`The Pleasures of Slow Food' is edited by Atlantic Monthly editor Corby Kummer in that the half of the book contains recipes collected from European and American chefs prominent in the Slow Food movement. The first thirty pages of the book are taken up by a preface written by the founder of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, a Foreword written by Atlantic Monthly colleague (and author of the best-selling `Fast Food Nation') Eric Schlosser, and with an essay by the author on a description of the history and activities of the Slow Food organization. Eleven (11) essays take up the next fifty pages on various artisinal food producers. After the recipes is a very nice two-page table of contacts for the Slow Food movement in Europe and the United States and for contributors to this book.
The most important question to a prospective purchaser of this volume is `Do I want to shell out $40 for a collection of recipes by Rick Bayless, Deborah Madison, Alice Waters, Judy Rodgers, Paul Bertolli, Daniel Boulud and ten other notable American and European chefs'. The question becomes more acute if you, like me, already own twenty cookbooks by these contributors. I will soon point out some observations that make this decision even easier.
The `Slow Food' moniker for Carlo Petrini's movement is really a serious misnomer, as the primary objective of the movement is not as an adversary to MacDonalds, even though the projected startup of a MacDonalds at the base of Rome's Spanish steps was the precipitating act which set the movement in motion. As Allison Janney's character C. J. Craig said in a `West Wing' episode, `We need an enemy on this issue'. Fast food restaurants are not so much evil in themselves as, like Gresham's law, they threaten to drive out the things which this movement wishes to preserve. These valuables are artisinal foods and methods, most of which have been used and practiced for centuries, and are in danger of disappearing as much through the action of large food processors and government regulations as they are by the presence of a McDonald's in Rome. This is not to say Fast Food is not evil in its own right, as Schlosser points out, a typical fast food hamburger is a virtual soup of overprocessed, underflavored, artificial ingredients with an unpleasant aftertaste. But this is really a different battle than the preservation of valuable food traditions.
The Slow Food movement was founded in Italy, which still has the largest participation. In the early years of the movement, the leading country outside of Italy was Germany. France came to the table very late, and in the last few years, membership in the United States has been leading the charge alongside the Italians. This is largely due to the synergy between the movement's objectives and the vision of American culinary leaders such as Rick Bayless, Deborah Madison, Alice Waters, and Waters' apostles Judy Rodgers and Paul Bertolli.
The movement has three principle initiatives. These are the Ark, a directory of endangered foods around the world, the Presidia or local organizations which work at preserving Ark foods, and the Slow Food Award which brings attention and assistance to agricultural activists who work with Ark foods. The most visible activity of the movement is the Salone del Gusto, a multi-day conference on the activities of the movement. But back to the book.
As an introduction to the Slow Food movement, this book is much better than the two earlier books I have reviewed on this subject by prominent authors Paula Wolfert and Joyce Goldstein. Had I known of the information in this book before I reviewed Wolfert and Goldstein, I would have had a much better take on their books. Still, this book may be less valuable in the long run than the cookbooks by Wolfert and Goldstein. My first reason for saying this is that for $40, you are getting nothing more than 80 pages of recipes from a very wide variety of different voices. Since almost all cookbooks are, by their nature, reference books to which one goes when you need a recipe to fit a particular situation, this book is poor, as there is no central theme to the recipes. There is no question I can think of which would make me pull this book from my shelves in preference over any one of a dozen other books.
But wait a minute. Isn't this book supposed to be all about slow food? Yes, but the recipes in this book do not really exemplify the slow food objectives, as they simply do not focus on artisinal ingredients and techniques. And, unlike Wolfert's and Goldstein's books, the recipes range in style from Germany to Mexico. So, while a lust for something Italian may take me to Goldstein's book, nothing will suggest I go to this book. The only thing connecting the recipes is the recipes' authors are all active in the movement.
By far the most valuable contribution of this book is in its informing us of the various families of Ark foods to which we can give allegiance and to help support. The most famous issue for Americans may be the case of raw milk cheeses. As the government may at any moment tighten up on their ban on importing raw milk cheeses from Europe, creating these delights in the United States becomes more and more urgent.
While the book was written by a professional writer, I was surprised at the number of cases of poor usage and exaggerated metaphors I found in the text. It is really a bit much to say that a plate being passed from one person to another is white hot. My recollection from physics is that white-hot is about 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. But, this is not the real issue.
You may want this book if you need a good description of the Slow Food activities and objectives.
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