Green Options

As a former restaurateur, I have always been appalled, even disgusted, at those restaurant/food blogs that feel it is their need to consistently obsess over the demises of a local entrepreneurs hard earned business. Why must we always rubberneck and concentrate on the negatives? With the state of the restaurant biz these days, do we need 5 posts-a-day on which chef is going to layoff more staff or who is about to [...]

According to the Taipei Times, a student at Dayeh University in Changhuain Taiwan died in late October during the annual steamed bun eating contest. The 23 year old was participating to see who could finish two steamed buns stuffed with egg and cheese in the fastest time. The student couldn’t stop vomiting and fell unconscious during the competition. Although he was rushed to the hospital, it was too late. The cause of the death remains unclear, but some believe he choked to death. All this for NT$2,000 (approximately US$60.)

In a recent post entitled Do TV Executives Think We’re Stupid?, I ranted, with the help of author, critic and food writer John Mariani, about the worst (and best) cooking shows on television. I’m taking another cue from Mr. Mariani, choosing my favorite movies where food is a character.

Luckily, there are some wonderful food- and wine-related films that tell us more about the seductive interplay of food and wine, cooking and canoodling, elation and exhaustion than some pumped-up TV “chef” screaming into the camera.

Since I received such a great and varied response from my post, Do Publishers Think We’re Stupid?, I am continuing the series with Do TV Executives Think We’re Stupid?

Author, critic and food writer John Mariani, (Esquire magazine, Diversion magazine, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Radio and The Italian-American Cookbook among other books) published an article in the August 2008 Esquire magazine, The Worst (and Best) Cooking Shows on Television.

Mr. Mariani writes,

As someone who writes about food and restaurants for a living, I have near-zero interest in watching most of the food shows on TV, where hijinks, hair, and cleavage have replaced the authoritative, careful instructiveness of Julia Child, David Rosengarten, and Sara Moulton — most of whom are either off the air, dead, toiling in obscurity, or relegated to reruns.

The Food Network, which once had all those people on, is now home to a bunch of screaming, loutish characters who read from cue cards with about as much as contrivance as Jerry Springer sympathizing with a 400-pound transsexual. Still, there are some good shows out there that teach you as much about how to cook something as about the culture or reasons behind it.

Here, here! Let me expound on his insight and give you my opinion of the Bad, the Ugly and the Good.

The people over at Slashfood turned me on to an article from the Wall Street Journal entitled Publishers Bet Big on Cookbooks. the gist of the article is that even though people maybe cutting back on luxuries like eating out, the tanking cookbook publishers are counting on all of us to buy their product - especially during the upcoming holiday shopping season. By the way, I hate to be the one to tell you this but there are only 69 shopping days left until Christmas.

My question is, Do publishers think we’re stupid?

The Sydney Morning Herald, The Dallas Morning News and The Sun published articles today that estimated that the Starbucks wastes up to 6 million gallons of water every day. The Sun said,

As part of a company policy aimed at preventing germ buildup in its taps, Starbucks stores are directed to keep water running constantly into a sink, called a dipper well, to clean utensils and wash away food residue.

As a result of running water all day, every day at each of the company’s 10,000 worldwide coffee emporiums, Starbucks wastes water in an amount The Sun estimated, to be enough daily water for the entire 2 million strong population of drought-hit Namibia in Africa or fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes. A single Starbucks tap left running for just over three minutes wastes the amount of water one African needs to survive for a day in drought conditions.

Recently, I wrote a piece for Eat.Drink.Better about culinary greenwashing, titled Just Add Eco-Friendly Detergent and Rinse. Just when you thought it was safe to good back in the water again, I’ve found another prime example of a local, independent restaurant with the nerve to manipulate us.

I’m not one to usually pile on the sarcasm when someone is down but it’s no holds barred when it comes to the cult of celebrity. Instead of seeking virtues or talents we have bought into the artificial importance being created by the media in order to promote a product, a person - or in this case a “yummo” catch phrase.

The people over at SeriousEats alerted me to the latest parody book in the genre of Is Martha Stuart Living? Run, don’t walk and get yourself a copy of Every Freaking! Day with Rachell Ray by Elizabeth Hilts, author of the popular Getting in Touch with Your Inner Bitch. This “64-page full-color parody is jam-packed with laugh out loud takes on the things that make her (in)famous, like”:

It’s been all over the food blogosphere and several wire services, but in case you’ve missed what Eater SF calls the Death of Society:

The Food Network is getting into the competitive eating genre with a new series, tentatively titled “Eat the Clock.”

The show is described as a cross between an eating competition and “The Amazing Race.” Two teams of contestants rush to various Los Angeles eateries and gorge themselves in face-stuffing challenges.

Reuters, Monday, August 18, 2008

Interesting timing if you ask me with only 11 days until the ultimate celebration of the appreciation of food, Slow Food Nation ‘08.

Culinary Green Washing

I have two major sustainable cuisine pet peeves; first, I have a love / hate relationship with the word “sustainable”. Yes, I know the name of my cookbook is The Sustainable Kitchen but there is no real definition of the word. Second, culinary greenwashing. The standard definition is:

“making unsubstantiated environmental claims” or “the appearance of cultivating ecological awareness in hopes of getting a higher profile [and eventually money] for whatever they happen to be selling us.”

It’s bad enough when McDonald’s, Subway and Dominos do it. I believe Americans have grown accustomed to and know what it is, industrial-scale spin. But what really gets me is when a local, independent restaurant has the nerve to manipulate us. And per usual, the mainstream press happily goes along with the illusion just because they are “local”.