It’s not exactly what Dostoyevsky wrote, it’s true. But it is also true that the cuisine, indeed the CUISINE is beauty.
The dishes of the chefs photographed in glossy magazines are beautiful. Beautiful is the dish that invites us as soon as we return home. Beautiful are the displays of delicacies (Italian!!!) in the windows of pastry shops and delicatessens.
Italy is a strange country, full of contradictions that seems to go on without a visible logic.
It seems to me that I have found some logic. Maybe it’s because I do this job, the Food Job, that I go looking for the answers – or rather the questions – in food.
We are a nation that boasts millenary traditions in every sector: architecture, literature, philosophy and … (you can fill in the dots with what you want: that would be fine) cuisine. We have been invaded by everyone for any reason, especially the beauty and richness of our territory. Those who have not invaded and conquered us have nevertheless passed through here to go from one place to another, from east to west, from south to north and opposite: religion and pilgrimages, business and commerce. Everyone taking something and leaving something, even if it were a small footprint: from the metric system to the pumpkin. All stealing and leaving something behind: a technique, an idea, an herb, a spice.
For all this we thank.
But the Others’ desire to conquer meant that each of the many peoples who inhabited the Boot held onto their identity: the love for the family and the place of origin, the language, the water, the vineyard, the mom’s food.
This is how today we Italians have the most varied food that exists and Italian Cuisine (with all that this term means: Regional Cuisines, traditions, methods of conservation, excellence and variety of seeds) is the number one in the world.
Do you know what I am convinced of? that since eating is a primary need, eating, also understood as a choice of food, becomes a political choice. Choosing what and where to buy food is a political choice, a choice for the common good.
With the food of multinationals (the same ones that produce medicines) we deny the beauty of our food, we feed the coffers of a few powerful people, we destroy our sense of taste – by refusing, for those who believe , a gift from God – we make our organs sick.
It’s true, buying good things costs more. Apparently. Alka seltzer also costs.
It is also true that, although there is much talk of real, good, healthy, fair products, there are not many of them and too many abandon the countryside, stables, beehives due to the very high management costs. If then the European Union is also involved with production quotas (such as milk quotas), so that if you produce more than what is permitted you also pay the fine, then the costs become unsustainable.
And then the real, good, healthy and fair producers are unable to sell or have to sell with little or no profit margin. They will die out at this rate.
This is why I insist on the purchase of “good” food as a political power: to give space to small farms, to ensure healthy and clean products, to continue enjoying those enchanting landscapes that are indeed created by Nature, but forged by the work of man.
Cuisine will save the world: Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Arab, French, Mexican, Iranian, Greek cuisine: all cuisines will save the world if they know how to remain true to themselves, if they continue to maintain biodiversity and create well-being.
As Arbore said in an advertisement: “Meditate, People, meditate!”.
Yes, meditate and above all:
Cook people, cook!
http://gigliocooking.blogspot.com/2014/01/grazie.html
Thanks to all the people who cook every day, because cooking is a must; thanks to those people who are attentive to price and quality when they go to the market, who want to feed their loved ones seriously and who at the same time still want to have fun in the kitchen and at the table. Thanks to all those people who know that cooking is hard work and dedication, to all those who cook every day, at home or as professionals in restaurants and canteens, to all those people who take care of the cleanliness of the tools and the wholesomeness of the food, who put different dishes on the table every day, even twice a day, paying attention to the wallet and the palate. Thanks to those who share the “home recipes”, cheap and tasty. Thanks to all the people who cook together and who become friends by cooking. Thank you because good food helps to live well, in body and mind and it is the Italian heritage that the whole world envies us: our capacity for “convivio”, one of the reasons, perhaps the main one, why this country is still floating and for which the Italians have not yet ended up in total despair. Because eating well helps you smile, as well as not having digestive problems. Thanks to those people who have nothing to do with the TOP CHEF, MASTER CHEF, IDIOT CHEF of TV programs and who perhaps only have the pleasure of cooking in front of the camera. Because cooking really doesn’t mean competing, but sharing. And not just the food. Marcella Ansaldo © 2014
Marcella Ansaldo © 2023