November 2005
Food Fighters
Culinary crusaders are out to save classic Bavarian dishes from extinction
The little Japanese chap in Lederhosen stands flogging sausages at the Schrannenhalle’s Porchetta Bavarese stall. Before you read on, think about it. What, for starters, is Porchetta Bavarese? A Bavarian version of the Italian’s tasty porchetta—suckling pig seasoned with a variety of herbs? If the delicacy is Italian, why the
Lederhosen? And as for the Japanese stallholder… Confused? According to Johannes Bucej, from the Munich Slow Food organization, this example sums up our attitude to food today. “Everything nowadays is so globalized that individual culinary traditions lose their identity,” he says. “You can go on a world tour, simply by visiting your local supermarket—yet nothing there will be really authentic. Brezen, for example, which people think of as being quintessentially Munich, are often produced in Poland because it’s cheaper.”
It is this point that is the crux of Slow Food’s work. The organization was founded in Italy in 1986 in an attempt to “protect the pleasures of the table from the homogenization of modern fast food and life.” It now has more than 80,000 members in over 100 countries—the Munich branch, with its 350 members, is the biggest in Germany. So how does this passionate troop of foodies go about achieving its mission?
“One of our key projects is known as the Arche des Geschmacks,” says Bucej. “This is focused on protecting those traditional plants, species and recipes that are at risk of extinction, because they can’t compete economically with the mass-production methods used today. We want to bring these old, traditional specialties back into the shops.”
One example is the Murnau-Werdenfelser cattle—the only German bovine species suitable for rearing on marsh and moorland. Despite being a resistant, hard-working beast, the cattle could not match milk production by new breeds, introduced over recent years to cater for mass demand. And, while 60,000 animals wandered the Bavarian hills in the 1800s, numbers have fallen dramatically since, with just 350 animals existing today.
Slow Food’s approach to the problem is two-fold. As well as arranging for breeders to come together to look at ways of increasing the herd, members are involved in approaching butchers and restaurants, encouraging them to stock the local specialty. It’s no easy task. But passion and persistence have started to pay off and, just a few months ago, Munich’s newest culinary venue, the Schrannenhalle, agreed to start offering the meat for tasting.
Another product on their hit list is the Bayerische Schwarze Rube—a black, mustardy beet that, years ago, was a local specialty, served with crispy fried batter or “schmalz gebackenes.” Nowadays, though, the lowly veg, which is said to do wonders for the immune system, is grown only by a few remaining farmers in the Dachauer Hinterland. Other products under consideration as “Arche des Geschmacks” candidates include the Bavarian crawfish and Holledauer ham.
“We rely on suggestions from members or the public,” says Bucej. “Someone may remind us of a traditional cheese or sausage recipe, and ask us to look into bringing it back into the public domain.”
All proposals are closely considered by the team, who will then draw up a strategy as how to proceed in raising the profile of the item.
“The main prerequisite we use in deciding whether to work on a product, is whether it would be a flavorsome enrichment to our lives,” says Bucej. “We’re not interested in saving items where it’s commonly not thought to be a shame that they’ve disappeared! In addition, we’ll consider only items that are locally produced, with local ingredients and where strict animal welfare regulations are adhered to. We also insist that products are not genetically modified.”
Though it may seem futile for a couple of hundred devouts to attempt to take on the world’s commercial giants, with small, almost exotic products that few of us have heard of, there is little doubt that progress has already been made. “Things are going in the right direction,” says Bucej. “People are becoming increasingly interested in finding out where their food has come from and how it’s been produced. We have a long way to go, but the awareness is definitely there.”
