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CONSUMPTION AND PUBLIC LIFE
EDITED BY
ROBERTA SASSATELLI
Consumption and Public Life
Series Editors
Frank Trentmann
Birkbeck College
London WC, UK
Richard Wilk
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN, USA
The series will be a channel and focus for some of the most interesting
recent work on consumption, establishing innovative approaches and a
new research agenda. New approaches and public debates around con-
sumption in modern societies will be pursued within media, politics,
ethics, sociology, economics, management and cultural studies.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by
similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword
Why Italy?
For over two decades, the dialectical and dynamic relations between
the national and the international and between the local and the global
have provided central intellectual challenges for the new, multidiscipli-
nary field of food studies. On the one hand, food production, prepa-
ration and consumption always underwrite the local, private, and
domestic practices that generate identity and that differentiate among
relatively small and intimate groups of people at local and regional lev-
els. At the same time, and at least since the seventeenth century, the
nations of Europe have claimed loyalty and promoted identity among
far larger groups of people who live on much wider territories. Nations
owe their sovereignty to an international state system that recognizes
a rough equivalency among them and respects their borders (and the
nations that adjoin those seams) while also assuming unity within
each national group that the state purportedly represents and governs.
Theorizing how local foods and food practices have defined the national
through the development of what has been called “banal” or “gastro-”
nationalism—terms that are sometimes subsumed in this volume within
v
vi Foreword
xv
xvi Contents
Afterword 269
Index 273
Notes on Contributors
xvii
xviii Notes on Contributors
Fig. 4.1 ‘Only here can you find Verucchio’s authentic products’:
commodities biographies located at the local scale
in order to articulate authenticity and provenance 83
Fig. 4.2 Baldinini, the first Italian fashion’s wine. Diamante
bianco—white sparling wine 89
Fig. 5.1 Farmers bringing their tomatoes to the Santa Margherita
di Pula Terra e Sole Cooperative 110
Fig. 5.2 Assembly line workers at the Santa Margherita di Pula
Terra e Sole Cooperative with coreboi tomatoes
in the foreground 113
Fig. 5.3 Dessert at the Slow Food tomato dinner at Il Rubino
restaurant 115
Fig. 5.4 Commensality at the Slow Food tomato dinner
at Il Rubino restaurant 116
Fig. 8.1 Definitions, judgements, and relations 189
xxi
1
Introduction: Food, Foodways
and Italianicity
Roberta Sassatelli
In his book The Italians, John Hopper writes a few perceptive pages
on Italians and food. He concedes that cuisine is for Italian what the
weather is for Britons, “a suitable topic for conversation between
strangers that avoids the risks associated with politics, religion and foot-
ball” (Hopper 2016, 93). At the same time, food allows for quite acer-
bic discussions on specific ingredients and precise methods of cooking.
La tavola is important for Italians:
R. Sassatelli (*)
University of Milan, Milan, Italy
e-mail: roberta.sassatelli@unimi.it
© The Author(s) 2019 1
R. Sassatelli (ed.), Italians and Food, Consumption and Public Life,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15681-7_1
2
R. Sassatelli
Italy has the richest tradition of urban living on the planet and the envia-
ble way in which Italians eat is part of that tradition. It is no coincidence
1 Introduction: Food, Foodways and Italianicity
5
that so many Italian products and dishes are named after cities: bistecca
alla Fiorentina, prosciutto di Parma, saltimbocca alla romana, pizza napo-
letana, risotto alla milanese, pesto genovese, pesto trapanese, olive ascol-
ane, mostarda di Cremona … For centuries, Italy’s cities have been where
all the things that go to create great cooking are concentrated: ingredi-
ents and culinary expertise, of course but also power, wealth, markets and
competition for social prestige. (2007, 7)
level, at the level of the nation state and at global level. It is particu-
larly at the level of the everyday that we may notice the consolidation
of an Italian national identity. Since the Italian economic boom Italy
has been a “nation of food conservatives” as food filled the gap of every-
day nationalism that other symbols did not seem to provide, its “cuisine
reflected the country’s diversity and unity” being the site of a “homely
and almost self-effacing pride” and “one of the few places where Italians
could find images of what they shared” (Dickie 2007, 301).
Italy’s varied and specialized agriculture sustains such picture and
matches Europe’s attention to high-quality products and agricultural
traditions as well as catering for the well-off consumers keen to acquire
superior goods. According to the Italian Minister of Agriculture, on the
last count, Italy had 167 products that qualified for PDO status and
130 for PGI, more than any other countries in Europe. They range
from Parma Ham to Sicilian Blood Orange, from Parmigiano Reggiano
to Modena Balsamic Vinegar. Some of these products are not only suc-
cessful articles of export, they can also be considered mass-marketed
goods as they are widely consumed and reach the public via super and
hypermarkets rather than specialties shops. The food and drink industry
is very important in Italy, it represents the second industrial sector, after
mechanic industry and before fashion industry, exporting goods for
over 40 million euros in 2017 (Mosconi 2018). Looking at the Italian
food industry Emanuela Scarpellini (2016) notes that, while the food
sector is internationally becoming more concentrated, the Italian food
industry is mostly made up of small and medium-sized business rather
than large enterprises, often clustered in territorial productive districts,
resulting for the consumer in both advantages such as typicality and dif-
ferentiation and disadvantages such as comparatively high cost. The dis-
tribution sector is likewise peculiar, with the larger supermarket chain,
Coop, being born out of a consumer cooperative, and with the com-
paratively stronger presence of small groceries, markets and street ven-
dors. Italians, she notes, continue to prefer fresh agricultural products
and traditional goods linked to their territories and even when buying
industrial food they tend to prefer simple ones such as pasta and cheese,
as opposed to ready-made meals.
1 Introduction: Food, Foodways and Italianicity
7
(a)ny Italian knows that a cherished heirloom dish is sure to vary in its
preparation, depending on who is in the kitchen […] Interpretation,
improvisation - these are essential characteristics of traditional Italian
cooking. In Italy a restaurant earns praise if its creations can be described
as ‘homemade’ - recognition that the homecook is the best cook.
III
"En voi mitään sille, että sydämeni on sääliä täynnä. Säälin kaikkia
ihmisiä ja eläimiä, koko maailmaa, sinua ja eniten itseäni. Toivoisin
voivani heitä jotenkin auttaa, sinuakin. Etkö pelkää iankaikkista
kadotusta?"
Suutaria kammotti.
"Jos vain voin", vastasi suutari, "niin teen mielelläni. Kun ajattelen
tekosiasi minua kohtaan, ovat ne hyvin vähäpätöisiä. Annan ne
sinulle sydämestäni kaikki anteeksi, sillä olet niistä jo saanut
suuremman rangaistuksen kuin olisit ansainnutkaan. Mitä minun
pitäisi tehdä?"
"Kiitos, suutari", vastasi vouti. "Olet aina ollut kunnon mies, ja olen
iloinen, että olet nyt tässä. Näetkös, voisitkohan valvoa kirkossa
kolme yötä sen jälkeen, kun minut on sinne haudattu? Katsos, niin
kauan kuin olen hautaamatta ja pyhät kynttilät palavat pään pohjissa,
ei ole hätää, mutta mitä sitten tapahtuu, kun olen joutunut kirkon
lattian alle, siitä ei ole takeita. Uskaltaisitkohan tehdä tämän hyvän
työn minulle? Kolmen yön perästä ei ole enää vaaraa".
IV
Mutta heti voudin kuoleman jälkeen meni suutari papin luo ja kertoi,
mitä vainaja oli häneltä pyytänyt, sekä kysyi, oliko hänen täytettävä
antamansa lupaus; se tuntui nimittäin hänestä nyt hyvin pelottavalta.
"Tottakai sinun on mentävä", vastasi hurskas pappi, "sillä eipä tiedä,
mitä Jumala on tälläkin asialla tarkoittanut. Mutta älkäämme
uhmailko pahoja voimia, vaan käyttäkäämme turvaksemme niitä
keinoja, joita Jumala on meille pahan vastustamiseksi suonut. Minä
tulen kanssasi kirkkoon varustaakseni sinut kaiken varalle".
Kun vouti sitten oli haudattu kirkon lattian alle, lähelle kuorin
aituusta, ja oli tullut ilta, lähtivät suutari ja pappi kirkkoon. "Mitä sinä
noilla teet?" kysyi pappi ihmeissään nähdessään, että suutarilla oli
kaikki työkalunsa sekä nahkaa mukanansa. "Arvelin vain", selitti
suutari vilpittömästi, "että olisi kenties Jumalalle mieluisinta minun
valvoessani tehdä sitä työtä, jolla olen elämänikäni kunniallisesti ja
rehellisesti elänyt: töillään kukin Herralle kiitosta kantaa ja niinpä
minäkin naskalilla ja vasaralla sekä pikilangalla. Vanhastaan olen
myös tottunut suutaroidessani hyräilemään virrenpätkää, mikä tapa
ei lienekään pahitteeksi tällaisella hetkellä". — "Niinpä vainkin",
hymyili nyt tähän pappi, huomaten suutarin yksinkertaisen
hurskauden, "suutaroi sinä vain, sillä kyllä todella siten palvelet
Jumalaasi parhaalla osaamallasi tavalla. Naskalinpistokin, jos se
vain tehdään Herralle alttiilla mielellä, on hänelle arvokkaampi kuin
kaikki tekopyhän maailman messut". Näin puhellen he saapuivat jo
hämärtyneeseen kirkkoon.
"En anna! Ethän sinä nahkaa tarvitse, vaan minä, joka suutari
olen".
II
Pietari ällistyi kovin tästä puheesta, mutta eihän auttanut muu kuin
myöntyä. Jeesus oli vienyt hänet ensin sinne vaaran kupeeseen,
jossa köyhän miehen töllin piti olla, mutta siitä ei löydettykään muuta
kuin hiukan perustuksia. Silloin ei Jeesus ollut sanonut, minne mies
oli muuttanut, joskin näkyi sen kyllä tienneen. Vaikka siis Pietarin
olisi pitänyt olla iloinen siitä, että luoja oli nähtävästi tarkoin täyttänyt
köyhän miehen rukoukset, ei hän kuitenkaan tuntenut tyytyväisyyttä,
vaan ahdistusta ja pelkoa. Jeesus huomasi sen ja kysyi: