Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts

4 Nov 2019

Gastronomy is Commitment

On Saturday October 19th, , I post this at Instagram and Twitter:


Translation: I see many gastrobloggers and gastroinfluencers keep on doing at their profiles without conciousness of what happens outside. Plese, unfollow me. I will apreciate it very much. Gastronomy is commitment.

I felt outraged, yes, because of the way how gastrobloggers, gastroinfluencers... were facing the situation in Catalonia. Someone with serious shortcomings in reading competence might think that I asked for or demanded support for independence... But it was not true. I criticize the lack of positioning for serious situations we are experiencing. One is the problem of independence or not of Catalonia, but others have emerged as a sentence that penalizes any protest (the great perversion of the text condemned by Catalan political prisoners); the impunity of fascism (the comfort with which the concentrates at Pl. Artós moved trhough the city); the disproportionate actions of the police with demonstrators and journalists... Too many...

And in the gastronomic sector there has been an alarming silence. As far as chefs are concerned, must talk the colleagues, but for my part, I have to criticize the omission of people from the sector to which I belong.

Do not mix cuisine and politics? A mistake. Gastronomy is a commitment. And this implies having a political position. If you defend Slow Food, you are defending proximity, a specific landscape, specific flavors, an specific way to make everything... It is to defend the approach to a socio-economic model based on the human measure of it, where people matter: the producing projects are known, the prices must contemplate the work done, the food cycles must be taken into account ... This has an ideological burden that is very different from that of wanting to find a food regardless of its seasonality, wanting the piece as cheap as possible... Politics... Cristal clear! The predominant ideology will determine our reality.
And if reality demands critical voices, these must be there.
All those with whom I am critical do not stop being part of the social alienation gear: "Hey! Look that good food... See what a good place to go to have lunch... See what fair where go to buy... You see, this allows you to free yourself from problems, because with all this there is no space for problems. Do you see? I have a good time and my social networks so there is no enough space for problem". Those who show a reality of perpetual gastronomic hedonism do not let them see the misery of society in which their reality is contextualized. They are part of the system described in "A happy world" by Aldous Huxley.

Forgetting the political side of a social fact is a mistake, as it will prevent them from explaining gastronomic facts correctly. Is not it about communicating?
How can these communicators explain what is a co-ops? A co-ops!!! The political dimension is essential in this case, since it is a business figure that allows to realize an economic activity with a high degree of social sustainability. An expansion of the social economy (where the co-ops is placed) would allow a change in the economic-productive paradigm from one where labor exploitation and social inequality are generated to another where social sustainability (of people who is in the company and the environment where it develops its activity) and the distribution of wealth are present. Pure political positioning and hard.

The one who refuses the presence of politics in the social aspects of the person is contributing to leave the power in the wrong hands, because politicians do not have the power, but they are the momentary representatives of who has the true power: people. Now, it depends on us.

Gastronomy is a commitment. The memories and feelings associated with eating and drinking are related to someone who cared of us, with someone who loved us, with someone who made us happy... Not with someone who cheated us or made us believe we lived in an unreal world... Think about it.
Do not want to show your positioning because you do not want to lose followers? Are you afraid of losing some sponsor? Do you think people will stop inviting you at places? That's fine ... But do not count on me. Your trip is different from mine.

28 Jul 2016

Beatus Ille on TV

Last sunday 24th, Beatus Ille appeared on TV. Concretely, at Espai Internet of TV3, in an special programme about cooking.



First, they talked about  "Cuines", the recipes programme that, with different formats, is on TV for several years. They were introducing the new web of the programme, where it could be found former broadcasts.

In second place, they talked about a gastroblogger mate "Les receptes que m'agraden", one of the most popular blogs of Catalunya.

And at the end, Beatus Ille, had the honour of appearing on TV for its 10th anniversary.


Thanks to all the people of Espai Internet for the attention they gave!

7 Jun 2016

The fast-chefs

Some months ago I wrote a post about the dangerous society between fast-food and gastronomy. The reason was McDonald's appeared at Top Chef Spain for secon consecutive edition... And I wondered why high cuisine was giving a label to a group that cooks a kind of food with no fame of healthy food.

And they did it again. This time, Dani García (for third time if I am right) and Ramón Freixa participated in a campaign because they created highly dangerous hamburgers... Why I say so??? Look at chefs hamburgers:

The one of Dani García





and the one of Ramon Freixa




Now, compare a hamburger with bacon and deep fried chicken (CBO)




and another one with two pieces of deep fried chicken (Grand Big Mac Chicken):




As you see, from caloric point of view, the ones of the chef beat CBO, but not Grand Big Mac Chicken:
- Grand Big Mac Chicken:  844 kcal
- Grand McExtreme Ramon Freixa: 762 kcal
- Grand McExtreme Dani García: 718 kcal
- CBO: 650 kcal

All of thehm overpass 32% of dairy recommended calories… that means, if you eat a single one, you should be eating undressed lettuce all the day long.

But the most outrageous of all is, to me, the side of saturated fats:
- Grand McExtreme Ramon Freixa:  19 g (95% of recommended quantity in a day)
- Grand McExtreme Dani García: 16 g (80% of recommended quantity in a day)
- Grand Big Mac Chicken:  9 g (45% of recommended quantity in a day)
- CBO: 8 g (38% of recommended quantity in a day)

Real bombs for cardiovascular health.

How can it be possible the hamburgers of two chefs pass over the 80% of saturated fats one person can eat in a day? Chefs hamburgers are the most harmful.

What is high cuisine doing? 

What is producing extremely harmful food for who eats them?

Why?

This should be a reason of reflection at high cuisine.

16 Mar 2016

Europeana Food and Drink

Today I received by e-mail a communication from the Generalitat de Catalunya with an information about Europeana Food and Drink, a project that tries to give value to the European gastronomical heritage.























The will of the project is to make the different gastronomical cultures of Europe be the centre of the action, making easier the chance of getting all this information.

It has a very good look, with graphic material from different museums and archives. Catalonia is there, by the moment, with 4.500 documents.

Let's see its evolution!