Combatting Food Waste

Posted on March 29, 2018 by babbityjean

When America’s First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters dined in a popular Rome restaurant in 2009, the staff was shocked when she asked for a doggy bag for the leftovers.  While this is a common practice in the United States, it is still considered a taboo in Italy and much of Europe.  In the U.K., it is more common but it is usually done with a dose of British embarrassment.  In Spain and Italy, people might take bones from their meat to give to their dog, but culturally it just isn’t done.  To be fair, portion sizes in restaurants are smaller and often there aren’t leftovers.

According to a survey by Coldiretti, the Italian farmer’s association, one in four Italians believe the idea of taking home remnants of their dinners is a sign of poverty, bad manners, and even vulgarity.  But times are changing.  First, France passed a law in 2016 that bans supermarkets from throwing away food.  They must either give it to charity, or, if no longer edible for humans, make it available for animal feed, compost, or bioenergy.  There are stiff fines if they do not comply.

Six months later, Italy passed a law that “encourages” restaurants to give people doggy bags, and removes legal hurdles for companies that wish to donate food.  Foods may now be donated after their expiration date, or if they have been mislabeled (but are still safe).  The costs have been eliminated for farmers who want to give food directly to charities, and they will receive tax breaks for their donations.

Unlike the French law with its mandates and fines, the Italian law relies on altruism and incentives.  Will Italy manage a cultural shift in something as important to Italians as food, and will incentives make the industry waste less?  Food waste is now on the international agenda, but it must become culturally unacceptable to waste food and to serve huge portions in restaurants.  Current estimates range from $13 to $16 billion of food waste in Italy annually.  The law provides $11 million to launch a promotional campaign, but only $1.1 million to fund innovation in using food waste.

For starters, a doggy bag is called a “family bag” in Italy to help destigmatize the practice.  And now several high-profile chefs are championing the cause.  Michelin star chef, Matteo Baronetto, from Turin’s historic Del Cambio restaurant, said in an interview that there should be no shame in requesting food for home.  “There’s no scandal, quite the opposite…it’s the client’s choice and it’s his meal since he has paid for it.”   Bruno Barbieri, a MasterChef on Italian television, goes one step further calling it “cool” to ask for a doggy (or family) bag.  “I want to say to my clients, if you ask to take home the food that I have prepared, you are giving me a gift.  It means you liked it but for some reason couldn’t manage to finish it…. For those who cook this request is gratifying, not degrading.”  And in his kitchen, nothing is wasted: “For example, bread left in the basket of clients is used to prepare the lunch for the brigade, the wine of open bottles we use for softening the risotto.  Or we drink it at the end of the food service.”

One of the most vocal advocates on the issue is Massimo Bottura, who was recently named the best chef in the world.  During the Milan Expo in 2015, he opened an experimental soup kitchen with a Catholic charity that used food that had been left over from the exhibition as part of a campaign to raise awareness about food waste.  During the Olympic Games in Rio, he set up an “anti-waste” kitchen and cafeteria to feed people who live in Rio’s slums.

Santa Barbara’s 2017 International Film Festival showed the documentary, “Theater of Life,” which is about the Refettorio Ambrosiano, Bottura’s soup kitchen in Milan where in 2015 he invited 60 of the world’s best chefs to join him to cook for refugees and the homeless of Milan.  As Bottura says, “chefs can no longer cook for just the elite ignoring the ethical issues about feeding the planet.”

 

 

 

Posted in Abitudini, Cucina italiana, Differenze culturali, English, Film, Foto, Italia, La Gente, Milano, Santa Barbara | Leave a comment

Cosa c’è nel menu per l’Ultima Cena?

Posted on March 22, 2018 by babbityjean

Se foste nel braccio della morte, cosa scegliereste per la vostra ultima cena? Aragosta, pizza o linguine all’aglio e olio?  Cosa c`era sul menù dell’Ultima Cena di Cristo?  Secondo gli storici, l’ultima cena si tenne in occasione della Pasqua ebraica e dunque è molto probabile che il menù fosse composto da erbe amare, pane azzimo, e charoset (un dolce di frutta secca).  Il vino – probabilmente rosso – veniva diluito con due parti d’acqua, secondo le usanze dell’epoca.

Ma nell’arte è tutta un’altra faccenda.  I pittori nella storia arricchivano la tavola secondo le usanze del loro tempo e/o seguivano precisi canoni simbolici.  Ecco sette esempi tratti da un articolo di Focus.it.

  1. La prima raffigurazione artistica dell’ultima cena si trova in un mosaico del VI secolo d. C. nella Chiesa di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo a Ravenna.  Oltre al pane, sul tavolo ci sono due grossi pesci.  Non è un caso: nella prima tradizione cristiana il pesce era un simbolo che rappresentava Cristo.
  2. Una delle pietanze più raffigurate nel Medioevo e nel Rinascimento era l’agnello, come si vede in questo dipinto del Maestro del Libro di Casa, anonimo tedesco attivo tra il 1500 e il 1600. L’agnello è simbolo di purezza, ma anche di sacrificio.  La sua presenza preannuncia il destino di Cristo.  Il dipinto è conservato presso la Gemäldegalerie di Berlino e fa parte del cosiddetto Polittico della Passione.
  3. Gli artisti hanno dipinto altri tipi di carne. Duccio di Buoninsegna, un pittore senese della metà del 1200, dipinse ciò che sembra un maialino arrosto all’interno della Pala della Maestà.  Questo cibo era diffuso all’epoca, ma era anche una palese inesattezza storica, dato che Gesù, essendo ebreo, non poteva mangiare carne di maiale.   La Pala della Maestà è conservata nel Museo dell’Opera del Duomo a Siena.
  4. In una serie di affreschi diffusi in Friuli, Trentino, e Veneto ci sono i gamberi di fiume, che erano molto apprezzati da quelle parti a quel tempo. I gamberi avevano vari significati; per esempio, qualcuno riteneva che i gamberi fossero simbolo d’eresia e peccato, per via del loro muoversi “all’indietro” rispetto alla retta via.  Ecco l’affresco, fine del XV secolo, di Antonio Baschenis a Santa Stefano a Carisolo a Trento.
  5. In questa raffigurazione di Domenico Ghirlandaio, dipinta intorno al 1486, le ciliegie furono cosparse sulla tavola, coperta da una tovaglia finemente decorata. Il rosso dei frutti è un esplicito richiamo al sangue versato da Cristo.  Ci sono altri cibi sulla tavola, fra cui pane e formaggio.  Il vino e l’acqua sono contenuti in sottili ampolle.  Da notare la presenza di un gatto, in attesa di chissà` cosa.  Questo dipinto si trova nel convento di San Marco a Firenze, ora diventato museo e dove si possono ammirare opere del Beato Angelico.
  6. Nell’ultima cena di Tintoretto, realizzata tra il 1592 e il 1594 per la Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore a Venezia, compare una misteriosa torta decorata, raffigurata all’estremità del tavolo. Per coinvolgere lo spettatore, il pittore decise di ambientare la scena in un luogo che assomiglia molto a una taverna dell’epoca, avvolgendo tutto in uno straordinario gioco di luci e ombre.
  7. Tra i cenacoli, non poteva mancare il capolavoro di Leonardo da Vinci, dipinto tra i 1494 e il 1495 nel refettorio del convento di Santa Maria delle Grazie a Milano. Uno studio recente ha individuato tra le pietanze rappresentate anche un’anguilla condita con spicchi d’arancia (o limone), un piatto molto diffuso nel Rinascimento.

 

Posted in Arte, Comunità ebrea, Cucina italiana, Firenze, Foto, Italia, Italiano, Milano, Storia, Vaticano | Leave a comment

What’s on the menu for The Last Supper?

Posted on March 22, 2018 by babbityjean

If you were on death row, what would you choose for your last meal?  Lobster, pizza, linguine all’aglio e olio?  Let’s change to the Last Supper of Christ.  According to historians, the last supper was held on the occasion of Jewish Passover and therefore the menu was most likely composed of bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and charoset (a dessert of dried fruit) while the wine, almost surely red, was diluted with two parts water according to usage at the time.

But in art it’s another matter.  Painters throughout history enriched the table according to customs of their times and followed specific symbolic conventions.  Here are some examples taken from an article in Focus.it:

  1. The first artistic representation, from the 6th century A.C., is a mosaic in the Church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna.  There isn’t a trace of wine on the table, but besides bread, appear two large fish.  From early Christian tradition, the fish was a symbol of Christ.
  2. One of the dishes often depicted in Medieval and Renaissance times was lamb, as in this painting of the Master of the Book of Home, an anonymous German working between 1500 and 1600. Lamb is a symbol of purity, but also of sacrifice:  its presence foreshadows the destiny of Christ.  The painting is in the Gemäldegalerie of Berlin and is part of the altar panels called Polyptch of the Passion.
  3. Lamb wasn’t the only type of meat painted by artists. Within the altarpiece of the Majesty, Duccio di Buoninsegna, a Siena painter from the mid 1200s, replaces lamb with what appears to be a roasted piglet.  This was a very common food at the time of the painter, but also an obvious historical inaccuracy, given that Jesus, being Jewish, would not have eaten pork.  Today the painting is preserved at the Museum of the Duomo in Siena.
  4. Peeking out in a series of frescoes in Friuli, Trentino, and Veneto are river shrimp, much appreciated in those areas but that convey different meanings. Among the most curious is one that claims that shrimp symbolize heresy and sin because they are moving “backwards.”  Here is the fresco of Antonio Baschenis (end of the 15th century) at Santo Stefano a Carisolo in Trento.
  5. Perhaps more sophisticated than the shrimp are the cherries scattered on the elegant table painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio around 1486.  Here the red of the fruit is an explicit reference to the blood of Christ.  On the table covered by a delicately decorated tablecloth, are other foods, including bread and cheese.  The wine and water are in beautiful amphore.  Note the presence of the cat, waiting for ….?  This painting is in the convent of Saint Mark in Florence, which has become a museum and where there are numerous works of Beato Angelico.
  6. In the Last Supper of Tintoretto, painted between 1592 and 1594 for the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, a mysterious decorated cake appears at the end of the table. To engage the viewer, the painter decided to set the scene in a hallway that resembles a tavern of the time, wrapping everything in an extraordinary play of light and shadow.
  7. Among the last suppers, we can’t skip the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci, painted between 1494 and 1495 in the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. A recent study identified among the dishes an eel seasoned with orange (or lemon) slices, which was widespread in the Renaissance.

 

Posted in Arte, Comunità ebrea, Cucina italiana, English, Firenze, Foto, Italia, Milano, Storia, Vaticano, Venezia | Leave a comment