Chicago Foodways: Carbonara - Feb 3rd - by Antonius of LTH

CHC Chicago Foodways Roundtable

The Burning Question of Carbonara:
Fanciful Aetiologies, Practical and Aesthetic Realities

Presented by
Anthony F. Buccini, PhD

Saturday, February 3rd, 2006
10 AM
Kendall College
900 North Branch Street, Chicago
(West of Halsted Street, North of Chicago Avenue)
Free Parking

Cost: $2 per person, free to Kendall students and faculty with ID.

Long regarded as emblematic for Roman cookery and now internationally beloved as a delicious representative of Italy’s emerging national cuisine, spaghetti alla carbonara has –– not surprisingly –– been the subject of considerable speculation, debate and even teeth-gnashing with regard both to the ‘authenticity’ of different recipes and to the circumstances of the dish’s invention. Indeed, the various theories proposed for the origins of this pairing of pasta, pork, cheese and eggs illustrate a remarkable range of possible accounts for such cultural items and yet few of these pass beyond the anecdotal and none considers broadly the cultural context in which the dish arose.

The goal of this paper is two-fold: first, to examine carefully the origins of this dish in terms of the broader socio-economic and aesthetic contexts in which it arose; second, to show how some of the fanciful aetiologies for the dish exemplify popular (mis-) conceptions of culinary history.

Anthony F. Buccini received his undergraduate education at Columbia University in the City of New York (B.A.) and his graduate education at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. (Ph.D.); he also studied and later conducted research as a Fulbright Scholar at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. He has published and taught extensively in his primary fields of historical linguistics and sociolinguistics, especially in connection with the Germanic, Romance and Celtic languages. He is currently researching and writing on topics both in linguistics and in the field of culinary history. For his paper Western Mediterranean Vegetable Stews and the Integration of Culinary Exotica, he was awarded the Sophie Coe Prize in food history for 2005.

Dr. Buccini’s presentation will be based on his paper “On Spaghetti alla Carbonara and Related Dishes of Central and Southern Italy,” which he presented at the 2006 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.

This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable. To reserve, please advise below or e-mail to: chicago.foodways.roundtable@gmail.com

I don't think that his talk can be complete without going into great depth about Spaghetti Carbonara and its' role in the first Thanksgiving.

Giovanna

If Tony's lecture is anywhere near as interesting and informative as last year's talk on Mediterranean vegetable stews , you truly don't want to miss this.

Please count me in. I love spaghetti alla carbonara, and would love to find out if there is any truth to the explanations I've heard of its origins. See you on Feb. 3.

I have a prior commitment that Saturday morning or I would be there with bells on.

Enjoy,
Gary

Sounds great. I'm in.

C2, is it in Tony's contract that you will not be introducing him this year?

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:Sounds great. I'm in.

C2, is it in Tony's contract that you will not be introducing him this year?

Hammond

You know, I am human. I get nervous like everyone else. I will try to do better this time around! Maybe I should just stick to the prepared notes rather than ad lib.

Regards,

Hi,

There is plenty of room to accommodate people who want to hear Antonius' talk tomorrow. If you let me know earlier than later, then I will be sure to have a hand-out for you.

If you see this bright and early tomorrow morning, then please just bundle up and come!

Regards,

I would love to attend the event. Is it ok for me to bring my carbonara-loving daughters (ages 8, 10)? Michael

I'd say yes (since our 6 year old will be there too to hear his dad).

Amata

Amata wrote:I'd say yes (since our 6 year old will be there too to hear his dad).

Amata,

One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Buccini's last presentation to this group was when C2 was introducing him and your young son asked, about five minutes into the introduction, "Is daddy going to be talking today?"

Apologies for bringing it up again, C2, but that whole set-up was just too funny -- and your first three minutes or so were excellent.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Hammond

HI,

Sure, bring the kids.

Regards,

I'd like to thank all the people, among which was a good number of LTHers, who braved the frigid and windy weather on Saturday morning to attend the talk. I'd especially like to thank Cathy2 for organising the event so well and giving me the opportunity to share some of my research with interested parties here in Chicago. Especially enjoyable for me was the lively question and answer session and it was also a pleasure to have the chance to talk individually with members of the audience immediately after the talk and subsequently over a very long and most pleasant lunch.*

Thanks all.
A

More on the lunch to be posted elsewhere.

Antonius, thank you for acquainting us with the multiple lines of development of spaghetti alla carbonara. You certainly addressed one of my pet peeves: individuals who claim to have "invented" a dish. It seems better to say that dishes emerge and to look at the context in which they develop. Your talk was thoroughly enjoyable. Please continue to enlighten us.

Is there a podcast, paper, etc. for the lecture that is available? Unfortunately, I could not attend due to prior commitments on Saturday morning.

jlawrence01 wrote:Is there a podcast, paper, etc. for the lecture that is available? Unfortunately, I could not attend due to prior commitments on Saturday morning.

A podcast of this and other presentations would be an excellent idea.

HI,

It is a goal for Culinary Historians/Chicago Foodways Roundtable presentations to be digitally videotaped. Whenever this can be arranged, then podcasting would be very achieveable. Unfortunately we are not yet there.

I know a program is very engaging when the question=answer period is as long as the presentation. There was quite a dynamic dialogue between Antonius and the audience. Antonius' presentation was his full paper, though his live presentation at Oxford was limited to 20 minutes.

The entire program was quite a treat. Thanks again, Antonius for presenting your paper.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:It is a goal for Culinary Historians/Chicago Foodways Roundtable presentations to be digitally videotaped. Whenever this can be arranged, then podcasting would be very achieveable. Unfortunately we are not yet there.

Don't mean to belabor this point, but as I am now a podcast enthusiast, I'm curious about the technology. It would seem vastly simpler (and less expensive in terms of equipment and bandwidth) to create an audio podcast than a video podcast, and although it may be a nice option to have a visualization of a presentation (especially if there are slides, PowerPoint, whatever), the words themselves and alone would in many cases be perfectly sufficient.

Any way, this is just by way of saying: it would be very good to have a record of Comrade Buccini's presentation, as well as the many other presentations hosted by Culinary Historians that I'm too damn lazy to awake for on most Saturday mornings.

Hammond

HI,

The beauty of the digital video format is the flexibility: use as-is, grab audio easily or collect still images. What I don't know yet is the cost, which I hope there is a grant out there somewhere to support it.

Any way, this is just by way of saying: it would be very good to have a record of Comrade Buccini's presentation, as well as the many other presentations hosted by Culinary Historians that I'm too damn lazy to awake for on most Saturday mornings.

I hear this all the time. "The topics are interesting, but ..." When I ask them when they might like it, the answer is all over the map. Roundtable meetings are more flexible because I will arrange meetings to fit the presenter's schedule if required. Default is Saturday morning with the bonus of light traffic.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:I know a program is very engaging when the question=answer period is as long as the presentation. There was quite a dynamic dialogue between Antonius and the audience. Antonius' presentation was his full paper, though his live presentation at Oxford was limited to 20 minutes.

The entire program was quite a treat. Thanks again, Antonius for presenting your paper.

Well, Cathy, you're most welcome and many thanks again to you and all who attended; I had a great time. My only regret is that Lucantonius apparently had his hand up to ask a question and I didn't see him and so didn't call on him. My bad... ... Luckily, he's not mad at me...

A

P.S. A short version of the paper is now in press for the Oxford Symposium proceedings for 2006; I hope to publish the rest of my material in a follow up article.