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From eco-gastronomy to low-carb diets, to holistic menus,
RICK KRITT explores the latest dining trends that are bridging
the gap between health-consciousness and gourmet cuisine
Agastronome who isn’t an environmentalist is a fool,”
says Carlo Petrini. “True, he or she has to enjoy the
food they eat, but they also have to know where it comes from
and how it’s produced. The only true gastronome is an
eco-gastronome!” Petrini is president of Slow Food, the
association that came into being 18 years ago not so much
to attack fast food as to defend Italian regional cuisine
and our typically laid-back way of eating it. “Anyone
who thinks of themselves as a food lover but does not have
any environmental awareness is na?ve. Whereas an ecologist
who does not enjoy the pleasures of the table has a sadder
life,” he continues.
Today, Slow Food is stronger than ever: it has grown into
an international organisation with more than 80,000 members,
it publishes books and magazines, and is behind the Salone
del Gusto, or Hall of Taste, one of the world’s largest
food and wine shows, held every other year in Turin. Last
year, the American chapter of Slow Food grew almost ten-fold,
a telling sign that keen-palated diners in the fast food nation
are no longer willing to allow globalisation to effect a homogenisation
of flavour. Its philosophy of supporting local produce and
local farmers is chiming well with jaded consumers who have
endured three decades of increasing fast-food dominance, not
to mention the rise of so-called Frankenfood, genetically-modified
produce.
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Among its initiatives is the Ark of Taste, a massive effort
to identify and catalogue products, dishes and animals that
are in danger of disappearing, such as the Crane melon and
Dorset Blue Vinny cheese. But perhaps the most ambitious project
of all is the world’s first food university, the University
of Gastronomic Sciences at Pollenzo in Piedmont, opening later
this year. Thanks to Slow Food’s contribution to the
wider debate on food and health, biodiversity and sustainable
production – terms previously confined to the eco-warrior
– are now at the forefront of the foodie’s concerns.
The health consciousness represented by the Slow Food trend
on the macro-level is matched on the micro-level by the recent
spate of low-carb diets, which have replaced the low-fat diets
of a decade ago as the nutritional trend. Stemming largely
from the Atkins diet, but also feeding off the hype around
the South Beach, Zone, and Lindora diets, the heightened carb-awareness
among diners has meant that eateries, both upmarket and casual,
are purging their kitchens of pasta, bread, and noodles. In
the US alone, up to 25 million people are following some type
of low-carb diet and industry analysts there are predicting
that, this year, the market for low-carb products (including
low-carb European holidays and “get-a-weighs”) will
be worth US$25 billion.
Doctors, though, are warning that high levels of saturated
fats in some low-carb diets can lead to heart disease, and
critics of Dr Robert Atkins are quick to point out that he
suffered from this condition. There is concern that some people
will use the low-carb diet as an excuse to gorge themselves
on ice-cream, cheesecake and other fat-heavy foods that were
previously off-limits to the dieter. Many heath experts maintain
that the key to good living is eating a little but of everything,
and it’s unsurprising that the philosophy of balance
is finding its way into restaurants, if in the more esoteric
form of “holistic” menus.
Usually comprising of seven small courses (each loosely representing
a chakra, or chi-force), holistic menus are rich in herbs,
teas and spices. The dishes are designed to appeal not only
to the palate but also to the soul of the diners: warm lobster
translates as karma, bird’s nest and lily bulbs as harmony.
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