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Word of the Week
Archive
slow food
noun [U or C]
food which is
carefully prepared using traditional cooking methods and organic
ingredients, and is intended to be eaten and enjoyed slowly for
maximum benefit
slow-food
adj
‘Better a day of
tortellini than 100 days of hamburgers!’
Such were the chants of the protestors in Rome, Naples, Milan and 17
other Italian cities, who in October 2000 declared war on the
McDonald’s fast food chain. These protestors are among the many
advocates of slow food, carving out time in their busy lives to oppose
all forms of burgers, pizzas, tacos and fried chicken in favour of
locally grown food, cooked by traditional, sometimes painstakingly
slow, techniques.
One of the earliest references to slow food as an alternative to fast
food can be found in a December issue of the New York Times in
1981:
‘Traditionalists in Georgetown are fed up with
the fast food invasion and have gone to court on behalf of the rights
of slow food.’
Background
The Slow Food Movement was
founded in 1986 by one Carlo Petrini, an Italian journalist who was
enraged when a McDonald’s restaurant opened in the Piazza di Spagna in
Rome. The Slow Food Movement, now with over 70,000 members - sometimes
called slow foodies - in more than 40 countries, is an attempt to
resist the encroachment of fast food and the ensuing homogenisation
and globalisation of food production. Fast food is viewed as a threat
to gastronomic individuality: ingredients, production, preparation and
consumption of food should all relate to individual cultures and
personal pleasure. The movement’s logo, appropriately a snail,
represents an emphasis on traditional methods of preparing and
consuming food, as ‘slowly’ as is necessary for premium quality and
enjoyment. |
