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Slow Foods

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Today I attended the first meeting for the BGSU Slow Foods Chapter.

logo_testataPuja Batra-Wells, Dr. Lucy Long, and several students brought a potato soup, baguette and homemade butter to share with the participants.

To begin, Dr. Long explained the beginnings of the Slow Food Movement, which began in Italy when several college students gathered to protest the construction of a McDonald’s. The students began rallying against the industrialization of food, in general, and Slow Food was born.

The BGSU Slow Food Chapter hopes to gain enough energy, momentum, and voices to make social change here in BG. They want to encourage dining services to use local produce when it’s available and create healthier menus for BGSU students, faculty and staff. Also, the group would like to participate in the upkeep, harvesting, and winterizing of community gardens (BG has two of them!), and they hope to create a community orchard. Additionally, the chapter hopes to come together for social events. They want to share meals at pot lucks, local restaurants, and dinner parties and create a space where folks can take time to enjoy food and talk about food. As a group, they hope to do other food-centered activities such as visit a slaughter house, learn to make cheese, share recipes, etc.

It’s no suprise that I support Slow Food and signed up to become a member!

During Puja’s dicussion of her expectations I couldn’t help but think of our GSW 1120 Honors class. We’ve discussed so many of the issues Slow Food fights for and against. I think it’s interesting that food unites us, even beyond the dinner table with our family. Today food–good food that is clean and fair–brought together 20+ students, faculty, and staff from different backgrounds and cultures. That says a lot regarding our collective desire to change the industry of today’s food.

The talk today reminded me of Dan’s presentation last week, of when he said that he has almost a spiritual experience when he eats duck that he has harvested and cleaned himself. While hunting and dressing an animal may be a bit extreme for most eaters, it’s important to realize there are plenty of options to help us develop a stronger connection to our food and foodways, and Slow Food brings together like-minded folks so we can learn from one another. I thought it would be neat to have a wild game dinner and talk about the issues surrounding hunting. Or to have a dinner at a farm where only foods harvested from that farm can be served.  Event like these can foster community, inspire education, and teach us to use and enjoy foods more responsibily.

As a GSW class we’re on the brink of the Researched Essay. A lot of the issues we’ve already discussed only scatch at the surface of the thousands of food-related topics that would be perfect for our final essay. Bearing in mind, the Slow Food meeting I attended today, Dan’s presentation, and my own foodie research, I’ve started to brainstorm possible topics for a Researched Essay. For now I’m just formulating research questions: can Slow Food make an impact? What’s been the success rate of Slow Food changing local food systems? With all the use of pesticides and genetically engineered crops, is eating hunted foods, such as duck and geese, safe?

jamieBut the question I continue going back to is one that is pretty dear to me. School lunches and dinners. Every semester I recieve countless essays about how Dining Services serves unhealthy, greasy, fried foods. Students want to see a change made to the menus Dining Services offers. My all-time favority celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver, worked tiredlessly to create healthier school lunches for kids in Britain. Can celebrity chefs change food policies, and if so what is the chance of success? I’m still figuring out an angle, but this issue is one that is important to my students, which makes it important to me.

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Today We Welcome Lucy Long!

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

IMG_0708 In honor of Lucy Long’s academic article “Green Bean Casserole and Midwestern Identity: A Regional Foodways Aesthetic and Ethos,” which was published in Midwestern Folklore’s Spring 2007 issue, I made two variations of green bean casserole: the Campbell’s soup recipe and a recipe from Alton Brown that uses fresh ingredients.My goal was to present the classic dish with one of its variations.

I started with Alton Brown’s recipe while I was roasting a whole chicken and parboiling potatoes and carrots to add to the roast halfway through its cooking time. (I multitask in the kitchen, which is sometimes not so smart, like last night when my chicken started smoking, my potaotes boiled over, and my onions burnt…) I started by trimming the green beans and blanching them. Then I cleaned the mushrooms, trimmed and sliced them. Both of those tasks were easy enough. Then I attempted to make my own more healthy, flavorful version of the french fried onions. I sliced the onions, coated them with flour, panko, and salt, and I baked them for 30 minutes at 400, not 475. My oven runs hot. I didn’t want to burn them. But they burned. After tasting them I realized I could use them, but quite honestly I wanted my students to think I was a good cook–not one who burns things. So I resorted for the store bought French’s french fried onions. Suddenly I realized– when the onions were in the oven, when I needed to add the veggies to the roast–that I needed half-and-half to continue this recipe. And I needed milk for the Campbell’s recipe. Thank goodness for good friends. After my dear friend Babs saved the day and ran up to Happy Badger for me, I began the sauce. I browned the mushrooms, added the garlic and nutmeg, added the flour, and then added the half-and-half. The sauce tasted better than condensed soup, but even after cooking it longer than I should have, it still didn’t get the thick. I mixed everything together in a casserole dish and prayed for the best. I decided to pre-make both casseroles, so I could just bake and get to class tomorrow. And I’m glad I thought of that; Alton’s recipe took me a good 45 minutes to prepare.

Then I made the Campbell’s recipe, which as Lucy said, “open cans, mix, and bake” (8-9). This recipe took me under three minutes to prepare. And that was because I got a faulty Campbell’s can. Because of how easy this recipe was vs Alton’s, I started thinking to myself, “Why didn’t I just double this recipe and not offer a variation?”

But after more consideration about the recipes and Lucy’s essay, the Campbell’s recipe actually goes against my food philosophy and practices. I believe in making fresh food that comes from fresh ingredients, preferably local and organic, but if not in season then store-bought organic or at least from the United States. I put more love and care into Alton’s recipe. Maybe that’s because it took more time and obviously fresh ingredients. But I wanted Alton’s recipe to “turn out” good; there was something at stake in it. Whereas with the Campbell’s recipe I dumped ingredients into a bowl, mixed, and poured into a casserole dish. If I think about these recipes in terms of my identity, I want to be a cook who is seen as healthy, conscious of local economies, smart about sustainability, and completely free from any corporate ties. But this recipe is corporate. And, honestly, I don’t know what it says about me as a cook or person. I think of myself as anti-establishment, but is that possible? That’s really the core of my reflection on Lucy’s essay–how can an identity be created if it’s mass-created by a corporation?

There are many ways to consider the foods we eat, but ultimately my main concern, in the end, is if those foods taste good. And my fingers are crossed for both dishes I made. I hope Lucy and my students enjoy them and they lead us to a fruitful discussion about food and identity.

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