The Slow and the Serious
by Judi Sandall
judi.sandall@chefschoolreview.com
Chef School Review Columnist
The Slow movement, a counterpoint to today’s fast-paced life style, proposes that we should slow down and take time to enjoy our lives. As part of this effort, chefs and culinary schools worldwide have embraced the Slow Food movement. What is slow food? As you might expect, it’s the antithesis of fast food.
Founded in 1986 by food journalist and culinary revolutionary, Carlo Petrini, the Slow Food movement was born out of his concern for the increasing popularity of fast food and the consequent decline of ‘real’ food. The genesis of the original protest was the grand opening of a McDonald’s in Rome. From these modest beginnings, Slow Food has grown to a current membership of more than 80,000 members in over 100 countries.
Revolutionary Culinary Manifesto
Using a snail as its logo, the Slow Food movement’s stated purpose is to:
- Oppose the standardization of taste
- Defend the need for consumer information
- Protect cultural identities tied to food traditions
- Safeguard foods, cultivation, and processing techniques inherited from tradition
- Defend domestic and wild animal and vegetable species
Chefs and culinary schools everywhere support the overarching premise of the Slow Food movement—use the freshest regional ingredients from local artisans and farmers, prepare nutritional meals that tantalize your senses, and take the time to savor your food.
Culinary Arts in Middle School
Noted chef, Slow Food USA advisory board member, and avid champion of the movement, Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame, has brought the culinary arts to Berkeley’s Martin Luther King, Jr. middle school in the form of the Edible Schoolyard project. This groundbreaking and forward thinking program involves children in growing and harvesting produce from their own school garden and helping to prepare nutritional lunches—truly an artful education that places today’s youth on the path to, as Chef Waters so eloquently stated, “breathing new life and dignity into learning how to eat.”
Join the Slow Food Revolution
If you aspire to be a chef who promotes “taste, tradition, and the honest pleasure of food,” you can be part of this Slow Food revolution by attending a culinary school that supports the social and culinary values of the movement. Learn how to prepare dishes with local, seasonally, and organically grown ingredients that celebrate cultural diversity, so those you serve can take the time to enjoy the pleasure and quality in everyday life.
Sources
Slow Food
Slow Food USA
Edible Schoolyard Project
About the Author
Judi Sandall is a technical writer and a regular Chef School Review columnist. She is a graduate of the State University of New York, with a BA in English Literature.
Posted on June 27, 2006 at 1:13 PM
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