Food in Italy - History of Italian Food Culture

on Italian Food History: Torta Al Testo and Traditional Italian Foods This blog has touched on the idea of “traditional Italian foods” a number of times, mostly in a somewhat heretical way. In a riff on Rachel Laudan’s fundamental essay on the subject (“A Plea For Culinary Modernism: Why We Should L

on Italian Food History: Food Museums in Italy The triumph of the Annales school is not in its long-running journal (which is likely ignored by most of Europe’s population), but rather in the acceptance of the “structures of everyday life” (to use a phrase from Fernand Braudel) as objects worthy of

on Italian Food History: Vaquero—Fishing in the Papal States The stereotype of the Neapolitan and papal economies as stagnant under alternating policies at once too laissez faire and then too controlled is one widely disseminated in the years following Italy’s unification in 1860. In a recent articl

on Italian Food History: Gluten-Free in Italy I believe I am not alone in being surprised with the speed with which “gluten-free” and Celiac’s disease have become common terms. I’m not sure, despite being interested in food, that I would have been able to define the latter four years ago. I wonder i

on Italian Food History: Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Uses Local Food A recent press release from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the ministry, as part of an effort by the Italian government to reduce the severity of global climate change, was working to be more green. Two

on Italian Food History: Making Traditional Sardenian Bread, Pane Carasau This fascinating video shows the making of the traditional Sardinian bread, pane carasau, also called “carta musica” in Italian. The bread is extremely dry and likely originated where there was little opportunity to bake and b

on Italian Food History: Laudan—“The French Terroir Strategy, and Culinary Modernism” Slow Foodists are unlikely to take kindly to this cogent and blistering criticism of the Slow Food movement and its gourmand-chief, Carlo Petrini. Rachel Laudan’s piece on Slow Food is ostensibly a review of Petrin

on Italian Food History: Eat With Your Hands in Milan Eating with one’s hands is normally associated with the brutish Middle Ages, where trenchers and racks of lamb were the norm for the upper classes, not the refined elegance we associate with Renaissance eating (aside from the excesses in quantity

on Italian Food History: Peace — “Political Theater and Ritual Rhetoric in the Slow Food Movement” Adrian Peace’s 2008 piece about Slow Food’s Terra Madre event in 2006 is, despite the chronology, quite relevant today. Professor Peace, an anthropologist, attended the gathering in Turin in 2006 and d

on Italian Food History: Peace — “Political Theater and Ritual Rhetoric in the Slow Food Movement” Adrian Peace’s 2008 piece about Slow Food’s Terra Madre event in 2006 is, despite the chronology, quite relevant today. Professor Peace, an anthropologist, attended the gathering in Turin in 2006 and d