As I mentioned a few days ago, eGullet had a Q&A forum this week with Mario Batali. I read it with interest, because I generally like Mario Batali and believe that he is one of the only tv food personalities worth my time. I have to say that I was utterly floored by the great things that Mr. Batali had to say in the forum, and am quickly becoming a huge fan. He just really seems to be a stick-to-his-principles, just-let-me-cook, unaffected-by-fame kind of guy. Here's my favorite post of the week -- his answer after being asked about what makes Italian food truly Italian beyond the ingredients. His answer is a bit rambling, and crazy to read as he doesn't use much punctuation (I was just imagining him coming home from a long day at work pounding out these answers -- putting all his energy into the answer and none into things like punctuation or capitalization). In all his rambling, however, he does a really eloquent job of summing up the importance of locality in cooking.
i think that the most essential component to true italian cooking is its confidence in whatever product it may be whether it is an anchovy from ischia or a spot prawn from santa barbara the issue is not the actual ingredients provenance, but its exaltation, it ultimate saturation of flavor and locale... it existential expression of its place, its own food, its own air its true individuality unobfuscated by chef ego, or crappy oil or mere table salt... the problem in europe in the last 20 years and in america for the last 40 is that the greatest restaurants were always perceived to need to serve the greatest ingredients ie scottish salmon, iranian/rusian caviar, maine or breton lobster, foie gras from the sw france blah blah blah...what that reinforced was a homogenization of the food across the lands the true future both in italy and the rest of the world is the celebration of the exquisiteness of the local and supreme...king salmon and olympia oyster in washington striped bass and montauk lobsters in southhampton, whitefish and teal in northrn indiana and mussels and hot peppers in puglia, or tiny soft shell crabs, sole and little shrimp called schie in the venetian lagoon, or choucroute in alscace the essential aesthetic fo italina food is to appreciate and celebrate these things... the italians just do it better because of their penchant for ligthness in texture and flavor... i may be rambling here but the true itlian spirit is to serve the main flavor as its own self, its own mantra, without apology or even explanation ...
Read the full posting here.
