Now days you can't really not know who Anthony Bourdain is from his TV shows to his opinions on other chef's. I don't agree with everything he has done in his career and from his novel Kitchen Confidential which a lot of us in the culinary world first came to know him echoes the same. What I respect about the man is that he told you things how it is in the kitchen for a large number of restaurants. Though the landscape is changing and some of the stardom like effects on the culinary profession are welcomed others are not. I hate the food network with a passion just like Anthony because it just doesn't feel authentic. The best tasting food doesn't always look great and this is extremely true in the world of sweets. I think that's the reason why I like his show parts unknown because he gets to do what every person with a passion for food and travel dream of. A window into a world of conversations that most of us will either never have the guts or time/ funds.
I live in Montana and anyone can tell you here that there is a variety of personalities in this state. However, Anthony as he came found people that I would without a doubt call genuine. The kind of people that do their own thing, don't try to push it on others, and give it to you like it is. The heart of this state which is do as you please and respect your neighbors rights just as you would hope them to do for you.
In the end I think it all comes down to why he wrote his first book. He didn't write it to get famous and he sure didn't think a lot of people would be interested in it other then a couple cooks that could relate. What I'm trying to get at is that he wrote the book for himself and the reason parts unknown is also so successful is for the same reason. Yes it may be a little selfish and yes self centered but can you really not say the same for anyone else taking a vacation? The key to being successful is that you have to take something you love to do and find a way to make it profitable Anthony Bourdain has done exactly that made people thank him for it. So if your going to do anything at least
be honest with yourself.
So first I would like to start this off with a discussion by Dr. Caroline Graham Austin my professor and the reason I started these posts.
I find her discussion extremely relevant not only because yes we all throughout life struggle with identity and the pursue of living authentically. But for me it translates to a lot of young adults that go to college or not. If they do, how to pay, and even as the saying goes (give it the college try) deciding its not for them. For me this is important because I honestly went to college first just so I could be a ski bum and get some sort of education. Both my folk's went to college and it made sense to do it because unfortunate now days a Bachelors degree is the equivalent of a GED in the past. I feel a lot of people think that they are getting a real experience and don't get me wrong teachers like Caroline Graham Austin try their very best. Succeeding at giving you tools and thought processes that you will carry throughout your professional career.
But like how she talked about people watching survival shows just because you show up to class and memorize a few things for a test doesn't mean you've necessarily authentically learned how to apply anything. I feel that was the point of this these posts.
For me learning in the kitchen just clicks for me it was also the first place that I started defining people by their work habits and its also the place where I go all out. I like the pressure of getting stuck in the weeds behind the line and having to do things perfectly to catch up. It also combines most of the things i like about school, history, science, and learning something new every day. Having an open mind to tasks of the present. When it comes down to it authentic is always going to fall on you and you alone to define it.
I want to talk about a farm just outside of Pallares, Spain. specifically the farmer
EDUARDO SOUSA
Foie gras is a
luxury food product made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been
specially fattened. By French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a
duck or goose fattened by force-feeding corn with a feeding tube, a
process also known as gavage. Ducks are
force-fed twice a day for 12.5 days and geese three times a day for
around 17 days. Ducks are typically slaughtered at 100 days and geese at
112 days.
Now I understand a lot of people are against Foi Gras because almost all of it is made by force feeding. This process I will not lie it is not a pretty process which is used by almost everyone, everyone but Eduardo Sousa. A little history on the process of Foi Gras, as you read earlier by french definition it has to be force fed to meet the requirements. However, if you do some digging back in time Egypt was the birthplace and actually it was invented by the Jews. The original harvesting was done in the fall because naturally as the temperature decreases the goose fatten up for the weather, choosing to eat ravenously. No joke here is a link to one source http://www.artisanfarmers.org/historyoffoiegras.html
The story goes that the Pharaoh caught wind of the product and threatened the Jews to come up with a way to have it all year round. So out of fear they created the process of gavage. France eventually adopted it and continues to do the process. So in fact France definition by history is actually wrong!
The international gastronomic community has praised the peerless quality
of the foie gras Sousa & Labourdette in 2006 during the SIAL,
International Agro-alimentary Paris’ fair, winning the prestigious Coup
de Cœur award. Which let me tell you France was pissed, the best being something that they by their standard shouldn't be good. They spent a good chunk of time trying to discredit Sousa until eventually giving up. I know I'm not going to change the mind of Peta and vegetarians about this mans family going back to the right way of doing foie gras. But I would like for people to not take for granted the ability to question why something is the norm. Black pearls used to have no market back in the day till we associated them with other luxury gems now they are worth a lot just because we created an anchor point on the price.
In recent year there has been a boom in the use of the word sustainable in the food industry. The facts themselves however, can be quite the opposite even if the company is supposedly holding the highest standards. Which is a problem especially in the fishing industry where in the past 50 years we have had more trouble getting it to the plate with so much demand depleting our chances at sustainability.
This is Dan Barber
You might know him from Times magazine in 2009 as one of the 100 worlds most influential people. He also was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. What I know him for and other in the culinary world is his restaurant Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. What he is know for is his knowledge and application of farm to table. If you watched Chef"s Table specifically the first season episode two its all about him. Why I am talking about him today though is about his Ted Talk in 2009 about sustainable fishing the episode titled How I fell in Love with a fish but first a few facts on over-fishing:
Now these numbers have slightly shifted since 2009 in his episode but the fact remains that this is a catastrophic problem not only in the kitchen but in the ability for us to eat in the future. So whats being done? Well people started fish farming and in a lot of ways it has gotten a bad rap due to the fact it pollutes close to shore and the ration feed to produce is usually pretty bad. In some cases its as he states in the video a 15 to 1 ration on tuna (really bad). For reference cattle is 6 to 1 and that's still not great. Maybe the worst part though is how a farm prides itself on a low ratio in the episode a 2 to 1 (great). Until you realize that a sustainable protein (chicken) makes up 30 percent of the food and logically how is that in any way the term sustainable?
Not to ruin his talk or for that matter butcher it I will end on this train of thought. The world isn't going to be saved by the owners of big business or Monsanto. It's going to be done by biologists and farmers that through trial and error mimicking nature that will. A large part of educating the public is going to rest on the shoulders of men like Dan Barber in restaurants. Cooks have long known that fresh wild fish tastes the best we also have been keeping it to ourselves when we get fish and when not to order it on the menu specific days of the week. In the end like Dan says it all has to do with relationship.
This is something I have wanted to get off my chest since taking classes in heath and nutrition. Supplements like a protein shake, pre-workout, and post-workout all are not better for you then REAL FOOD. I can't help but go back to the idea in the seventies that in the future all food would be in pill form. The idea never made sense to me but for a lot of people I feel that supplements capitalize on that concept.
Alan Thrall's Supplement Stack video below is a sad truth to the manipulation of the health industry for profit. Don't get me wrong there is a benefit to use supplements but that benefit is ease of use and time saved. Most people don't even fit into the category of needing supplement.
Don't even get me started on the Airborn Immune Support Supplements there has been shown no significant evidence tying vitamin C to immune Support. It was created by Victoria Knight-McDowell, a former school teacher from Carmel, California. She began brewing herbal and vitamin cocktails in the early 1990s and selling them in tablet form to local drug stores. Do I really need to explain my skepticism?
In March 4, 2008 -- If you bought Airborne, the popular herbal and vitamin formula originally touted as a cold preventive, you're due for a refund.
The makers of Airborne have agreed to refund money to consumers as part of a $23.3 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit for false advertising. It does not admit wrongdoing or illegal conduct.
I think this still stems from for some reason people think the FDA has control over supplements, well truth is they tried. Unfortunately supplement companies made an ad campaign I kid you not with Mel Gibson
In the article "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" the focal point is on the consumption and triggers of eating junk food (how we crave and eat more of it). The fast food industry also has made it into a science tipping in their favor which has resulted in the declining heath of america. Stated in the article:
The figures were staggering. More than half of American adults were now considered overweight, with nearly one-quarter of the adult population — 40 million people — clinically defined as obese. Among children, the rates had more than doubled since 1980, and the number of kids considered obese had shot past 12 million. (This was still only 1999; the nation’s obesity rates would climb much higher.) Food manufacturers were now being blamed for the problem from all sides — academia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. The secretary of agriculture, over whom the industry had long held sway, had recently called obesity a “national epidemic.”
This even pours (pun intended) into the fitness industry as seen above with Gatorade having more sugar then can be possibly justified in a sports drink. Other then to promote the continued consumption through craving. In the show Adam Ruins Everything a short clip to the right shows that there is no significant need for everyone to drink the 8 glasses of water a day. Most of the companies that push this are sports drink companies so you buy more.
I can't say the restaurant bushiness is any better Anthony Bourdain in an interview with Oprah Winfrey states that on average including bread and butter as an appetizer your gonna be consuming one or two sticks of butter. The points he states in this clip are the same reasons we do this in our kitchen. We want the food to taste good so you come back for more.
So at this stage you must be asking so whats my point? The point is that unfortunately the individual is to blame. You can't just believe things that are said at the end of the day, think logically. All the things talked about make sense when broke down, you have only yourself to act in your best interest.
