World On A Plate

Fresh Air-Ruth Reichl

A re-broadcast of an interview between Terry Gross and Ruth Reichl, food critic and editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine from this past October. Just as enjoyable the second time around where Ms. Reichl talks about discovering her "inner blonde," dining with "Aunt Betty", coffee shops and dining alone.  Interview is just under 20 minutes in length.

Oxford American Food Issue

It's back. And in a big, juicy tasty way.  More than a year after its last issue, The Oxford American quarterly journal, is now published four times a year by the Oxford Literary Project in Conway, Arkansas. The current issue (pictured at the left) takes a deep long ramble around Southern food.  But it's so much more than just food. It takes a look at the way food weaves through our lives, through religion, race, family and also creates a sense of place. Guest edited by Southern food writer John T. Edge, a regular Oxford American columnist and director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, he has contributed “Fried Chicken: An American Story.” More than a magazine it's an 144-page anthology with writers such as: Roy Blount Jr., John Egerton, Padgett Powell and Molly Giles. There's even a previously unpublished essay by Carson McCullers.

Folks this collection is not even comparable to the The New Yorker's food issue.  (which, by the way is not an annual).   

Here's what's a short-order menu--sautéed frog, squirrel gumbo, Cajun Cola, 6,000 pounds of grits, Patty's peach pie, grilled deer testicles, flat dumplings, fresh figs, falling biscuits, Pinot Noir cotton candy, sweet, peppery raccoon, roast suckling pig, boiled peanuts, lemon-drenched baby okra, brains and eggs, peanut butter and bacon sandwiches and, of course, barbecue.

One of David Ramsey's "Some Like it Extra Hot", subtitled "Adventures in Masochistic Dining at Prince's Hot Chicken Shack".  It made me thirsty and eager to taste the fiery fried bird.

And then there's an full page ad for The Bacon of the Month Club.  Sweet Mama I'm very tempted.  Reserve your place at the table it's available in bookstores now.

Thanks for Subscribing

Thanks for subscribing to what will be a monthly newsletter update from World on a Plate, with summaries on what's been going on.  I'll include links to posted articles on food history and culture, the business of food, recipes, and other food related topics including some surprises.

All comments, good, bad or indifferent are welcome so don't be shy, just email me at [email protected].

Cheers!

Jeanne Brophy

IACP Award Nominations

Currently I'm listening to the Library of Congress lecture series on the digital future.  The series explores our relationship to books, information and reading in the digital age. While that may seen dull to many of you it's fascinating. And it's vital.

As a child my family put a huge value on the importance of reading.  Sure it helped that summers were humid and winters excessively cold.  What does it say about a family where siblings compete and argue over who is reading more books?  So today as an adult it is a concern to me that as a whole our culture appears to be reading less.  If we don't read deeply and critically we lose out as a culture. In the panel discussion one of the participants (they aren't identified) noted that today many of us don't slow down and actively engage with a book or with online content.  What we do is 'sample.'  We read in bits and pieces.  You can see the symptoms of this behavior everyday.

I know many people consume information in this manner.  I'm guilty of it myself. Someone in the office says, 'I read that email/document and didn't get that.'  This suggests to me that they are reading it but not reading the email or document for understanding.  It also reflects on the current state of business writing (an entirely separate discussion).  All of this is very commonplace. 

Suffice it to say that the most surprising comment I hear from many aspiring writers is that they don't have time to read.  It completely discounts them in my mind as a writer. You are what you read and if you don't read who are you as a writer? Who and what are your aspirations? 

All of this is a long way of saying that as writers we all need to pay more attention.  One of the personal challenges I face is the stigma that is placed on blogs.  Yes, a stigma. I'm still timid about saying I write a food blog. It cheapens how much time and effort I put into a post.  So now, and this is the part where I start to lose any of the virtual food blogging friends I may have, how do we overcome this perception? 

Currently blogs only reach about 25% of the online world. Non blog-exposed friends know what they know about blogs through offline media. These sources trumpet news and political blogs as valuable.  All others are thrown together as personal rants, raves and diaries.  They are not entirely wrong.  We come in all shapes and sizes as writers.  But to be successful, as writers we need to have a voice.  We need to sound articulate and have some sense about us so that readers return. There's an audience for everyone.  I don't think I'm alone in saying this but personally I'm interested in having an audience beyond just other fellow food bloggers.

My blog has never been about being a diary. This could be why my blog is not nearly as popular as others.  Many of us use the blog tactic in order to gain visibility around our talents. It's about two interests that I have that I am actively looking to develop and explore further:  writing and food. We want to write professionally.  In order to do this we need to sing over the heads of the choir.

If we are ever going to move this tool beyond the diary form we need to challenge ourselves to do better. We need to continue pushing our craft and ourselves every time we sit down at the keyboard. Yes we may all be passionate about that new recipe or that new restaurant.  But slow down and think about what you are doing. There are many food bloggers who do that with every post.  Significant portions of us do not. If I read one more improperly modified word or fall over one more errantly dangling participle I'll grow an ulcer. It's not easy but it is the responsible and necessary.  Don't create obstacles for readers.

We're learning. I'm learning.  But we're in this together.  Think about it. What are you doing to contribute to the collective voice of food blogging?  What are you doing to establish your voice, your style, and your brand in the world of food writing?  Do you have credibility? Are you using the spell check?

I'll stop pontificating and provide an assignment. A good jump start to walking the writing road.  Last night finalists were announced for the IACP Bert Green Awards, which recognize excellence in food journalism.  Winners will be announced in April.  Read the full list of journalism finalists visit the IACP website.  Read these essays and then read some more.   

Internet

Ammini Ramachandran
"Afloat a Kettuvallam on Lake Vembanad"
www.peppertrail.com
February 28, 2004

Sandy Szwarc, RN, BSN, CCP
"Fishy Advice: The Politics of Methylmercury in Fish and Mercury
Emissions"
www.cei.org
December 15, 2004

Jon Bonne
"Rhubarb Hunts for a Place Beyond the Pie"
www.msnbc.msn.com
September 2004

Dave McIntyre
"A New Twist on Wine"
www.wineloverspage.com
September 2004

Natalie MacLean
"American Idol"  (? Link ?)
www.nataliemaclean.com
June 16, 2004

Essay

Kitty Crider
"Anything for Mother"
Austin American-Statesman
May 5, 2004

Emily Green
"The High Price of Cheap Food"
Los Angeles Times
January 21, 2004

David Leite
"Devil With an Apron On"
Ridgefield Magazine
Winter 2004

Suzanne Martinson
"To Win a Cook's Heart, Butter Her Up"
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 19, 2004

Beverly Levitt
"Mother Knows Best"
The Columbian
May 4, 2004

Eat Cake

"Cakes have gotten a bad rap.  People equate virtue with turning down dessert. There is always one person at the table who holds up her hand when I serve the cake. No, really, I couldn't she says, and then gives her flat stomach a conspiratorial little pat. Everyone who is pressing a fork into that first tender layer looks at the person who declined the plate, and they all think, That person is better than I am.  That person has discipline. But that isn't a person with discipline, that is a person who has completely lost touch with joy. A slice of cake never made anyone fat. You don't eat the whole cake. You don't eat a cake every day of your life. You take the cake when it is offered because the cake is delicious. You have a slice of cake and what it reminds you of is someplace that's safe, uncomplicated, without stress. A cake is a party, a birthday, a wedding. A cake is what's served on the happiest days of your life."

-excerpted from "Eat Cake" by Jeanne Ray

Ode to Chocolate

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!"             Lucy Van Pelt, Peanuts

Brooklyn Blackout Cake. M&Ms, Death by Chocolate. Chocolate covered pretzels. Fresh strawberries hand-dipped in dark chocolate. Peanut butter chocolate pie. Fudge Brownies with warm chocolate sauce. Hershey’s Kisses. Chocolate Coconut Bars. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Chocolate Streusel Bundt Cake. Triple Chocolate Brownies. Chocolate Chip Cookies. Chocolate Pecan Carmel Cheesecake. Chocolate Bread Pudding. No true chocolate lover can resist his or her ultimate temptation.

We are a nation of chocophiles. Those that can’t appreciate our obsession may call us chocoholics. There’s no curing the legions that save room for dessert no matter what the time of day. In fact the nearest 12-step program which many in this condition subscribe to is to never be more than 12 steps away from chocolate. We love chocolate in all shapes, sizes and forms. American’s consume $14 billion annually worth of the sweet. That averages out to about 12 pounds of chocolate for each one of us. That figure seems low. Some research reports state that Americans eat 100 pounds of chocolate every second. Is that possible? Whether it is or not the statistic places us firmly in eighth place in world consumption— half the level of the world’s leading chocolate lovers, the Swiss.

Many of us have personal stories that characterize what chocolate means to us. Our tastes varying from simple to sophisticated often as we mature and are able to educate ourselves through travel, dining and a general taste for culinary adventure. The protagonist of these tales is the star ingredient, chocolate appreciated for all its rich, almost earthy and sensual qualities.

My own love affair with chocolate began in a very American way with my first bite of a simple, chocolate bar—Hershey. No nuts please just the pure smooth milk chocolate with the letters carved into the top. I would eat alternately from the ends until the word “she” appeared. I would then tuck the rest away until later. I remember the validation I felt when I saw “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. Now there’s a man after my own chocolate-covered heart. Evil and sinister as he was. Over the years chocolate has helped me handle many good and bad events in my life such as college exams, ex-boyfriends, bad bosses, Valentine’s days, new jobs, a loss of ten pounds. Chocolate has always been a reliable, trustworthy companion.

We marvel and fascinate when tempted by the richness and flavor of a dessert or candy containing chocolate. We adore chocolate. With gentle prodding conversations can rise to a buzzing swirl to include memories of past seductions with tales that begin with, “…the best I ever had…” or my ultimate chocolate fantasy is…” Nothing makes people smile with wordless bliss and child-like delight as this elixir.

Our enthusiasm for chocolate can range from elegant black tie affair such as a chocolate brandy trifle served on fine bone china to a simple early morning awakening over a strong brewed coffee accompanied by a flaky warm buttery croissant wrapped around warm, smoky bittersweet chocolate. Just the words can make our pulses quicken and mouths water. And the lengths we’ll go to acquire our fixes whether it’s through candy bars, cookies, cakes, pies, drinks, breads and sauces. If there’s a dessert on the menu, whether a corner deli or a five star establishment, with chocolate as the featured ingredient there’s always room. After all it could very well be better than all the rest that have come before.

Chocolate plays a central role in many of our lives to express gratitude, love, regrets, guilt, friendship, reward and celebration. In whatever form or shape chocolate can speak for us when we are at a loss for words. Chocolate given as a gift of achievement says you’ve earned it. A heart-shaped box of chocolate signifies how precious, coveted and exceptional one’s love is for the other. Each chocolate confection is a delicious and dramatic one-of-a-kind gesture. We commemorate really grand events with chocolate—birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, marriages, holidays, a perfect expression to celebrate and capture the spirit of the day. Small indulgences that carry you through life’s ups and downs with grand rewards.

First in a series this week.

The Gastronomical Me

"People ask me: why do you write about food, and eating and drinking? Why don't you write about the struggle for power, security and love, the way others do?

They ask it accusingly, as if I were somehow unfaithful to the honour of my craft.

"The easiest answer is, to say that like most other humans, I am hungry. But there is more than that. It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food, security and love, are so mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the other. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied... and it is all one.

"I tell about myself, and how I ate bread on a lasting hillside, or drank red wine in a room now blown to bits, and it happens that I am telling too about the people with me then, and their other deeper needs for love."

MFK Fisher, The Gastronomical Me, 1943

SPREZZATURA

Great writing, great cooking, seemingly natural born gifts for some of us capture my attention and admiration. The Italians would call this sprezzatura. What a word when said with the embellishment of gusto of a native speaker. I came across this word in this Sunday's Boston Globe Ideas section in reference to a new cultural publication entitled, n+1. The newspaper describes the journal:

Newsstand browsers will immediately notice the journal's longing for that halcyon era in which the anti-Stalinist left joined high-modernist litterateurs in the pages of Partisan Review. The stark red cover of n+1, which advertises such essays as "Against Exercise," "Palestine, the 51st State," and "Philosophy of Pop" in sans-serif type, is itself a self-conscious homage to the postwar American moment. But to read the contents of the journal -- "The Intellectual Scene," for example, knocks both The New Republic and The Weekly Standard and denounces Dave Eggers and his crew at McSweeney's and The Believer as a "regressive avant-garde" whose stylistic innovations mask a prissy moralism -- is to recognize that the sweet science of the literary brawl has been revivified.

I was more intrigued by the lack of sprezzatura with the use of the word. So feeling humbled I went in search of a definition. In short it means "an assumed air of doing difficult things with an effortless mastery and an air of nonchalance.

The longer academic rambling I found on the Washington State University literary arts section refers to the Castiglione Baldassare the writer of the Renaissance period on the Renaissance his most significant tome being The Book of the Courtier which outlines the ideal man aka The Renaissance Man or

a uomo universale , or as a person expert in a wide variety of knowledge and skills. Most important to the cultured person is a certain ease or facility with situations, knowledge, love, and skills; Castiglione called this quality sprezzatura, and the idea stuck to the aristocratic sense of self for the next several centuries. In fact, the twentieth "cool" is ultimately a descendant of Castiglione's aristocratic sprezzatura.

So are there any true renaissance men or women today? Someone who is expert in several disciplines?