Petrini: No fool for food

Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement, will be at the freshly renovated Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec for a free roundtable (already booked up).

Slow Food emerged in 1986, spurred by a protest by hedonistic leftie Italian academics against fast-food führer McDonald's opening in Rome's Piazza di Spagna. (A tasty tangent: McDonald's also sued Italian food critic Edoardo Raspelli for writing that their fries tasted of cardboard and their burgers of rubber.)

Slow Food's aim is to promote food and wine appreciation. One doesn't imagine soft-middled Barolo-sniffing gourmands as being manifesto-thumping radicals, but they are. The SF manifesto states, at www.slowfood.com, "We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods."

Certainly, North American urban infrastructure thwarts the average eater from revelling in lovingly selected local produce and leisurely prepared meals eaten at a sun-dappled pace. Highways and megaplexes and job stresses turn victual pleasures into vital pressures.

As Slow Food fan and chef Marco Canora of Hearth, New York City, writes in a Q&A on egullet.com, "The movement encourages people to stop eating at fast-food restaurants where the food has little or no nutritional value and to cook at home instead... I think it is unrealistic to expect people who have been working long hours to keep clothes on their children's backs to come home with raw ingredients and spend an hour preparing a meal for their entire family. When faced with the option of going to the store and buying a tomato, onion, lettuce, and ground meat so you can go home and make tacos, or taking your kids to Taco Bell where the tacos cost 59 cents each, I think most people are going to choose the latter."

Canora says slow foodies are idealists. Eating conscientiously takes time, and time - the suspicions are true - takes money.

A recent Slow Food Québec tea tasting cost $45 for non-members - out of reach for many (though the Scots in me balked at the price, I was sorry to miss it). Marc-André Cyr, whiz baker for Olive & Gourmando, catered the event. He said the crowd was mostly women, generally 45-50 years old.

"We can see where they need to do their canvassing," Cyr said. "I think the younger they start, the better - in Italy they're all about the kids." Cyr told me that in Italy, SF sponsors inexpensive tables d'hôte for under-25s, and collaborates with schoolteachers to convey the importance of food. He'd love to see similar youth outreach programs here.

Though SF is perceived as a club for gourmets, it also fights for food heritage. Carlo Petrini said in an interview with wine authority Jancis Robinson, "The relationship between gastronomy and ecology is very close. A gourmet who eats and eats and eats but does not appreciate where his food comes from is a fool."

The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity was created to help protect global gastronomic resources through - among other ways - seed banks, education on the risks of big agribusiness, and documenting and promoting artisanal food production knowledge. An alarming 75 per cent of European food product diversity has been lost since 1900, as has 93 per cent of America's.

Sobering thoughts to kick off the fun event of Montreal High Lights. But get out there and savour! And learn about food from far and away.

To open your mouth wide without doing likewise to your wallet, the following restos are offering lunch deals for $9.99 from Monday, February 21, to Friday, February 25: Atma (3962 St-Laurent; 798-8484), Byblos (1499 Laurier E.; 523-9396), Le Paradis des Amis (1751 Fullum; 525-6861), Ong Ca Can (79 Ste-Catherine E.; 844-7817); Prato (3891 St-Laurent; 285-1616) and Rumi (5198 Hutchison; 490-1999).

Join the hungry mobs at Complexe Desjardins from noon until 2:30, and 4:30 until 7:30, those same days for a general showing off of local products and expertise, from culinary demos to wine tastings.

For the full schedule: www.montrealenlumiere.com or pick up a paper copy at SAQs and participating restos

 
 

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Take a glass of wine and cook     it is a myth that cooking good food is expensive and takes enormous time. my philosophy is A- if dandelion, fennel, cod and steak are on sale, i will buy them and eat them in different ways. B- i will prepare the food in a generous way so i have leftovers as lunches. C- preparing food after a big day is a excellent way to relax (i.e. good for the health). D- once or twice a year (after a big party or on a winter night), i will eat a poutine or a bigmac and enjoy it! Brillat-Savarin said that we are what we eat...i prefer to be slow and good than fast and empty!!! Santé!
Judith Gagnon	{4 votes}	April 25th, 2005
Refuse Drive Thru's Fast Food.....Good Food takes time to prepare...........     Marco, I agree with you brother...there's so little time in the lunch hour to chow down on something that you actually take the time to taste. Might I add as well that after you have kids (the parent cycle of life), there's pressure just to put a well balanced meal in front of my kids and for a few brief......seconds I look down at their meal and appreciate the delicacies that I have concocted for them before the ketchup and the plum sauce gets pulled out from the fridge by eager pre-pubescent kids unsure of what manners really mean and more concerned with how everything has to take like HEINZ.... I love the European approach to life where the supper is backed up by a few hours later in the evening and families head to the local restaurant to enjoy...and I mean... really enjoy the tastes and the smells coming from the fresh baked breads, the olive oil and garlic to dip the bread, the nice wine that seems endless, the friendly service, the friendship and the fond times I remember from my travels there many years ago where life seemed less complicated and for sure...more relaxed than the fast food nightmare we have created for ourselves in North America. Everything is so processed these days and I guess we kind of have asked for it by building so many drive thru windows at our local restaurants and a lack of analysis of what our kids are actually putting in their guts with all the preservatives and chemicals that restaurants (especially fast food places) put in their foods. Fast may be more convenient but I like the approach that is discussed in this refreshingly filling appetite by Maeve Haldane about the novel idea of returning to "slow food".
Steve Landry	{19 votes}	February 25th, 2005
Home-made soup -- a radical, subversive idea?     We used to wait for a particular fruit or vegetable to be in season, so we could enjoy its ripeness and its availability. But now there is no season to our food; or rather, everything is always available, at a price. The ingredients of a typical Canadian dinner will have have travelled an average of 1500 miles to make it onto our plate. $4.99 for a pint of strawberries in February? Papayas and cheap bananas all year round...That's one deep and wide ecological footprint that your fruit salad has left upon the planet. But there is no social pressure to think about and consider slowing down our consumption of resources - just the opposite: the mantra is consume, consume, consume -- you must do it for the sake of the economy, stoopid...if you don't spend more, we'll have a recession and then you'll REALLY be in trouble... I have some neighbors. Nice people, intelligent. But it's impossible to have a conversation with them at their house: TV is always blaring, one in the kitchen, one in the living room. Their idea of quality family time is ordering pizza and cuddling together to watch the latest episode of...whatever. They form part of that majrity of North Americans who spend more money at restaurants and on take-out than on home-cooked food. There's always too much work, too much pressure, too much angst. So food preparation has become for them not a communal pleasure but merely a chore, a "waste of time". Never enough time to prepare a meal and sit around a table savoring the food and engaging in conversation. The Slow Food movement urges us to reconsider priorities. Rather than fast, fenetic consumption as an antidote to existential emptiness, we need to take the time to identify our real needs.: connection to our environment, a sense of community, an outlet for our creativity and our passions... and the aroma of a hearty soup simmering on the stove.
Francisco Uribe	{46 votes}	February 21st, 2005
Slow Food vs Comfort Food!!!     Theoretically, the concept/philosophy of life that constitutes "slow food" is incredibly appetizing. I mean who wouldn't salivate at the thought of savouring a carefully and lovingly prepared meal using only the freshest and choicest of ingredients. Unfortunately, few amongst us have either the time, oppurtunity, or sheer good fortune to avail ourself of such a sumptuous meal. Thankfully, family - doting mothers, in particular, often fill this void. I mean, notwithstanding these High Lights Fest epicurean events, few things are as satisfying as the warmth and satisfaction of a home-cooked meal ; it truly doesn't get better than hearty and healthy comfort food on a cold winter's day - thanks Mom!
Mark St Pierre	{5 votes}	February 24th, 2005
Highlights Festival comes only once a year.     I?ean and not very wealthy may add, I have cooked for my familly practically everyday of the year. It is rare we go out to dinner , for it becomes a financial burdon. As the article was suggesting they will be serving meals at $10 per person. When you are four people that becomes $40 and when you add the extra drinks and coffee and deserts and then your Provincial Sales Tax and tip,your going too far. Restaurants that serve good food are for the rich and famous and the Fast Food Places are there to kill you. So we are left with eating at home and that is where you get a better deal. As for the Highlights Festival as much as I don't like being rushed to eat or prepare food, I don't like standing in line to get a biteful just because it is free and it is different. I would like to see however is more education in schools about food and cooking. That is where all the focus should be. If you learn to cook when you are young it will carry you throughout your life.These Festivals are there more to sell the Restuarants and the different foods they cater than to teach you how to appreciate food. You don't get something for nothing.
Maria Cecillia Silva	{14 votes}	February 20th, 2005
Taking Time To Eat     I rarely go to fast food restaurants such as MacDonalds where the food is expensive and ladden with lots of salt, fat and calories. You are not encouraged to stick around to enjoy your meal as they rely on fast turnover to make money. A patron who needs to stand because there are no empty seats is not a happy one and will likely switch to another restaurant. For special occasions I prefer to go to all you can eat buffets where you can choose from a greater variety of food including healthy salads and fruits and can take the time to thoroughly chew each morsel as you don't feel any pressure to leave early. I would sometimes stay as long as 90 minutes and leave with a full stomach. Yet I enjoy home cooking the best where you choose your own wholesome ingredients and are under no time pressures. With a television set in the kitchen you can eat and listen to the news and not miss out on anything. Food is supposed to be a pleasure not a chore! Next week I will not miss the food sampling exhibits in Complexe Desjardins as part of Montreal Highlights Festival. Unfortunately the lineups are long and the samples are small forcing me to go back for more. But it is worth it.
Stephen Talko	{37 votes}	February 19th, 2005
The Highlights Festival Will Rock!     I'm very curious to attend the Highlights Festival because I hear that there will all the best chefs from Italy cooking up their cuisines. I'm a big fan of cooking and I love festivals that deal with the issues of cooking. I love gourmet cooking and I sometime like to prepare gourmet cooking for my family. As for fast foods go it can never be compared to fast food like MacDonald's. This will be a very interesting year for the Highlights Food Festival.
Carmela Sicurella	{12 votes}	February 19th, 2005
As a consumer     Well i can't lie, i love McDonald's! But i dont appreciate the feeling i get 5 minutes after eating it. We live in a world where most of us get a half hour lunch break so most of us cant really sit down for a good lunch with wine and the whole trimmings. Supper is a different story where you might actually have time to cook something worth eating if your kids will actually sit with you. Maybe if most restaurants would offer a five dollar luch special and make people call in so they don't have to wait for their food to be cooked then maybe people would start staying away from the fast food "restaurants". Well if all else fails you can always go to Subway.
Marco Facchin	{12 votes}	February 19th, 2005
Fast Food junkies     I don't know about you, but each time I had fast food I looked for the taste it had when I was a kid. Of course, I was always disappointed. I think we are like those junkies who are trying to get that "first time" feeling back even if we know it's not going to happen. But I've been able to quit fast food and I don't find shopping for good ingredients and taking the time to cook that much of a problem (yeah, you're right, I don't have kids and I live on the plateau). I don't think we should see cooking as a chore but as an activity. Invite friends over and cook together. Make a lot a freeze it. I find that heating up a frozen meal I made myself is infinitely better than eating fast food or one of those horrible things you buy at the grocery store. And for those who think slow food is more expansive, how much is a McDeal these days?
Andrée-Anne Lambert	{11 votes}	February 18th, 2005
It's the Highlight of the Year!     I always enjoy going to the Highlights Festival and I'm sure this year won't be any different. I have to admit, I am not a slow eater and I have little time to grocery shop and prepare gourmet meals. Being on the fast track means having to look for quick easy recipes that contain ingredients that I usually have in the house. I often go to fast food restaurants and I really enjoy the noodle places, but I also treat myself about once a month to a real good "slow" dinner. I hope to discover wonderful new foods and wine at the festival.
Heath Abram	{7 votes}	February 17th, 2005
Slow Food = Delicious     I agree that fast food has no nutritional value and the slow food is much better tasting and nutritious. We try to feed our kids food that is good for them and it is hard some times, thats why I myself, when strapped for time will buy fast food. But being Italian myself, let me tell you you can do lots of things with pasta (not just adding sauce) thats nutritious and not too time consuming. Kids love cheese and you could add it to alot of vegetables. We all have a soft spot for french fries, just don't eat them too often and ask for a baked potatoe sometimes, they're delicious. Bon Appetit
Rita Reale	{10 votes}	February 17th, 2005
Fast Food Yuck!     PI'm exaggerating some bit, but I eat fast food only when I'm in a rush which is most days and most meals. How do I prevent myself from eating Fast food such as McDonalds? I know choosing the right fast food restaurant. That means no McDonalds, or Harvey, or Burger King, but Al-Taib, or a sandwich at Subways, or eating chinese food on the run. And try to prevent yourself from spending too much money and your weight. Good Luck, and I want to see healthy looking people on the streets of Montreal.
Clara Kwan	{4 votes}	February 21st, 2005

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