The Ink-Pot and the Palette

As someone who generally cooks and eats alone, I find it very difficult to conceive of taking Petrini's approach in my everyday life--though I share 100% his beliefs about food, agriculture, and above all conviviality. What a powerful, wonderful word! I think it is important to make food a higher priority: I know people for whom real food barely registers in their grocery budget!

That said, there's a scene in "Big Night" that demonstrates how "slow food" needn't be elaborate, or painstaking, or expensive. You probably know the one--the indelible "scrambled egg" scene, in which one of the characters wakes up in the kitchen after the titular big night, lights the flame under a small skillet, pours in a few drops of olive oil, breaks an egg, scrambles it quickly, tips it onto a plate, and eats it with a hunk of Italian style bread--all in a single take, from a single angle, in total silence.

You could show that scene to junior high kids and say, "Let's taste the difference between free-range eggs and regular ones. Let's see if we can tell the difference between olive oil and melted Crisco. Let's see if sea salt is any different from Morton's iodized. And can you tell the difference between Wonder "bread" and this ciabatta?

What an educational starting point that would be!