1 August 2016
Authentic food news
I confess, I’ve displayed some skepticism towards people who are gluten sensitive but do not have one of the coeliac inflammatory disorders. I may have to rethink. There’s a bunch of new science being published, which I want to take a proper look at. In the meantime, here is some slightly lighter reading.
- Barbara Elisi Caracciolo is an Italian woman living and baking – and exploring alternative wheat varieties – in Stockholm. She’s profiled in two recent pieces, Jeremy Shapiro’s interview on his website and an interview in Bread Magazine, which has a link to her full article in the magazine.
- Still on bread, and the “mystery” of natural leavens, there’s a fine new website from Rob Dunn’s lab at the University of North Carolina. I’ve signed up to send a sample of my starters for analysis, and will keep an eye on progress.
- The Mediterranean Diet continues to keep people exercised. Is it even a thing? Or just a marketing tool? Xaq Frohlich examines how the story played out in Spain.
- If the Mediterranean Diet does exist, and if you’re a fan or practising adherent (rather than someone who happens to live and eat near the Mediterranean coast) this may come as a shock: Most Of Us Are Blissfully Ignorant About How Much Rancid Olive Oil We Use. If it isn’t actually bad for you, who cares?
- I quite enjoyed Tom Nealon’s irreverent romp through the history of almonds. He doesn’t talk about how price influences the number of almonds in any given package of, say, trail mix, but he did remind me to plug my episode on the price of pecans. It’s firm, as ag markets say.
- The big treat of the past couple of weeks was the arrival of June from Peter Hertzmann, a set of 12 thoughtful essays prompted by his time as writer-in-residence – and part-time chef – at the Edinburgh Food Studio. Kudos to EFS for having such a thing, and to Peter for discharging at least the writing part of his duties so ably. I can’t speak for his cheffing.
