MacDonalds and the Spanish Steps

When MacDonald’s decided to open an outlet near the Spanish Steps in Rome in 1986 Carlo Petrini organized a protest. This was the beginning of the Slow Food movement. Three years later, delegates from 15 countries met in Paris to pledge to preserve the diversity of the world’s food. Slow Food is now a global organization with over 80,000 members celebrating the food traditions of 40 different countries. It has founded the world’s only university to promote the gastronomic sciences. The movement takes a vocal stand against intensive farming and processed food. It encourages rare breeds, regional specialities and strives to preserve biodiversity. Every 6 hours one major world plant species is lost for ever. Slow Food works for resourceful self-sufficiency and a frugality that refuses to accept the food waste that is endemic in our culture. A staggering £8billion worth of food is thrown away in Britain every year. Slow Food has over 2000 members in the UK meeting in 48 different areas. See: www.slowfood.org.uk

That Indian Nectar

Henry Stubbs returned from Jamaica in 1662 and wrote a book about chocolate called The Indian Nectar. The cacao tree probably originated in the Amazon Basin and around 600AD was taken to Yucatan by the Mayans. Columbus brought the beans to Europe but no one seemed interested. Montezuma greeted the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes with a bitter frothy chocolate drink. Once the Spaniards learned to soften its taste with vanilla and sugar it became quite the rage. Around 1606 Antonio Carletti managed to take the secrets of the drink to Italy and by 1700 the coffee houses of Venice and Florence were famous for it. Switzerland, now world famous as a chocolatier, learned of it by 1697. London coffee houses quickly served it to their rich customers. Samuel Pepys settled his stomach with it after the coronation feasting of Charles I. It wasn’t until 1828 that Conrad van Houten managed to extract the fat from the cocoa butter and make a powder we would recognize as Cocoa. Twenty years later Joseph Fry combined the fats with other parts of the bean and sugar to give us the first chocolate bar.

Tapas

I’ve just had a marvellous meal in the sunshine with a friend at our local Tapas bar. Originally “tapas” (from “tapar” “to cover”) meant “lid” and referred to the thin slice of cheese or ham that protected your glass of sherry in a hot, insect infested bar in Andalusian. Others say the idea originated in the 13th century when the Castilian King Alfonso X was ordered by his doctor to sip a glass of wine while enjoying small portions of food. A regime thought to aid his recuperation after an illness. He recovered so quickly and so well that he issued a royal decree ordering taverns only to serve wine if accompanied by a small snack. I don’t really care how it started, it is a delicious way of meeting a friend and enjoying a glass of ice-cold Gonzalaz Byass Tio Pepe.

One man’s weed is another man’s salad

This is particularly true of a man such as Dr. Stefano Padulosi, a generic resource expert, who in 1980 could remember eating a peppery wild herb near Pompeii as a child. He discovered that this had once been a valuable crop in Italy so he found the seed and began to develop it commercially. The result is that rocket is once more available across Europe. It manages to appear “Italian” and even faintly exotic but it first appeared in England as early as 1530 – several hundred years before the marrow or the Brussels sprout. There are plenty of wild herbs here which could be grown commercially. Young dandelion leaves are often used in salads on the continent. Anthony Worrall Thompson was asked to cook the lunch to celebrate the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Among the 1,500 guests dining in part of the Tunnel off Dover were the Queen and President Mitterrand. Wozza (aka AWT) planned to use dandelion leaves in his salad mix. But there was a hitch. His supplier, a farmer from Kent, simply picked the bright yellow heads off 7,500 plants so sadly, dandelion leaves weren’t on the menu that day.

Sparrers' Grass

Sparrers’ Grass

At this time of the year in the London Street markets you might hear the cry, sometimes just a single word, “Sparrers!” It will tell you that the new season of asparagus has arrived. Asparagus is a perennial, part of the Lily family, originally from Turkey and brought here by the Romans. It has a very short season. The first shoots appear in mid-April and by the 21st June the season is finished. It is a vigorous, prolific, plant that starts to deteriorate once it is cut. It really needs to be eaten fresh or it is tasteless and sour. Evesham asparagus, flushed with purple is the best. The French have a liking for white asparagus which is blanched by banking earth up around the new thrusting stems to keep the sun away.