Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food [Paperback]

Slow Food Editore, Carlo Petrini (Author), Ben Watson (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

Remember the days before the dot.com explosion, before Golden Arches rose from the Great Plains, before the Age of Information, when the only commodity that wasn't in short supply in America was time? Time to relax and reflect, time to cook well, eat well, and live the life of sustainable hedonism. Today we pound down our Big Mac and fries as we check our e-mail on our collective Palm Pilots, at the expense of true nourishment for our bodies and souls. "Enough!" says Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food International, a movement that encourages us to turn down the volume, unplug the answering machine, and enjoy life to its fullest. Away with nutraceutical soft drinks and breakfast cereals made from refined sugar and shaped liked clowns. Bring back the pleasure of the palate, and return the humanity to food. More than 60,000 members worldwide now belong to the Slow Food movement, which believes that the slow shall inherit the earth. Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food is an anthology for cooks, gourmets, and anyone who is passionate about food and its impact on our culture. Drawn from five years of the quarterly journal Slow (only recently available in America), this book includes more than 100 articles covering eclectic topics from "Falafel" to "Fat City." From the market at Ulan Bator in Mongolia to Slow Food Down Under, this book offers an armchair tour of the exotic and bizarre. You'll pass through Vietnam's Snake Tavern, enjoy the Post-Industrial Pint of Beer, and learn why the lascivious villain in Indian cinema always eats Tandoori Chicken. The articles are contributed by some of the world's top food writers. Slow Food is moving fast in North America, with more than 5,000 members, loosely organized into 55 "Convivia," from Montreal to San Francisco, benefiting from enormous free publicity. Slow Food offers a clear alternative to the "fast food nation" (the title of Eric Schlosser's great book on the horrors of the fast food biz). This is a perfect follow-up to Joan Dye Gussow's This Organic Life, and is proof positive that he or she who lives slow, lives best.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a fascinating study in how the subject of food... isn't just the province of foodies anymore." -- Valley News, October 2001

"Slow Food has become an adroit advocate for... the enjoyment and appreciation of food and drink." -- Food Arts

"We applaud Slow Food's rejection of homogeneity and its celebration of the local, the quirky, the rare." -- Saveur Magazine

About the Author

Patrick Martins is the Executive Director of Slow Food USA. Ben Watson is an author and editor whose recent books include The Slow Food Guide to New York City (Chelsea Green, 2003) and Cider, Hard and Sweet (Countryman Press, 1999).

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931498016
• ISBN-13: 978-1931498012
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carlo Petrini is the founder of the international Slow Food movement, which was established in 1986 and now has more than 70,000 members in 45 countries around the world. Slow Food is committed to celebrating and preserving biological and regional diversity in food, and to promoting taste education, as well as supporting local agriculture and economies in our increasingly homogenous world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow Food - Fast Edit, June 22, 2002

By 

Win Douglas (Loudon, NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food (Paperback)

"Slow Food" and the slow food movement deserve better than this. The subjects are interesting and informative, but the frequent mistakes in the words ( not typos - real serious errors) makes it embarassing and I finally gave up. Because of the too-fast or careless editing ( apparently by non-English speakers in many cases) I would not give this book as a gift to anyone I know who otherwise would be interested in the subject. Too bad.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those with a passion for food., December 10, 2001

By 

Kurt Micheal Friese (Iowa City, Iowa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food (Paperback)

If membership in the Slow Food movement yielded nothing besides access to great food writing, it would still be a bargain at twice the price. This anthology is a great way to introduce yourself to what the New York Times called one of the most important ideas that shaped 2001: The Slow Food Movement. If you are angered by the onslaught of fast food, light beer, "lunchables" and the general standardization of taste, then Slow Food is for you.

The book is an anthology of writings from the movement's quartely publication Slow, which has been published since 1996. It is divided into fifteen sections with titles like "The Ark and the Deluge", "Prohibitions and Prejudice", and simply "Beer". It is rich, intelligent, insighful writing that will anger you one moment and leave you drooling the next. Buy the book then loan it to a friend.
-kmf

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Starting a revolution through the pleasures of the table, December 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food (Paperback)

'Slow Food' explains the philosophy of eating well and of buying local. Philosopher/Gourmet Carlo Petrini explains the unique movement he created in Italyu that has now become a global phenomenon. this book is a great read for gourmets and people interested in food's role in their society.