Antonius presents his Oxford Symposium paper - December 3rd

Chicago Foodways Roundtable

Western Mediterranean Vegetable Stews
and the Integration of Culinary Exotica
Presented by
Anthony F. Buccini, PhD

Saturday, December 3rd, 2005
11 AM
at
The Chicago Historical Society
1601 N. Clark St., Chicago, Illinois

One aspect of the issue of culinary authenticity involves the borrowing and integration of new foodstuffs. In this paper we address this aspect of authenticity in connexion with the family of western Mediterranean vegetable stews, namely, pisto, samfaina, cianfotta and ratatouille, a family of dishes which to some are emblematic for the cuisines of the region but which all feature multiple exotic ingredients (eggplant, peppers, tomato, courgette, potato). Our discussion begins with an analysis of the development of these dishes in time and across both geographical and social space. The linguistic evidence provides crucial clues which point to the original versions of these dishes likely being developed earlier than generally thought and specifically among the lower classes. What long remained exotic to the literate classes had much sooner been exploited and naturally integrated into the diets of the region's poor, ultimately to become embraced as native delicacies by all.

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 working on two monographs, one on the influence of Celtic on English in the early Middle Ages, the other on selected topics in the culinary history of the Western Mediterranean.

Dr. Buccini’s presentation will be based on his paper “Western Mediterranean Vegetable Stews and the Integration of Culinary Exotica,” which he also presented at this year’s Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. For this paper, Dr. Buccini was awarded the Sophie Coe Prize, which recognizes each year an outstanding contribution in the field of food history.

* * *
This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable. To reserve, please PM leaving your name, telephone number and the number of people in your party or e-mail to: chicago.foodways.roundtable@gmail.com. Cost: $2.

Cathy2 wrote:Dr. Buccini’s presentation will be based on his paper “Western Mediterranean Vegetable Stews and the Integration of Culinary Exotica,”

Cathy,

I might go, what's he serving to eat? Speakers usually bring stuff, right? The Scala guy brought Italian Beef, that was good.

$2 is reasonable, but I think I still need incentive, aside from hearing about vegetable stew.

Enjoy,
Gary (Who is just putting Antonius on and is looking forward to the talk)

I'll be there..."exotic" vegetable stews or no.

Hammond

I was considering going to this year's culinary conference in Oxford but was, unfortunately, unable to pull it off. It sounded like a great lineup of speakers attended this year.

Luckily, I've been given a second chance to see Antonius present this fantastically interesting material right here in Chicago.

Congratulations, again, on winning the Sophie Coe award for this work. I (and I suspect many others here) am not the least bit surprised that you were recognized. Your contributions to LTH are invaluable.

REALLY looking forward to it.

Hi,

I think it will be interesting to see how the original idea on LTHforum, then how it changed and developed for the Oxford Symposium.

While people are welcome to drop in Saturday morning. There will be handouts, so an early warning is welcome.

Regards,

Hi Cathy,

As I mentioned to you the other night, Lucantonio and I will be at, or near, or a combination of at and near, the talk. (He'll have to be quieter than a patron at an Andersonville bakery to stay IN the room...)

So put us down for two (but just one handout )

thanks,
Amata

HI,

Walk ins are welcome tomorrow, though advance notice is appreciated. So far we are 45 people strong with plenty of LTH presence, so a group lunch afterwards will be in your future.

DAvid Hammond and I will be there. So if you've been hanging on the fence about coming to the Klas party, then you can bring your money to confirm your seat.

Every time there is more than one LTHer in a room, the dinner bell always rings.

Regards,

I look forward to seeing the gang.

Those of you who are interested, may wish to take a look at [url=http://www.oxfordsymposium.org.uk/2005report.html] Symposium 2005 on Authenticity
a report on proceedings[/url] covering the opening address by the editor-in-chief of Saveur Magazine, Colman Andrews.

LTH,

Antonius's presentation Saturday was wonderfully interesting, a wee bit above my level in parts, but intellectually quite stimulating, food for thought, so to speak.

Antonius appeared cool as a cucumber, but then again he was wearing his lucky tie.


Quite a nice turnout.
[

With a lively question and answer period at the end of the talk.


After Antonius's talk we went to Cafe Iberico, which Antonius deemed thematically consistent. Iberico was moderately busy, so our group split into 3-tables.



We ordered a nice mix of items, possibly the best being Estofado de Conejo (rabbit casserole w/fresh fava beans) which rgl201 spotted.

Estofado de Conejo


Canelon Relleno de Mariscos (cannelloni stuffed w/seafood, w/blend of tomato and white sauce) was Peter D's favorite.


I'm a fan of the Pulpo a la Plancha (grilled octopus with potatoes and olive oil)


We, of course, had a number of other dishes, drank sangria and had a very nice time.

Kate was unable to attend the talk, so Aaron considerately hit the highlights for her.


Antonius and Choey discussing the finer points.


Amata and rgl201 (I've mentally captioned this picture, Intellectuals intellectualizing)


Thanks also to Cathy and the Chicago Foodways Roundtable for arranging and hosting the talk.

Enjoy,
Gary

Today, I was enjoying some food at Queen of Sheba on Broadway, chatting with the nice man at the bar, which didn’t serve alcohol, which is why I asked, naively, “Is Ethiopia an Islamic country”

"Not really,” he said, “it’s predominantly Christian.” I was a little surprised, not sure why, but made mental note.

Later, as I pondered why Ethiopia boasted such a wealth of vegetarian dishes, it came to me: of course, Christian fast days (one-third the calendar, as A pointed out) inspire the growth of veggie cuisine.

One heck of a lecture.

Hammond

David, there are actually even more fast days in Ethgipia than you think, as this includes all Wednesdays as well as Fridays for pious Ethipian Christians, and Ethiopians, who live far from the coast (as opposed to Eritreans) do not like fish. This said, there is a substantial Muslim minority in Ethiopia, even if the majority are Christians. I suspect they just don't have a liquor licence ....

I haven't been online much recently (not something I ever thought I'd complain about) so I only found out about this on the morning of the 3rd, at which point it was too late. Too bad - I would loved to have attended.

Luckily I have some good contacts in the nefarious world of linguistics and should be able to score a copy of the paper for a reasonable sum. I look forward to reading it soon.

Thanks

I would very much like to thank the Chicago Foodways Roundtable, Bruce Kraig and especially Cathy2 for inviting me to speak and for organising the session. Many thanks also to all those who attended the talk and to the many who participated in the post-lecture discussion. Special recognition too must be given to Watson, Luke and Lucantonio for their exceptional patience and good cheer!

I felt both honoured and delighted to see so many LTHers there and I enjoyed immensely having the opportunity to share my research with you all, especially since the paper I presented was a direct outgrowth of a post I made more than a year ago (September 2004) on the forum. In connexion with that fact, let me also say that I am very grateful to Gary a.k.a. G Wiv, the board of moderators and the community as a whole, for providing such a congenial and stimulating venue for discussions of all things culinary.

Finally, I was also very pleased that there were so many who were able to share lunch together at Café Iberico (where they make a fine pisto manchego, incidentally) after the talk. Last but not least, thanks to Liz, Choey and Sazerac, with whom I sat at lunch, and ate and drank and laughed: tak for mad!

gratia pro rebus merito debetur inemtis.

Antonius

Has this paper been published? Is there any way to get a copy of it?

Cynthia wrote:Has this paper been published? Is there any way to get a copy of it?

It is available at amazon.com.

Cynthia,

Yes, it's out, as can be seen from EC's Amazon link. It can be ordered for a much lower price from Amazon-UK but then, of course, there's the shipping. But if there are other things one might want to order from the UK, it might be worthwhile.

I'm glad you called attention to this just now; the volume makes a perfect stocking (or turkey) stuffer! Kids will love it too!



Joking aside, I think the volume includes a number of very interesting articles.

A