Making Slow Food Fast in California Cuisine PDF
Preview Making Slow Food Fast in California Cuisine
MAKING SLOW FOOD FAST IN CALIFORNIA CUISINE Victor W. Geraci Making Slow Food Fast in California Cuisine VictorW.Geraci Making Slow Food Fast in California Cuisine VictorW.Geraci IndependentScholar Murrieta,California USA ISBN978-3-319-52856-4 ISBN978-3-319-52857-1 (eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-52857-1 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017930494 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher, whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation, reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinany otherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation, computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationin thisbookarebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublisher northeauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerial containedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherre- mainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. Coverillustration©PantherMediaGmbH/AlamyStock Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland TomyfatherVictorGeraci,whotaughtmethevalueoffarming,food, andwine P : A P D F , REFACE ERSONAL ISCOVERY OF OOD W , S T INE AND ENSE OF ERROIR “Parlacomemagni.”Itmeans,“Speakthewayyoueat,”orinmypersonal translation:“Sayitlikeyoueatit.”“It’sareminder—whenyou’remakinga big deal out of explaining something, when you’re searching for the right words—to keep your language as simple and direct as Roman rood. Don’t makeabigproductionoutofit.Justlayitonthetable.” —ElizabethGilbert,Eat,Pray,Love OverthespanofmylifeIhaveinherentlyunderstoodtheconceptofterroir and cuisine and its importance to my existence. Yet, I have struggled mightily with its nuanced meanings. As a young boy I remember Sunday dinnersatmySicilian-bornAuntHazel’shousewith ethniccomfortfoods likefennel,artichokes,wildgame,calamari,home-curedolives,homemade pasta,saucefromhome-growntomatoes,allcookedwithagreenpungent Sicilian olive oil, and cannoli and Fico d’India (cactus apples or prickly pears) for dessert. Before dinner she carefully poured a little of our home- made red wine on the clean tablecloth and then would gleefully declare mangiare.Mylifeeducationoffoodidentityorsenseofplacehadbegun. Myfatherwasatable-grapesharecropperinthesouthernCaliforniaareas ofElCajon,Lakeside,andRamonainSanDiegoCounty.Hehadnoideaof whattheformallanguageofterroirencompassed.Yet,heknewhowtouse its mantra to distinguish his product from other central and northern California Muscat and Tokay table grapes. He recycled old lug-boxes by labeling over the corporate fruit labels that touted the greatness of their various fruits and vegetables. His Witch Creek, V. Geraci, non-irrigated, vii viii PREFACE:APERSONALDISCOVERYOFFOOD,WINE,ANDSENSEOFTERROIR mountain-grown, blue and orange label proclaimed his pride and joy. It showed the specific location of the vineyards (Witch Creek—Ballena area around Ramona, California) and informed consumers of the climate and insuredqualitybyuseofhisname. Tohelpsupplementmeagersharecroppingwagesmyfatheralsotended smallpeachandplumorchardsforthesesame vineyardowners.Muchlike today, state agriculture rules and policies, initiated by corporate growers, cooperatives,andfederalagencies,severelylimitedhisaccesstothenormal produce distribution system. It was there that he learned to depend on foodiesofthe1950sthrough1980sthatactivelysoughtoutlocal,seasonal produce. Dad developed a telephone and postcard system to notify past customers when they could come to the farm to pick peaches, plums, and grapes.His select pick-your-own weekenddayshad to belimited afterthe California Highway Patrol complained that excessive traffic on country roads presented a dangerous traffic situation. On my part I remember grousing about the many middle school and high school weekend days spent in a makeshift wooden shed directing legions of families out to communewithnatureandbringhomefreshlocalfruit. Childhoodmemoriesalsoincludedthefirsttasteofouryearly100gallons ofhomemadewine.Myfatherwould,ingoodyears,raisetheglassofruby red wine to the sun and with a grin on his face declare Gjaku i Krishtit (Sicilian Arbe¨risht for Blood of Christ). The taste, location, celebration, remembrances of homeland, and religiosity of food filled his heart. As a southernCaliforniafarmingfamilyweembracedoursenseoflocaltasteand itsabilitytotieustoanAmericanlandwhileatthesametimebondingusto the far-off village of Piana degli Albanese, Sicily. My father spoke of soil, land,topography,andhisfarmingtechniques(manyoldschoolItalian)but therewasneveradiscussionofterroir.Iunderstoodtheimportanceoffood toouridentitybutlackedthefoodielanguagetodiscussourformalterroir. Thisrudimentaryarrangementwithfoodandplacecontinuedthroughthe birth of my three sons and 20 years of teaching middle school in Santee, California. As a shift in life course I went back to graduate school to complete my doctorate degree in American History from the University of California, SantaBarbara.WhilecompletingmydissertationonthehistoryoftheSanta Barbara, California, wine industry I spent a year as the tasting-room man- agerfortheGaineyVineyardintheSantaYnezAVA.1Betweenresearching and writing about wine and serving wine enthusiasts and tourists I slowly learnedthevocabularyandhowtowalkthetalkofterroir.Tobehonestmy PREFACE:APERSONALDISCOVERYOFFOOD,WINE,ANDSENSEOFTERROIR ix textbookandlearnedcommercialknowledgeleftmewoefullyshortoffully understandingtheheartandsouloffoodandasenseofplace. ForthenextsixyearsIservedasanAssistantandthenAssociateProfessor ofHistoryatCentralConnecticutStateUniversity.ItwouldbeherethatI begantounderstandandfine-tunewhatIwasthencallingCulturalTerroir. As part of my job I directed the Sicilian Initiative for the University and traveledtoSicilynumeroustimeswhileIoversawanoralhistoryprojecton SicilianImmigrationtoConnecticutandorganizedstudyabroadprograms toSiracusa,Sicily.ItisherethatIrelearnedtherealimportanceoffoodand placetoself,region,andnationalidentity. I clearly remember on one Sicilian visit being invited to a local family’s SundaydinnertomeettheNonathatIwouldinterviewinafewdays.Her son-in-lawpickedmeupatthehoteltotransportmetothedinnerandon thewayhisyoungdaughterconvincedherfatherthatwehadtostopatthe newly opened McDonalds in Catania, Sicily. She wanted to get a Happy Meal that she had seen advertised for weeks on television. Upon arrival at Nona’s her son-in-law and I received a quick and very stern lesson on the importanceofgoodfood,madeandservedwithlove.Itsentmebacktomy days as a youth as I remembered my lessons in Cultural Terroir. Nona would not allow the Golden Arches to become the sense of place that she wantedforhergranddaughter.Toherfoodandplacewereinseparableand anintegralpartoffamily,region,andnation. Theclimax inmyfoodidentityjourneyoccurredashorttimelaterona sunnyJanuaryafternoonasIsatinatrattoriaafewfeetfromtheIonianSea in Siracusa. My mid-day meal of calamari arrosto, caprese salad, and local whitewine became my definingfoodmoment.Past family foodeducation coupled with my own research and life journey had sent me on a quest to define food and wine terroir, sense of place, or identity or whatever word onewishestouseandaskthequestiononwhethertheseslowfooddreams couldbepossibleinafastfoodworld. A few years later I returned to California for a job at the University of California Berkeley as a Research Specialist for the Oral History Center’s FoodandWineProject.Todaytheprojectcontainshundredsoforalhistory interviews with California food and wine pioneers.Thistimemy academic and personal understandings of terroir and place matured as I listened to foodandwinepioneerspourouttheirheartsonthevirtuesoffoodasthey definedthenewCaliforniaCuisineandwineterroir.Thesefoodandalcohol peoplespoketomeoftheneedforplacedescriptorsinamannerthatfinally begantomakesensetome,orsoIthought.ThreemoretripstoSicilyinthe x PREFACE:APERSONALDISCOVERYOFFOOD,WINE,ANDSENSEOFTERROIR last decade only served to deepen my interest and add more complexities andnuancestomyquest. My American-born father’s lifelong goal to travel to Sicily ended when mymother’shealthdeteriorated.IdecidedthatifhecouldnotgoIwould trytobringtheculturetohim.In2005myoldestsonMatthew,avideog- rapher by trade, and I traveled to my grandparents’ village just outside of Palermo to capture the land and customs for my father. The final edited video included sound bites from an oral interview with my dad. We gave him a copy of the video as a present for his 88th birthday and the final product, not surprisingly, naturally centered upon food and agriculture. Clips of churches, ruins, the village, and people interested him, but the food,vineyards,wines,andmarketplacescaptivatedhim.Hiseyessparkled ashewatchedclipsofartichokes,fish,fennel,cheeses,numerouspastas,fici india, and goats and he kept repeating his long-shared mantra of “give a Siciliansomelandorfreeaccesstoopenspacesandhewillneverstarve.” As a boy I learned to enjoy farm-to-table cuisine and as an adult I have studiedandinterviewedSanFranciscoBayAreapioneersdedicatedtoadapt these same practices in an industrial food world. In October of 2015 I attended a one-week Sicilian food and culture course at the Anna Tasca LanzaCookingSchoolinSicily.ThisbookwasinpreliminarystagesandI hoped to observe and relive a true farm-to-table experience. Since the nineteenthcenturyFabriziaTascaLanzaandherfamilyhaveownedthou- sands of acres of agricultural property in the rural Sicilian countryside betweenPalermoandCatania.HousedontheTascad’Almeritawineestate her Case Vecchio school teaches farm-to-table, or as they call it Cook-the- Farm, techniques for a modern world. Students study Sicilian cuisine through hands-on kitchen and garden workshops, lectures, local field trips, and culinary journeys around the island. Every participant learns howtousesustainablelocalagricultureandmarketstosupplytheingredi- ents for the daily cooking lessons. Her techniques include tried-and-true Sicilianrecipesastaughtbyastafftrainedinsustainablepractices.2 Yes,thefoodandexperienceswereamazingbuttheyonlydeepenedmy concerns on whether America, or the world for that matter, could ever entirelyeatthisway.Thisconcernisbestshownbyananecdotalobservation fromaneveningdinnerwithallthestaffandstudentsfromPoland,Ireland, Australia,andmyself.Ourunanimousconsensuswasthatwewerethelucky onesthatcouldaffordtoeatlikethisandtoapersonwelamentedthatmost of the industrial world had lost this personal attachment to the land, farming, and food. We also agreed on the need for additional food PREFACE:APERSONALDISCOVERYOFFOOD,WINE,ANDSENSEOFTERROIR xi education as a political force necessary to nudge corporate industrial food enterprises to do better. Rachel Laudan, historian and author of Cuisine andEmpire:CookinginWorldHistory,putsitbestinherarticle“APleafor CulinaryModernism.”Shereflectedthat“Theobsessionwitheatingnatu- ralandartisanalisahistorical.”Shefirmlybelievedthat“Weshoulddemand morehighqualityindustrialfood.”3Ifullyagreeandthuslayoutforyoumy themeofSlowFoodMadeFastinCaliforniaCuisine. NOTES 1. Victor W. Geraci. Grape Growing To Vintibusiness: A History of the Santa Barbara, California, Regional Wine Industry, 1965–1995 (Ph.D.Dissertation,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara,1997). 2. Anna Tasca Lanza: A Sicilian Cooking Experience website http:// www.annatascalanza.com/index.php/en/ 3. Rachel Laudan, “A Plea for Culinary Modernism: Why We Should LoveNew,Fast,ProcessedFood,”Gastronomica:TheJournalofFood andCulture1:1(Winter2001):36–43.
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