Abstract
A dog’s life, a shockumentary by directors Jacopetti and Prosperi (1962), for the very first time depicts culinary customs from some ten countries around the world. The authors employ a fast-paced sequence of near and far-flung cultures to ask viewers to what extent the cuisine of each country can embody differences, disrupt modernity, spark indignation, or simply create puzzlement and curiosity.
L’esperienza quotidiana della nascita dei vermi dal formaggio putrefatto serviva a Menocchio per spiegare la nascita di esseri viventi - i primi, i piú perfetti, gli angeli - dal caos, dalla materia «grossa et indigesta», senza ricorrere all’intervento di Dio
Menocchio employed the everyday occurrence of worms being born in rotten cheese to explain the birth of living beings - the first, absolute perfection, were angels - from a chaotic ‘large and undigested’ mass, without relying on God’s intervention.
Carlo Ginzburg (1999), The cheese and the worms. The cosmos of a sixteenth-century miller.
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Notes
- 1.
This short-sightedness is due to the numerous hard-lining practices which interpret the sales of insects as a cultural and economic threat.
- 2.
Gastronomic racism is a provocation which aims to highlight the shapes rejection and discrimination towards the ‘other’ can take by employing a process of crystallisation and rewriting the history of gastronomic cultures.
- 3.
Casu Marzu has a regional identity, meaning it adopts different names based on the province where it is produced: casu mùchidu, casu modde, casu giampagadu, casu fatitu, casu becciu, casu ‘attu, casu cundítu.
- 4.
Italian examples of these cheeses can be found in the Friuli (Saltarello) and Abruzzo (Marcetto) regions. The Gorgonzola delle Grotte, Begiunn, Formaggio di Fossa and many others exist. The Casgiu Merzu, obtained using goat sheep, similarly to the Sardinian sheep, is found in Corsica. There is also a similar cheese in Croatia, as well as the German Milbenkäse or the French Mimolette.
- 5.
The Committee is chaired by Mario Demontis, Councillor for Agriculture of the Municipality of Ossi. Antonello Salis, an entrepreneur from Ploaghe President of Cna Sardegna, Mario Loriga (Mountain Community of Osilo), Nico Masia (former councillor for agricultural of the municipality of Florinas) and Antonio Meloni (President of the animal breeder cooperative of Villanova Monteleone) are also members of the Committee.
- 6.
Novel Food (new food or new food ingredients) fall under the European Union’s legislation, specifically under Regulation (EC) 258/97. Novel food are all products and food substances where a ‘significative’ consumption cannot be proven on or after 15 May 1997 within the European Union (UE), date when the Regulation came into power. Casu Marzu perfectly meets the European directive on access criteria for being considered a ‘novel food’. ‘Novel food will only be approved for use in the EU if they do not present a risk to public health, are not nutritionally disadvantageous when replacing a similar food and are not misleading to the consumer. They must undergo a scientific assessment prior to authorisation to ensure their safety. The authorisation sets out, as appropriate, the conditions for their use, their designation as a food/food ingredient and labelling requirements’, see European Commission website: http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/novel_food/authorisations_en
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Manunza, L. (2018). Casu Marzu: A Gastronomic Genealogy. In: Halloran, A., Flore, R., Vantomme, P., Roos, N. (eds) Edible Insects in Sustainable Food Systems . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74011-9_9
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