Tonight as the Sicilian and I were sitting watching the food channel Todd English comes on the screen driving a red Ferrari. So of course we had to watch. I am so angry I can't write/I have to write.
Millionaire restaurateur drives fast car and talks slow food. A car none of these farmers could ever afford. I love the slow food movement and it's founder Carlo Petrini, is a true gentlemen and sincere. I had the honor of meeting him and speaking with him at length in Princeton last spring. He was patient and attentive as I stumbled in Italian.
But this Todd English abomination cannot be overlooked. His new restaurant, Tuscany was the main reason for the show. This imperialistic capitalist was in Parma, foraging for special ingredients and recipes to feature in his new restaurant. Parma is not in Tuscany. Parma is in Emilia Romagna.
He was essentially disrespectful to the generations of families who have suffered producing traditional foods, continued producing them because they could not afford to industrialize, ergo not afford to produce in quantity and were forced to remain small producers for their crops and products . Most Italians with a family want to do right by them and work hard to provide a good home and money for a happy life. Given the chance 40 years ago, I would bet that most "artisanal" producers didn't choose to produce artisanal products as a business decision to stay in the boutique food business. They had to continue doing what their families did for generations out of economic neccessity.
By using their hard work in his dishes for which he charges several dozen times the cost of the ingredients, he offends me. His pandering regard for their artistry offends me. I think of a painting which is sold only once by the artist. Forever prevented from receiving any royalty as his/her work increases in value. Every prosciutto which earns money for another many times in excess of what it sold for should be compensated with a royalty. He also showed off his poor Italian punctuated with Italian sounding pronunciation of English words-- Organico is not a word in Italian, BIOLOGICO --the arrogance. This is a pet peeve of mine. Creating cognates as we stumble in a foreign language, rather than taking moment with a dictionary.
While driving his fast car he also showed off his limited English vocabulary. In addition to a few verbs and some prepositions he knows how to say: "amazing, slow food, pig, cheese, pork, amazing, pig, cheese, amazing, really amazing and just amazing. "
I have always disliked English as a personality, and always found his ego to stink up the room. In all fairness, he is not just arrogant. He is also self-satisfied and condescending.
I am so blinded by my reaction I can't articulate my thoughts very clearly. I apologize to my 2 or 3 readers for my mediocre rant this evening. It is very difficult to write whilst between nausea and raging fury.
At least though, he has gotten me off the couch and back onto the blog. I've missed you all.
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3 comments:
I used to work for Todd English. As bad as you think he is, well, you really have no idea. He is FAR worse in real life than he is on TV.
Getting spitting-mad sometimes is a good thing! I agree; the slow food movement has fostered wonderful things, but has also seen an off-shoot of ridiculous people merely wanting to capitalize on the movement. Sigh.
It infuriates me that idiots like that can make fantastic sums of money from the skill and hard work of others.
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