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By Morton Hochstein
Of Electric Power, Coffee, Italian Restaurants and Passion
Occasionally I receive a request that I switch from the giant electric power company to a small, non-polluting-environment oriented supplier. I am told tapping non-conventional sources will help the planet, but it also costs quite more. I have good feelings for the environment, but I do not want to increase my electric bill.
Going green is easier to do with food, where the personal rewards are more quickly visible. One recent morning I attended a meeting of the Organic Coffee Collaboration (a project of the Organic Trade Association), a group that promotes the growth of small growers, helps finance their operations, pays them better than the big houses, helps provide schools and clinics and is passionate about what its members do. Although you may have to search out their labels in small specialty stores rather than on supermarket shelves, their business is booming. And they are appearing more frequently in big stores. (http://ota.com/organic_and_you/coffee_collaboration.html)
Their coffee is the single most valuable organic import landing on North American shores. Last year American and Canadian producers brought in more than 46 tons of organic coffee worth nearly a billion and a half dollars. Organic imports skyrocketed at an average annual growth rate of 21 percent between 2004 and 2009, against a bare one percent for the conventional coffee industry.
Enough with statistics. The stuff is grown using techniques that have low impact on the environment. Growers avoid spraying toxic and persistent pesticides, and use methods that replenish and maintain soil fertility. The key word is sustainable. Everyone benefits.
Sure, the organic coffees cost more. But they are an affordable luxury which I can appreciate and the proof is on the table. They simply taste better and coupling that with all the benefits for the farmers and the soil, I am willing to spend a couple of cents more for a good cup of coffee. The producers are passionate about their product and you see those special labels in all those coffee houses that seem to be sprouting up on every block.
After sampling a dozen or more varieties, I left the organic coffee enthusiasts to join an even more fervent group, where I drank coffee in an Italian setting. Just a few blocks away, the Gruppo Ristoratori Italiani, devoted to polishing the image of fine, authentic Italian cooking, was holding discussions about the future of their industry.
In a seminar which asked the question: “Italian Cuisine: A Victim of its own Success?” some decried the influence of non-Italian chefs and deplored the use of foodstuffs which did not originate in the homeland. Others argued that you don’t have to be Italian to cook Italian food and American suppliers can deliver equally good cheese, flour and meat. We heard the word tradition from every other speaker. Some argued against menu changes, and decried restaurants which did not use authentic Italian foodstuffs. Others said that chefs who were not of Italian descent were among the best in Italy and the United States, that change was a constant and cited the benefits of innovation in Italian cuisine.
A few weeks after this session, The New York Times gave its blessing to Michael White, a midwestern-born American chef, who runs two of the city’s most acclaimed Italian restaurants. “I eat, sleep, live and die Italian food,” Mr. White proclaimed, adding that if his name were Italian, Manhattan’s food establishment would have rallied around him sooner! White declared that he spent twice the time in Italy that Mario Batali, the city’s most publicized Italian chef, did, and never takes the liberties with Italian cuisine practiced by others in the pantheon. None, he said, have quite his combination of knowledge, authenticity and commitment. It is too bad that Mr. White did not speak at the seminar. The fireworks would have been extraordinary.
Will success spoil Italian cuisine? In my mind, no. The red checkered tablecloth, the candle and the fiaschi on the table have just about disappeared except in some old line tourist traps, but a new generation of chefs, many like Mr. White not blessed with a name resonating in a vowel ending, but equally dedicated, are raising quality Italian cuisine to new heights.
I like elegant Italian restaurants and I like red-checkered table restaurants, and I like the passion of partisans on both sides of the argument about Italian cuisine. Great Italian cuisine, like fine coffee, is my affordable luxury. I sometimes find the best food behind unlikely storefronts, often prepared by chefs who don’t speak Italian. They set a good table and they cook Italian style. I don’t care where they come from and I don’t care where their veggies, meats and cheeses originate. If they demonstrate the passion and the skills, who can complain? Why argue about a successful and ever-improving cuisine?
© September 2010 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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