Tag Archives: University of Gastronomic Sciences

Food in Pop Culture Through the Lens of Marshmallow Peeps

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“You might be too distracted to notice the first time through, but there is actually a lot of food imagery used in the Telephone music video.” And so, for the first time, I scrutinized a Lady Gaga video not for the outrageously skimpy outfits, but for the usage of food items. At the end of the ten minutes, our class was taken aback at the number of product placements in the film short. “It’s just a big ad for Virgin, Honey Buns and Polaroid, isn’t it?” The video makes frequent use of ersatz, convenience products like WonderBread and Miracle Whip. “Lady Gaga is well aware of her status as a highly commercial icon, and makes no pretense of acting otherwise. In a sense, she has tricked you into watching a 10-minute long ad masquerading as music video, one that you will now send to all your friends.” And what’s with the Diet Coke can hair rollers? In modern society, the panopticon of body image compels women to diet and lose weight, even without explicit pressure. She is trapped by both an interior and exterior prison.

Our professor was Fabio Parasecoli, from the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at NYU, and he deftly guided us through the semiotics of food symbolism and a post-structuralist analysis of consumer body image perceptions. Power relations are negotiated through the acceptance or refusal of food, and race and sex differences are mediated through cooking and eating food. Food embodies the person who prepared it, as seen in the rejection of the “AIDS Burger” in True Blood, and it can be used as cultural capital to differentiate yourself or elevate your social status. At the consumerist extreme, food is produced for a society of spectacle, with much of food programming on TV designed for people who will never pick up a knife or walk into a kitchen.
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Travel Note: Piedmont Stage

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Fresh off the heels of a trip to Puglia, we will be away on stage again this week, this time to our home region of Piemonte! Unlike last time though, we will be returning home every night to sleep in our own beds (yay!) and use our own computers (double yay!). So, I expect to not be continuously whining about the lack of internet access.

Piedmont is well known for its rolling mountains, wines (Barolo) and chocolate (in Turin). A sample itinerary (for Thursday July 8th):

8:00 – Departure
9:00 – Arrival at the Saluzzo jail. Visit Pausa Caffè brewery: presentation of the project, see beer production
10:45 – Depart for Torino
12:15 – Domori chocolate factory production line (home of the Best Chocolate Ever)
13:15 – Lunch
14:00 – Presentation of the factory and its marketing strategy
15:00 – Departure for Coazze
16:00 – Arrival in Coazze, see the production process of Chevrin di Coazze artisanal goat cheese
18:00 – Depart for Bra
19:30 – Arrival in Bra

Unfortunately, I am missing Wednesday morning’s activities because I have to go to the Questura (immigration office) to register for a permesso di soggiorno (residency permit). This requires going out to Cuneo, then getting all digits fingerprinted by a gloved and lab-coated man. Um. And they say the US is a police state?

Food Anthropology: Chitalian Cuisine

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Last week, as part of a class on food anthropology, we all had to conduct an ethnographic study of a food production place in town using participant-observation methods (read: hanging out and discreetly taking notes). Rather than choosing one of the town’s many pizzerias or gelato shops, I decided to investigate the one place that has elicited a sort of morbid fascination for me for the last month: The Chinese restaurant in Bra. That’s right, there’s only one, and there isn’t too much other ethnic food in town to speak of, aside from a couple small kebab shops.

After enlisting the help of some comrades who claimed to be strong of stomach, we ventured toward Nin Hao Ristorante on the northern outskirts of town. It was 8 pm on a Monday night, and the restaurant was ostensibly open, but the dining room looked dark from the outside, and there were no signs of life, other than a Chinese man who was sitting on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette. I hesitated and gave a cautious tug on the door. The restaurant was desolate and the lights were even off. At that point, a server marched out, then turned to us with a smile as she flicked the light switch. We turned to each other apprehensively. I don’t know if I have ever dined at an entirely empty restaurant before.
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Scenes from Puglia

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Clockwise: Gargoyles on a cathedral in Lecce, the 16th century watchtower of Torre Guaceto, a driver awaits outside a wedding ceremony, the cliffs of Pogliano a Mare

Located in the southeastern part of Italy (the heel of the boot), Puglia is a peninsula of a peninsula, surrounded by sea and just a 12-hour ferry ride across the Adriatic to Greece. Ah, the sea. Having lived in the midwest for several years, it’s been a while since I’ve heard the crash and smelled the sting of saltwater. And as you can imagine, the sea plays a major role in shaping Puglian history. Being first point of entry by sea, Puglia has been conquered by pretty much every major civilization and conquering marauder that has attacked Italy in the past few thousand years. Ergo, it has a rich history of influences from a variety of cultures. As such, the region’s people, places and activities are heavily influenced by the bountiful amounts of sunlight, seafood and historical exchange.
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Travel Note: Puglia Stage

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An administrative note from the powers that be: we are traveling to Apulia for a stage (the Italian word for field trip) and will be staying there for the rest of the week. The UNISG program includes about a week’s worth of travel every month or so, where we go to another region of Italy or another country, and spend time learning about local products, meeting producers and sampling the specialties of the region. Puglia is well known for its olive oil, beaches and aggressive men. Ah, my first stint in southern Italy.

A sample itinerary (for Tuesday 6/15):

8:30 – Breakfast

9:00 – Departure to Terranova

10:00 – Visit a local farm that raises Murgese horses, free range pigs and produces Capocollo di Martina Franca

12:00 – Visit an artisanal butcher, Romanelli; lesson on the capocollo production process and tasting

14:00 Visit to Martina Franca

16:00 Visit the wine cooperative of Locorotondo

17:00 Visit to Alberobello

19:00 Departure for Cisternino

20:00 Arrival in Cisternino and dinner at Fornello Menga Restaurant

According to the website, the hotel has wifi in public areas, so hopefully I’ll have some internet access in between hanging out on the beach. Otherwise, my computer will be completely dead weight and I will catch you all on Friday night.

Lunch, UNISG Edition

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In a previous post, I discussed what it was like to have lunch at the Fed, but there was no mention of the food, mostly because the Sodexo-run cafeteria, while competent and better than your average corporate cafeteria, mostly catered to the greatest common denominator and offered nothing of blogworthy interest.

Here at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, you can avail yourself of the midday meal service plan for €1000, and be assured a hot lunch every day that you are at school. For the first week of classes, everyone can dine at the canteen, which gives you a chance to try the food and determine whether or not you want to bring your own lunch instead. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but figured that this would be a nicer, more intimate version of Cornell’s dining halls (which were actually pretty good compared to the institutional slop served at most other universities). I definitely did not expect a 3 or 4 course meal, complete with full table service.

The canteen is housed adjacent to the chapel, and features lovely high ceilings with Tudor-style wood beams, fresh flower arrangements and round tables for ten. It opens at 12:15 pm and classes officially resume at 1 pm (though most of the time this doesn’t actually happen till 1:15 or so), which doesn’t give you a whole lot of time to eat four courses.
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