HALL OF SHAME – THE ILLUSION OF TRANSPARENCY

This is just a short selection of verified horrors in the field of foods, especially industrial foods but often also natural and exquisite preparations from artisans and artists.

the illusion of transparency

LE PAIN QUOTIDIEN – “quality” Belgian chain exported worldwide

For many years, I regarded it as the proof that chains need not be offering foul foods. I still remember the orange jam sold at the Leuven branch, so tasty and fresh that I wondered if it had been cooked at all. Upon inquiry, I learned that it was cooked only for a few minutes and thickened with pectin.

That was the bright side of LE PAIN QUOTIDIEN: the jams, the crusty rye breads, the wonderful cakes. I met the owner of the chain, Alain Cumont, at the Food Salon in Brussels and I remember his enthusiasm in praising the quality of the Tunisian olive oil sold in the chain and obtained by operating a stone press by hand. For Cumont the quality of the oil was almost a direct emanation of the strain of those pushing the press. When I suggested that the same speed and pressure could have been brought about by animal force or a mechanical system, he seemed slightly outraged. I wrote a piece for Il Manifesto after the meeting, in which I questioned the zeal with which food for the rich is presented as the result of the suffering for the poor.

What I did not imagine at the time, was that many of the products sold at LE PAIN QUOTIDIEN are the result of cynical practices that disguise as traditional the cheapest low quality product available on the market. Such as the “artisanal cider” of LE PAIN QUOTIDIEN, made by stirring a spoonful of pear jam in the cheapest industrial cider.

MARCOLINI – best Belgian chocolate now partner of Nestle’

For many years, Marcolini enjoyed the status of “God of Belgian chocolate”. Myth has it that Pierre Marcolini has direct control of the roasting process of cocoa beans, which come from Venezuela. Unlike all other Belgian chocolate makers, who buy chocolate from the same monogamic distribution, Marcolini has an independent supply. He was the first to use the different “terroirs” of cocoa beans, the fact that to a different origin there corresponds a different flavor, and to sell boxes of pralines made with cocoa from different countries together with his own unique “blend”.

Well, apparently the filling of Marcolini pralines are made and frozen for up to six months, something which is not normal practice but which enables him to sell to an ever growing public. Not to mention the alliance with Nestle’, the terms of which are not known, but which is still the multinational who boycotted since the 70s for its milk powder business in African countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestlé_boycott

SALON DU LIVRE GOURMAND DE BRUXELLES (Nov 2008)

What would you say if the aforesaid Salon contained four bookstalls and twice as many foodstalls, 50% of which consisting of chocolate makers?

I think the time of “bread and circuses” is back. Feed the kids some sweets and they will keep quiet.

One of the “book stalls” was actually that of a well known “food business” that sells pseudo top quality like pink Himalaya salt, outrageously overpriced lentils (the same you find in any night shop, actually) and books. Two were actually conglomerate of several publishers and gave the impression that the “livre gourmand” is either a banale recipe book or a very expensive, large format celebration of famous chefs and their starred restaurants. Nothing in between. What? – you may ask. Well, everything. Like food research, geopolitics of food, physiology of taste, food sociology. But all of this presupposed a minimum of ciritical perspective and this is what is so hard to find.

I forgot the fourth stall: Ferraton’s Antique Books. They chose to bring a selection of food-related books that are part of a lot they are soon to sell at a public auction… I wonder if they had nothing by Brillat Savarin of Levi-Strauss they could bring along instead, as a memento of what important authors have written in the past. These days, Marx is the name of a chef…

CHOCOLATE: THE CHIPS ARE DOWN!

What about the chocolate makers?

Galler reconfirms the obsession with flavors: chocolate filled with a violet tasting paste, orange flower and whatever else you can imagine.

JUST CHOCOLATE is a newcomer of the lot. They present themselves as a family-run business selling “chocolate with roots”, chocolate from 9 countries or  ”terroirs” having different flavors of chocolate. Except that the family business buys this stuff from Belcolade, the giant monopoly of Belgian chocolate, exactly the same range of industrially made chocolates which look like coin-sized chunks and which are normally melted and moulded. This time the chunks are packaged in groovy tubes and thanks to smart design, the chocolate becomes very special.

GROM ICE-CREAM: GLOBAL ASPIRATIONS

This afternoon I visited one of the two Milanese branches of GROM (among the best ice-cream places in Italy), founded in 2003 by two young guys from Piemonte.

I engaged in a long conversation with one of the guys working at the counter. Apparently they have in mind a planetary plot to become the leader in artisanal ice-cream, with more branches to come all over. A few things appear contradictory and fascistoid to me:

1. GROM wants to be ecological, soon the bags and cups will be 100% recyclable. However the ice-cream is made near Torino, frozen and sent by boat to the US (food miles anyone?)…

2. GROM wants to bring good ice-cream to everyone, yes to everyone exactly the same selection of flavors, since the idea is gustative monotheism.

2 bis. GROM uses some fruit varieties protected by SLOWFOOD, defending the excellence of local products but then they are completely insensitive to the local resources of their foreign branches and keep on serving up the Piemontese selection of flavors millions of kilometers away from Italy (i.e. the NY branch).

3. This wonderfully sensitive company pays its workers 800 euro net for 30h a week.

NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF RECEPTIONS : VERRINES

This is a piece of indirect news I got while talking to a chef. It was one of those moments where scattered dots suddenly get connected by the same line, they all make sense together but the line is a nasty one.

It is at least 10 years since food started being served at cocktail parties and receptions from inside a glass. By food I mean titbits of different, rather fashionable foods which, in the minds of the people attending such events, belong to the sphere of the “expensive, elegant, exclusive, etc.”. So, for example, a little block of foie gras (surely not the best quality) with three leaves of rucola (from a hydroponic greenhouse in Almeria) and a few drops of aceto balsamico, is perceived as much better than a simple cube of artisanal cheese or a slice of salami (incidentally, when Carlo Petrini from Slowfood came to give a talk at Bozar in Brussels, that is some of the local stuff he brought with him and I can assure you that the crown went mad because they could not believe that flavor of what they were eating). The foie gras verrine is just one of many variations. All of them are delicious of course. The industrial quality of products is acceptable. After all the crowds are from a certain “elite”.

The problem is somewhere else and could be summed up in two words : food miles.

Apparently there are global firms developing the sexy concoctions inside the verrines, freezing them to -40 C and shipping them worldwide, from Dubai to Los Angeles. It is the triumph of idiocy, of wasteful technology, of food nihilism of local difference and local gastronomic “savoir faire”.

I did not discover the name of the Belgian firm which is among the leaders in this market and who employs talented chefs to devise new food combinations. Quite frankly I am not that motivated to go in that direction. Now I understand why at the reception of Rockmarkt in Leuven a couple of years ago, I overheard two waiters talking about the fact that the verrines were still “frozen”.

here is an article from the LOS ANGELES TIMES: Luxury in a glass

A verrine is an appetizer or dessert that consists of a number of components layered artfully in a small glass. (The word verrine refers to the glass itself; literally it means “protective glass.”) Intriguingly composed, they’re a study in textures, flavors, colors and temperatures. A beautiful glass might be filled with a layer of mushroom flan, sautéed wild mushrooms, a julienne of prosciutto, parsley gelée, wild mushroom emulsion and topped with a potato and prosciutto galette. Another will have clementine and mint syrup, fresh clementines and a gingerbread “crumble.” American chefs are just starting to catch on to the verrine. But in France it’s a culinary trend that’s captured just about everyone’s imagination — including home cooks.