Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Among real Italian cooks, says Bill Buford, "fusion" is an "awful word." Nice passage:

In Italy you learn a sense of composition: certain things go with certain things. At the fancy restaurants, it’s like writing a sonnet. You’re working within a very formal structure for what goes with what, but there’s quite a lot of room for creativity. Often, the creativity is dictated by the season, what’s fresh. When you get back from Italy and go to a typical Italian restaurant in America, you look at the menu and see all the shit they’re putting in the pasta to make it interesting, and you think, Yuck. It’s too complicated. The Italian view is, it’s not just two or three ingredients; it’s the right two or three ingredients that all talk to each other. You want to make sure your two or three ingredients are perfect, in and of themselves.

I often think that cooking is a good model for all the arts ...

Best,

Michael

UPDATE: Jonathan's comment on this posting reminds me of a great quote from the great Leon Krier. He was writing about architecture: "As is the case with all good things in life -- love, good manners, language, cooking -- personal creativity is required only rarely." Here's a superb interview with Krier by Nikos Salingaros. Here's a sensible review of Krier's beyond-fabulous "Architecture: Choice or Fate?"

You got it. Too many creative products, from restaurant food to buildings, are the esthetic equivalents of drum solos -- full of variation in theme and technique for its own sake when adherence to proven forms would have been more pleasing to the customers.

Posted by: Jonathan on May 12, 2006 05:51 PM

Terrific point here, Michael. When my wife and I first started experimenting with Italian cooking, we found that our most successful dishes were the ones that kept the number of ingredients to a minimum. In a typical pasta dish, I don't like more than three vegetables, garlic and olive oil. Once you start getting too elaborate, you can't taste the individual ingredients. Here's a good recipe for tortellini: carrots, cauliflower, English peas, prosciutto ham, garlic, olive oil. Make sure you use fresh vegetables, cut the carrots and cauliflower into small bitesize pieces, (don't overcook them), lightly saute the prosciutto before adding to the dish. I prefer cheese filled tortellini. I generally sprinkle a little Pecorino cheese on top. A good Zinfandel goes down well with it.

Posted by: Charlton Griffin on May 13, 2006 08:45 AM






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