Global Food Crisis: Derailing the Foodie Train?
Global food prices have jumped an attention-grabbing 83% in the last three years and food riots have broken out in multiple countries in the last few weeks. Bad weather, ethanol policies, and dwindling reserves can take some of the blame.
Will this apply the brakes to foodie culture? Much as I am comfortable speaking the occasionally overwrought language of gourmet land, recent news items give me pause. A carriage-trade kitchen designer is selling $185,000 marble-fitted show places. Food & Wine featured an attorney’s “dream kitchen,” where he’d installed chef-level tools, including his very own thermal circulator (a favorite toy of the molecular gastronomist). Time taste-tested a $182 bottle of olive oil, reporting a 17% increase in gourmet food sales over the last two years.
The great majority of us who like to dabble with the occasional luxury ingredient or obsessively combine beef suet with butter for their pie crust (it works, trust me) are hardly on this plain. But, essentially, playing with your food at the level described above feels somehow an impropriety in the face of what could be starvation for swaths of World 3. And, as costs rise, the ingredients for “Ancient Roman Duck” may get so steep that the foodie challenge may instead be to put together the most intriguing dish for the least amount of money. Did you know kudzu can be made into a rather nice salad? And those dandelions that have taken over the back lawn are looking particularly fresh this morning...
Image: littledan77 (Flickr)
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Gail Siegel
in Leisure, Food
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