THE GURGLING COD

Food blogging for dummies?

Hard on the heels of the trend of food bloggers who make a point of saying "I'm not a food blogger,"* it's Food Blogging For Dummies.** Per Eater, never has a book been more aptly titled.

*In other news, Kate Moss? Not white. 

**Do they have suggestions for "for dummies" titles? The Cod's finding it really challenging to get started with shibari. 

Moskin's in the kitchen with Foucault?

Late to the party on the Moskin cookbook thing, but in my self-appointed role as peacemaker, allow me to suggest that Moskin, the Times public editor, Paltrow, Mario, Rach, et al, just need to chill out and read some Foucault,* ( specifically his "What is an Author" esssay, or better still, maybe read up on auteur theory. 

Gwinnie, et al, seem to be in the throes of an heroic romantic notion of authorship, which is a relatively recent phenomenon, and exists for the sake of copyright as much as anything. But to be an author is to be that kind of author, so there is an idea that a book springs from the brow of its creator. For novels, sure, maybe, academic monographs, sometimes, but for cookbooks, less so. Recipes in a cookbook need testing, in a way that chapter 12 of the new Marcy Dermansky novel does not. It is, by its nature, a collaborative product. Here is where auteur theory might help. Scorsese, for instance, makes movies, but Thelma Schoonmaker edits them. It's silly for Gwinnie to beef, much as it would be silly for Scorsese to insist that he shot every frame of Raging Bull himself. It's not true, but it's also not the point. Scorsese makes Scorsese films, and other folks help him realize his vision, just like if Mario does a NASCAR cookbook. Moskin's article seemed to be more of a memoir ("I was the literary equivalent of a plongeur"), than an expose', but the reaction from various cookbook producers turned it into a scandal. 

*See also. 

Further reading for #asecs12 18thc. Novel panel.

Further reading from today's panel.

Martha Bowden: The Reform’d Coquet, Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady, and The Accomplish’d Rake, an edition of three novels by Mary Davys (1674?-1732), University Press of Kentucky, 1999.

Ann Campbell:http://english.boisestate.edu/contact/faculty/ann-campbell/

Jenny Davidson: http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/

Sophie Gee: The Scandal of The Season, Scribners, 2008

David Liss: See Davidliss.com

The people vs. Paula Deen, or does a heritage trotter need a heel?

Late to the party on this one, but as the running around killing oysters sojourn ends, want to rewind to the Moskin piece on Southern chefs that dropped a couple of weeks ago:

IT’S not hard to get Emile DeFelice riled up. Just mention Paula Deen, the so-called queen of Southern food, who cooks with canned fruit and Crisco. Or say something like “You don’t look like a Southern pig farmer.” He’ll practically hit the ceiling of his Prius.

It's nice to see (more) love for DeFelice in the Times, though positing him as the stereotype-defyingest Southern pig farmer is a backhanded way of suggesting that the stereotype is real. But, esp in the wake of the Whole Hog business -- evidently, Summers hooked up w/ Smithfield thanks to her work w/ Smithfield pitchlady Paula Deen - (Summers is Deen's Senior Food Editor)  -- it begins to seem as if Paula Deen is the best thing that could have happened to artisanal/heritage pork.  

Allow me to explain. If you consider the Socialist movement in the US in the early 20th c. and professional wrestling, the issue is clear. The most badly misread book in US literary history is Upton Sinclair's portrayal of an immigrant family being chewed up and spit out by capitalism, primariy in the form of industrial meat production. Folks read The Jungle, however, got grossed out by the rat shit in the potted meat, and ignored the larger message of the book, passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, and transformed other folks' class/economic problems into their problems as consumers. What the Jungle lacks, in retrospect, is a villain. Here, perhaps, Sinclair could have taken some lessons from professional wrestling, where there is always a face and a heel. 

Especially when Bourdain is beating the drums, Paula Deen emerges as the face of industrial meat. In other words, if artisan/heritage meat needs a villian to codify what it is and what it ain't, then Paula Deen makes a pretty good heel. To this end, here's an artist's conception of what it would look like if Paula Deen joined legendary wrestling crew the Moondogs. Thanks to The Artist Formerly Known As Penny Pascal for the peerless Photoshopping. 

St. Louis goes Whole Hog?

Via Google Alerts, the Cod saw where the St. Louis Post Dispatch had picked up on the Whole Hog kerfuffle. It's a curious piece. The thrust is "St. Louis native writes cookbook," but they do mention the issues w/ Smithfield and Caw Caw Creek Farm, documented here and elsewhere -- sort of: 

"Summers also works as a producer, writer and stylist for journalistic and commercial clients. One of those, the multimillion-dollar international pork producer Smithfield Packing Co., helped to sponsor the publication of "The Whole Hog Cookbook." Some of the book's recipes specifically call for Smithfield products.

The sponsorship — and the subtle way it's revealed in the book — drew online rebukes from food bloggers and from Emile DeFelice of the small-scale heritage-pig specialists Caw Caw Creek Farm in South Carolina, whose animals are pictured in the book. Summers apologized to DeFelice after he commented on a post on the Gurgling Cod, a blog that took her to task. Soon thereafter, however, the controversy was fanned when chef and multimedia food personality Anthony Bourdain condemned the sponsorship from his @NoReservations Twitter account.

During the interview for this article, Summers singled out Caw Caw Creek as a great example of a heritage-breed farm."

This is how the story looked when I saw it this morning. Earlier in the piece, there had been a link to the cookbook itself. I emailed the author of the piece, asking  "why you offered a link to Summers' own blog, but not to my post that raised the initial concern about the Smithfield connection, or Bourdain's tweet, or Eva Moore's article that fleshed out DeFelice's (quite legitimate) objection that Summers had taken pictures of his humanely raised animals to promote Smithfield's factory animals?"

Not long after, I got a pleasant response from Joe Bonwich, the article of the piece, who added these links:

"Summers apologized to DeFelice after he commented on a post on the Gurgling Cod, a blog that took her to task. Soon thereafter, however, the controversy was fanned when chef and multimedia food personality Anthony Bourdain condemned the sponsorship from his @NoReservations Twitter account.

During the interview.... etc." 

On one hand, it's nice to be able to register a complaint w/ a major metropolitan daily, and have it acknowledged and fixed. On the other hand, there are issues that remain about what, when, and how this story says what it says.

The what is probably the least complicated -- the food pages of the St. Louis Post Dispatch are not exactly Woodward and Bernstein territory, but it's odd to see the issues with this book acknowledged and dismissed, rather than a) ignored b) discussed. Let's look at the key sentences:

"The sponsorship — and the subtle way it's revealed in the book — drew online rebukes from food bloggers and from Emile DeFelice of the small-scale heritage-pig specialists Caw Caw Creek Farm in South Carolina, whose animals are pictured in the book. Summers apologized to DeFelice after he commented on a post on the Gurgling Cod, a blog that took her to task." 

Subtle? The book is not Smithfield branded on the exterior, but from the exhortations to buy pork from Smithfield in the preface, to the logos for Smithfield products on ingredient list, the effect is about as "subtle" as Jeff Gordon's relationship w/ DuPont. More importantly, Bonwich appears to miss the point of DeFelice's objection, which he spells out in his comment -- Summers used pictures of his humanely-raised animals to promote industrial feedlot pork. I do not know if DeFelice and Summers have had any communication via attorney, but Bonwich's mention that Summers apologized to DeFelice again misses the point that the book exists, and the apology does not undo or mitigate Summers's misappropriation of the images. Speaking of the materiality of print, that raises a whole other set of issues, which we can save for another post. 

Blurbing The Whole Hog -- update

As previously mentioned, the Cod reached out to one of the blurbers of The Whole Hog Cookbook see if she was made aware of Smithfield's subvention of a book about heritage, nose-to-tail pork prior to blurbing. There were two blurbers, Paula Deen, and Melissa Clark, of the NY Times. Ms. Clark was kind enough to reply but did not wish to comment on the question about the book she blurbed. I have not reached out to Ms. Deen, but hoping to hear from her people, maybe.  In any case, stay tuned for more artisanal porkcentric bowl previews. 

The Whole Hog and Bon Appetit

Waiting to hear from the non-Deen blurber of TWHC to see if she was made aware of Smithfield's subvention of a book about heritage, nose-to-tail pork. Betimes, based on their coverage of the book when it dropped, it appears that Bon Appetit either didn't notice the Smithfield thing, or they did not think it was a big deal. 

Bourdain, party of a jillion? Right this way...

Thanks to Bourdain for sharing my reservations about a cookbook, and taking that conversation from the literally dozens of readers the Cod has to his considerably larger audience. A few things, in hopes of steering the conversation in positive directions: 

1) The Smithfield cobranding is a major problem for folks who care about eating responsibly, but there is a lot to like in the Whole Hog Cookbook, and I'm looking forward to Libbie Summers's next project. She has a good eye and a good palate. 

2) Given the circumstances as they appear, Emile DeFelice has every right to be furious that pictures of his farm were used to promote Smithfield-branded product raised under very different circumstances. Check out his farm here, and buy his pork here. 

3) In the meantime, if you are looking for a Southern-inflected cookbook by someone who is serious about working with local producers.* Hugh Acheson is the man, and a New Turn In The South is the book. Cookbooks either codify (MTAOFC, Lee Bros), or extend (Momofuku, Zuni, most socalled ethnic cookbooks). Acheson does a bit of both and rethinks a lot of Southern verities -- with exciting results. 

*When they stopped selling pigs at my day job, and I needed a pig, I called Hugh, and he told me where to go, which turned out to be near Ila, GA. It was in the shadow of a bucket loader w/ my pig dangling from it that I formed my theory that it is impossible to talk to a Georgian for more than five minutes before Michael Adams is mentioned unfavorably. 

The whole hog?

I'd run across Libbie Summers on the Twitters, and was looking forward to her book, The Whole Hog Cookbook -- nose to tail, heritage, etc., in a way maybe a trifle more accessible than Fergus Henderson. I was looking forward to seeing the book. And it's a handsome book -- interesting receipts, well articulated and well photographed. These virtues make the book's glaring liability all the more disappointing. The book begins by laying out Summers's assocations with hogs, and proceeds to a discussion of artisanal pork and runs through descriptions of heritage breeds. All very useful, and all very inspiring. And then: 

"Armed with this information, you now have the luxury of being selective. But let's be honest. Let's be real. Not everyone has access to a corner butcher or farm that boasts heritage-bred and pasture-raised organic pork." 

True enough. But, Summers continues: 

"And that's okay, because you can still buy exceptional pork from a family run business at your local grocery store." 

That family-run business? Smithfield. The notion that a cornerstone of the big ag meat oligopoly is somehow just like an organic/heritage/artisanal pork producer because it is not publicly held is the sort of late capitalist hallucination that would have Fred Jameson reaching for the smelling salts. What's more, the branding permeates the book, up to and including little logos next to trademarked meat products. 

The Cod was pretty indignant at first. The idea that the difference between, say, a hog from Caw Caw Creek is to Smithfield meat products as, say, Cognac is to Armagnac puts the whole fautisanal enterprise in the shade. Summers works w/ Paula Deen, who shills for Smithfield. So, is The Whole Hog Cookbook a diabolical effort to coopt the heritage/artisanal meats movement for Big Ag? 

In short, how do we read this cookbook? I read a bit, and this fall, have spent a bit of time with two chestnuts that constantly challenge the reader to decide how seriously to take them. The Whole Hog Cookbook is shorter than Moby-Dick, and more exciting than The Scarlet Letter, but like those books, we can't afford to dismiss the idea that as DHL said of Hawthorne's jawn, this is a colossal satire.

Nobody would write a book hailing nose-to-tail heritage pork, and then suggest that cryovaced loins sliced from factory hogs by harassed and beleagured assembly line workers are just as good. It would be impossible to take that book seriously. Summers is winking at us, cashing checks from Smithfield/Deen, and actually telling us that we need to find local and sustainable food, right? I sure hope so. 

Do you you need an app for your steak?

Eater says yes, w/lavish praise for th Pat LaFrieda iPad app. Some cool things in it, but spending money on proprietary device ($500-800), to enable the buying of an app ($6.99) that is basically a butcher's brand extension? I'd rather save my money for steak. Also, Eater links to one of its earlier posts on digital cookbooks: The headline there was "Is the future of cookbooks digital?" The link text  to this post from the rave for the LaFrieda app was is "while future of cookbooks is inevitably digital"  -- once again, the digital book allies are fronting like W in a on an aircraft carrier.