Tag: project

[Thoughts on the Table – 40] Introducing Francesca Mastrovito from Foodemocracy

I already knew Francesca Mastrovito from her food project: Foodemocracy, one of the most creative and deep takes on the universal meaning of food and its unifying power. When I approached her to be a podcast guest, however, I discovered an even deeper view on food communication in the most general sense.

Francesca has always had a unique relationship with food, but food also became an academic interest of hers. For her bachelor in linguistics, she wrote a thesis on food as a communication system, through the example of Massimo Bottura – an incredibly rich experience during which she had the chance to capture Bottura’s personal message and how he spreads it. As natural continuation on her food path, Francesca enrolled in a master’s program in Food Culture and Communications at the “Slow Food University”, which resulted in another incredibly rich learning experience. In her master’s thesis she redefined the meaning of culinary authenticity through the analysis of the recipe as the linguistic path that allow us to associate a dish to its name. As a testament to her passion and insight, Francesca then joined the team at Osteria Francescana.

In this episode-interview, Francesca discusses her philosophy and talks about her path in the discovery of the meaning of food. You can follow Francesca through her web project: Foodemocracy, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Instagram.

In the podcast, Francesca refers to the documentary: The Search for General Tso by Ian Cheney.

Music: www.purple-planet.com.

Listen now!
   

Year Five: Complete!

I can hardly believe it has been 5 years since I started this project! Time flies when you’re having fun, and flies especially fast when you’re in good company – over this past year, I connected with many people and I like to believe that together we changed how Italian food is perceived around the world! Slightly, of course 🙂

By far, the biggest networking opportunity came from participating in Turin Epicurean Capital, a food literature event that saw me as a moderator. Particularly, I continued to work with fellow participant Diana Zahuranec), who has since become a recurring guest in the podcast and a great contributor to its success.

My visit to Turin also allowed me to reconnect with friend wedding planner Valentina Lombardi, who introduced me to her new project: Experience Italy Travels, a service aimed to show international travelers the true side of Italy. To help reach that goal, Valentina offered me to write: “Italy: Instructions for Use”, a fun section where I try to explain the ins and outs of Italy and of the Italians. Naturally, I accepted enthusiastically!

Recently, I also had the honor of being interviewed by Rick Zullo, awarded blogger and author of popular ebooks, as part of his new podcast: The Fatal Charm of Italy. Our chat was a lot of fun – if you want to hear us talk about the unwritten food rules that Italians follow, and much more, please head over to Rick’s blog.

As this blog completes Year Five, I would like to thank all visitors and followers for their support in the form of feedback. Please continue sending me your comments, observations, and corrections – as a blogger, nothing makes me happier!

[Thoughts on the Table – 35] Introducing Valentina Lombardi from Experience Italy Travels

Thoughts on the Table is back with my friend Valentina Lombardi, announcing her new project and my collaboration!

As part of her job as a wedding planner, Valentina has been helping people from various parts of the world discover Italy and the Italian traditions. Join us to hear how her background led to the creation of Experience Italy Travels, which also features “Italy: instructions for use“, a fun section written by yours truly☺

Congrats and best of luck to Valentina and her partners!

Listen now!
   

One Year, One Second a Day

Have you heard of “one second videos”?‎ They are a bit of an old idea now – a creative named Cesar Kuriyama came up with it, went to TED in 2012*, and since then they have become quite popular. How do make a one-second video? It’s simple: record 1-second long video clips every day, then string them all together into a continuous montage. What is the purpose? To keep a log of each day of life. Now, Cesar is going to continue the project for as long as he lives, but a lot of people who entertain it only commit to doing it for one year ‎- which is what I did from Jan 1st to Dec 31st 2014. You can see the end result here, or embedded below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-mk-3TjAE

For my interpretation of the project, I mostly followed the guidelines Cesar chose for himself. Like him, I recorded all clips from a first-person‎ view, my own, using exclusively my camera phone. Also like Cesar, I didn’t make use of any filters or cropping – leaving the only editing (and creative expression) to the choice of the one-second segment within the daily footage.

April 1st, a sunny commute.
As I wait for the bus, I get a good look at the fabulous Lee building, a historic Vancouver landmark.

Every day I set out to record at least one short video, trying to capture a representative 1 second of that day. On some less busy and more exciting days, I easily recorded multiple clips. On some busier or monotonous days, instead, I barely remembered to capture a single clip. Throughout the year, for a total of 6 times, I managed to let the day go by without recording anything – and felt really bad each time, as soon as I realized it. I debated with myself what to do with those missing clips, and decided to simply leave a one-second gap. Looking back at the montage, however, I discovered something interesting. I know exactly why I didn’t capture anything on those days – those were stressful days and when I see these brief pauses I can still remember why. And it’s a 2% error, not too bad after all!

April 25th, another morning commute. I love this shot! I managed to capture not one but two people yawning together. Did the one with the newspaper start?

Since my video clips were taken over the course of the year, they show the alternation of weekdays and weekends, and a full cycle of seasons. They also show much of the same dear subjects: my cat, several of the dogs in my workplace, and the food I’m about to eat (especially breakfast and brunch). Since all videos are taken from my point of view, you won’t directly see me in them. I also chose not to portray my wife, friends, or family. This was of course to protect their privacy. In the videos, though, you will see a number of strangers – I figured they wouldn’t know and therefore mind :).

May 9, the traditional Foosball match I play during lunch break with my Italian coworkers.

While working on the project, I realized that capturing the most meaningful moment of each day is actually not that easy. Meaningful moments tend to demand full attention, and more often than not I would realize that I should have been recording when it was too late to do it. To capture everything, I should have always been recording, but that wouldn’t have been practical and also wouldn’t have necessarily been legal. So I got into the habit of recording a quick video every morning during my commute to work, just in case I would then forget to take a more meaningful one. This morning clips also served as backup in case the day got busier and I would have risked forgetting. Looking at the end result, though, I was happy to discover that those commuting clips are actually quite interesting to look back at, not at all boring like I thought they would have been.

June 17th, an indoor rock climbing session.

Looking at the end result, I also was able to appreciate an interesting advantage that videos have over static pictures. A one-second video contains a lot more information than a still frame of the same duration. Even though one-second videos are made of only 30, mostly identical still frames in rapid sequence, they are easier than static pictures for our brain to read because they communicate motion and have depth. They also have sound.

July 6th, a great performance by a passer-by on one of the pianos placed on the street as part of the Keys to the Street initiative.

As I was working on the montage, I also realized a couple of other things: 1) I wish I had a camera stabilizer! Many of my clips were just too “bumpy” – in some cases I had a hard time selecting a stable segment. 2) I wish I had paid more attention to the sound! The sound is an integral part of the experience – in some cases I had a hard time selecting a segment where both picture and sound were meaningful.

September 2nd, the opening day of Turin Epicurean Capital.

Finally, I also realized that 1 second each day doesn’t necessarily give true snapshot of how I spend my time. I’m starting to think that there may be a way to refine the project to capture a more accurate log. Maybe I should try a variation where every day I record 1 to 5 clips that capture as many meaningful moments. Then, I could put together a 5-second segment for each day: on days with only 1 clip, I would select a 5-second segment; on days with 5 clips, I would select 5 one-second segments; on days with 2, 3 or 4 clips, I would distribute the 5 seconds among the clips available. What do you think? Do you want to try?

*The original TED Talk is also on Youtube, and so is my one-second video.

Four Years of Blogging, One of Podcasting

Another interesting year for Disgraces on the Menu – the year that has seen the beginning of the podcast Thoughts on the Table, along with several collaborations. I have always been fascinated with radio shows. When I was in my 20s, I hosted a radio host on a small Italian station. I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to do anything remotely similar in English, until I discovered podcasts. But the real trigger to record one came when my wife got me a microphone as a birthday present, and a buddy of mine, Jason, agreed to produce one with me.

Initially, the podcast’s concept was a direct extension of my blog’s philosophy: investigate what’s behind food and flavor, especially in relation to the difference between what is known as “Italian food” and the true cuisine of Italy. This is what fueled the first 6 episodes.

After the first mini-series on flavor, just as I was starting to become comfortable with the format, my podcast partner, Jason, had to leave the project. This is when I started thinking about involving other food bloggers through remote conferencing. At the same time, my friend Gino DeBlasio (based in the UK) volunteered as my first guest – it was meant to happen!

After a mini-series with Gino on misconceptions about Italian food, I worked with Jessica Burgio on episodes about lesser known Italian dishes and cooking Italian in North America. Then, I was joined by Manuela Zangara, who talked about her first e-book and shared her experience as a full-time food blogger.

The podcast then started taking the format of the interview. I had several special guests: Frank Fariello, Fiona, Christina Conte and Simona Carini. I also had the opportunity to interview my friends – neuroscientist Davide Anchisi and restaurateur Andrea Bini. On my latest trip to Italy, I also had the chance to record a chat with my grandmother on the food in Italy during War World Two, which then became a unique and especially meaningful episode. More recently, I have spoken with Lucia Hannau, the organizer of a food conference which will take place in Turin this September – and of which I am going to be part of – and with Elisa Cerruti, a fellow attendee.
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On the blog, this year I posted 6 recipes: Stewed Brussels Sprouts, Radicchio Risotto with Parmesan Rind, Poppy Seed Potato Bignès, Shrimp, Zucchini and Saffron Linguine, Roasted Green Beans, and Truffles Uncovered, which was also a feature article.

Looking into year five, I hope to continue with more podcast episodes, featuring new and returning guests, as well as have the time to go back to writing more articles and recipes, which is still a great passion of mine. But today, I would just like to stop for a second to thank everyone who has been following my work – thank you for your attention, it’s an honor for me!

Birthday Blog

It has been one year already! I started this blog at the end of July 2010 out of sheer exasperation. I felt that Italian cuisine was too often completely misrepresented in North America. Not only was it not authentic (which is understandable this far away from Italy), it frequently tasted plain bad.

With many of its principles distorted, Italian food becomes a caricature of itself. It needs to have olives and sun-dried tomatoes; bread must be foccacia or have flour on it and be called ciabbata; tomato sauce, salami, olive oil, or a balsamic reduction must be involved; there need to be mountains of parmesan and mozza, along with a mix of 20 Mediterranean spices. If short of Italian ingredients, anything Spanish or Greek will be close enough: feta cheese, kalamata olives, even chorizo…

I understand that, just like American English has drifted from British English, Italian food in North America has evolved into its own genre. What I don’t understand is when the adjective “authentic” is still used. If you serve authentic Italian food, please:

  1. Make sure your Italian dishes exist in Italy (there is no Alfredo sauce and Spaghetti with Meatballs is extinct!)
  2. Check your recipes (whole garlic cloves have no business on any pizza!)
  3. Spell-check your menu (once and for all: it’s ‘prosciutto’, not proscuitto, it’s ‘quattro formaggi’, not quatro fromaggio!)
  4. Don’t say something is “Tuscan” just to make it sound more Italian (what is the point of serving Tuscan Chicken Pasta, when nowhere in Italy will you find chicken on any pasta?)
  5. If you serve espresso, don’t feel that you have to fill up that little coffee cup! Half-full is fine – just make sure it’s creamy.

Over the course of the year, lots of discussions were had through comments, and a small but energetic group of friends has formed: Italians living abroad, Italians living in Italy, and foodies living all around the world. Thank you all – you are my source of motivation, and your feedback has been invaluable.

I also would like to thank my fiancée Candace – I owe her many of the considerations on the differences in culture between Italy and North America, and she is a fantastic editor! Thanks, Candace, also for being so patient with me as I got more and more obsessed with this project. I even wonder if this should still be called a blog… on many occasions, writing the articles has required me to do quite a bit of research. But it was fun, and I learned a lot from it.

Looking forward into year two, I am hoping to get the community even more involved. I would like this blog to become a hub for discussions around authentic Italian food and a reference for anyone interested in learning more about it. But for today, I’m just going to open a good bottle of ‘spumante’ and celebrate making it this far!

Thanks all for reading.