"Why does one eat cheese with pears and melon with prosciutto?" asks Montanari. He argues that these pairings come to us from medieval Europe's medical theory about four "humors"—hot and cold, wet and dry—that existed in every person and needed to be kept in balance. Healthy people had to eat humor-balanced food so as to not disrupt their own internal equilibrium. Healers thus suggested offsetting moist fruit with dry ham or cheese. Cooks were to use "wet" techniques on old, and thus "dry," animals, much as we boil or braise tough meats today.
And maybe our globalized food chain is more human than our desire for seasonal produce. Farmers have always bred for extended seasons; merchants have always created trade routes to bring fresh produce from far-off lands. Today we follow the same ideals, but our technology lets us push our boundaries around the globe and the calendar. Those of us who want to eat seasonally are the ones bucking tradition.
Fans of The Omnivore's Dilemma will appreciate Montanari's attempts to fill in the connection between culture and food. Michael Pollan uses his book's introduction to describe the way culture—"a fancy word for mom," he famously says—dictates our tastes; Montanari explores this topic in-depth throughout the chapters.
What a shame, then, that these treasures are buried in muddy academic prose such as this: "Because the language of food, unlike verbal language, cannot be left out of the concreteness of the object, nor of the intrinsic, in some way predetermined, semantic value of the means of communication." I know that large words and lumbering sentences are the weapons of academic jousting, but they make a tough slog for the average reader. The book seems to want to be in two worlds, but fails to succeed in either. On one hand, Food Is Cuisine would be a thought-provoking essay by a knowledgeable historian, but its academic prose will turn off most bookstore browsers. On the other hand, Food Is Cuisine would be a solid academic work, but its short sections and lack of citations will turn off most professors and students.
This book was sent to me as a review copy.
