I find myself back in Europe six years after spending my first 4th abroad in Switzerland; as I sit on the terrace of a single-family home with bottle of 2016 Nebbiolo d’Alba, a day full of food, knowledge, and connection keeps my mind buzzing.

The fourth of July has always been a marker of anniversary in my life. The fourth of July means relaxation, pure fun, and a renewal and celebration of the past year through good food, good company and new beginnings.

Today would’ve marked my parent’s thirtieth anniversary and it also would have marked my fifth anniversary. Life is transient, though. Relationships are fleeting.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that today doesn’t mark a new beginning and an anniversary… of sorts. The past year has been saturated with the yin and yang of work and play, but with an annoying overindulgence in thought about what am I doing, why am I doing this and most importantly- what next?

Today taught me that it is highly difficult to control the circumstances that surround the what, but I have taken enough chances to allow the what next? to always be as remarkable as I could ever dream.

So, with that, I relieve the contexts of my day. Today I was lucky enough to meet with a person working for Slow Food International at its very heart in the beautiful city of Bra. I was also fortunate to meet with a professor at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo; a place with enough pull to host names such as Alice Waters, Massimo Bottura, and Carlo Petrini. My perception of what I was up against was overwhelming. Today proved to me the scope of what I know, what I don’t know, and how fortunate I am to be able to learn here.

A nontraditional fourth of July to say the least.. as I sip Italian wine and eat salads filled with locally produced goods, I feel farther away than ever from where I come from, but closer than ever to who I think I am, who I want to be. May this next year prove as special as the last.

University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo

Il Centro, Bra.

-Ayla

Boy, it’s hot out. Some thoughts on my lunch experience in the center of Turin today and how it fits into Italian tradition, non-tradition, and innovation…

There’s a restaurant in town called Poormanger (a name that provides a unique play on words, meaning “for eating” in French but spelled with the English word “poor” ).

Think: Jacket Potatoes. Heard of them? Me neither. What about.. the “loaded baked potato?” Not quite what one thinks about when considering an “Italian delicacy”. These potatoes, though, are loaded with toppings that are quintessentially Italian.

Burrata, valeriana, e pomodori secchi… su una patata.

Confused? Offended? Thrilled? All of the above?

I see the growth and success of this restaurant in Turin as an indication of where food values are moving in this setting. This restaurant doesn’t quite have the direct ties to Slow Food, but it shares similar values and actions as stated on their website:

Constant is the research of ingredients that are always local, fresh and seasonal, reflecting our main characteristic: genuineness. The ingredients of our stuffing come from local suppliers who have a strong connection with nature, just as we have. Potatoes and vegetables from Piedmont, fresh meat and cheese made by local artisans of food.

A very non-traditional Italian main dish served with quite traditional, locally-sourced produce? I’m on board.

The Slow Food Manifesto seems to be on board too..

This is what real culture is about: developing taste rather than demeaning it. And what better way to set about this than an international exchange of experiences, knowledge, and projects?

This lunch proved that tradition can meet innovation in an approachable way; developing a new taste through alluding to both international experience and localized tradition. With two locations, this restaurant proves that the desire for small, local, approachable food that is unconventional, interesting and yet of an extremely high quality is driving new entrepreneurial intentions. A place where fast food meets Slow Food at its essence.

Other restaurants in Turin seem to be popping up with similar approaches.

Stay tuned.

-Ayla

It’s 2 A.M here in Turin and I’ve ruined my chance for a successful transition away from the Eastern Time zone into Central-European time. Might as well make the most of this late-hour binge read.

So. Get this.

Anthony C.F Wallace was a Canadian-American sociologist who specialized in the cultures of Native Americans, was deeply interested in the intersection between cultural anthropology and psychology, and came up with a “revitalization theory” which basically encompasses the following:

“A revitalization movement is defined as a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture. Revitalization is thus, from a cultural standpoint, a special kind of culture change phenomenon: the persons involved in the process of revitalization must perceive their culture, or some major areas of it, as a system (whether accurately or not); they must feel that this cultural system is unsatisfactory and they must innovate not merely discrete items, but a new cultural system, specifying new relationships as well as, in some cases, new traits” (Wallace 256).

Wallace proposes that a society can change and restore ideal cultural values by making specific recourse with the past, with tradition. Through the revitalization process, though, the society never truly fulfills the goal of full retreat into tradition, instead it creates something completely new, contemporary in itself.

Okay so I know this doesn’t have anything obvious to do with food.. or does it?

I’ve had my “food-brain” on for the past few months, slowly dipping my toes into the vast waters of economic, political, cultural, social etc. etc. parts that make up what we do at the dining table three times a day.

This sociological theory actually fully applies to food culture. In the book Edible Identites: Food as Cultural Heritage, it is proved through the analyzation of food heritages and current cultures in Pietrelcina, Campania, that “heritage cuisine plays a significant role in revitalization movements”.. but only within small-scale societies.

My argument: America needs a revitalization of its generalized food culture practices. Am I aiming at fast food? Not necessarily; my aims are pointed at cultural attitude towards food in general. This is where things get messy.

A thought:

Such a conscious effort to revitalize the food culture of America, even in a more basic sense than Wallace’s sociological theory (if that is possible), seems unattainable in a large-scale society. The paradox in this lies in that America’s local foodstuffs have become a luxury goods, icons. At large, we do not have such a ritualized production and consumption pattern that draws on deep-rooted history accessible for all and, in fact, our history is quite saturated with the industrial. Capitalism has created for modern America a food culture that keeps the majority fat, sick, depressed, and needing more.

Time to revitalize? Yes. With what tradition or heritage to reference?

I’ll be thinking about this.

Oh, and here’s a picture of my lunch. Compliments of the grocery @Eataly, Torino Lingotto.