimely to air Alice Waters, owner of a restaurant that charges $60-125.00 for dinner this week, implying that people are buying sneakers instead of good food,

"We make decisions everyday about what we're going to eat," Waters said. "And some people want to buy Nike shoes - two pairs, and other people want to eat Bronx grapes, and nourish themselves. I pay a little extra, but this is what I want to do."

This is definitely true for some people but I think that for most people the choices on the quality of food they consume are much more complex. I guess my point is that rather than being repulsed by frozen vegetables, maybe Alice Waters should realize that it is the best and slowest that some people can eat. Frozen vegetables are actually pretty healthy, often flash frozen at their prime and they can retain great flavor. If you're living in an area where a fresh variety of produce isn't available year round, frozen green beans are the best alternative to canned or pickled for example.

My philosophy is that everyone should do the best that they can. In my day-to-day life, it is often impossible to eat entirely in accordance with a slow food lifestyle, so i can't imagine having a family, a more fixed income, a full-time job, or a harsher climate.
So kudos to anyone who tries!



Thanks Dawn