Before this book arrived in my mailbox, I had no idea who Sudi Pigott was or why I should be concerned about being a "better foodie", or, for that matter, simply a "foodie". Turns out the unfortunately named Ms. Pigott has been a food writer/obsessive for ten years in the UK and this book represents her first serious foray into the US market. Unfortunately for Ms. Pigott, this volume may not win her many American fans; the text has only been marginally edited for US readers and most of the references, likely well-known to UK audiences, come off as quaint at best and arcane at worst. Quick, American reader, who is Monica Lavery? Who is Giorgio Locatelli? Who is Gerard Coleman? Who is Henrietta Green? Who is Fay Maschler? Don't know? That's because you don't live in London. Presumably British readers will ohh and ahh and the mention of these names, but this American reader just skipped the chapter.
But I digress. Let's talk about "foodies" for a moment.
Unlike most hipsters, who recoil in disgust at the mere call-out of their hipsterism or the slapping on of the 'hipster' label, the food-obsessed still seem to revel in their 'foodie' moniker ('foodie', Ms Pigott explains, was a term coined by the UK's Harpers & Queens magazine in 1984, or so they claim). Me? I'm not a foodie. Over the past 13 years I've worked non-stop in the food industry. I'm a food professional - not a passionate semi-pro - and as a professional, I cannot be a foodie, or so I tell myself. I think of myself as 'food obsessed' or 'really into food' but never, ever, ever a foodie.
Which means that Sudi Pigott's Anglo-centric How To Be A Better Foodie A Bulging Little Book For The Truly Epicurious (Viking Studio, 2008) leaves me both hot and cold. Of course I'm truly epicurious, thank you very much. But I don't want to be better. I don't even want to be considered a 'foodie'. But the title of the book practically taunts me to read it cover to cover. And read it cover to cover I did. When someone calls me a chicken, you can bet I'm going to take them up on their bet.
Reading through How to Be a Better Foodie reminded me in spirit of 1980's lengendary The Official Preppy Handbook, edited by Lisa Birnbach, both a wry parody and an aspirational guidebook for those seeking to improve their social status within the (seemingly) dominant - at that time - preppy culture. The two books are more similar than you'd guess at first blush: though Pigott's work is mostly earnest with a few winks now and again, and Birnbach's work is tongue-in-cheek, both are about cultivating an identity within a (trendy) subculture and climbing up the social ladder within that subculture by the adoption of specific behaviors (and affect) and patterns of consumption. Both cultures worship specific labels, brands, and objects - in the case of preppies, as humorously described by Birnbach et al, it was all about the clothes, the schools, the clubs as well as the affect (including accents, lexicon, and nicknames). In the case of foodies, it is all about the food and the consumer culture that accompanies it; the durable products, accessories, and appliances in the kitchen, the ingredients in the pantry, the right cookbooks and food lit, the bragging rights that accompany paying a month's salary for a meal at a Michelin 3-star, the clubs, societies, associations and subscriptions that project to the outside world your thoughtfulness and dedication to the cause, and the mandate to be perpetually curious - and hungry.
In the case of the preppy and the foodie, there is an element of competitiveness, as in "I am preppier than you" and "I am a more knowledgeable foodie than you". The contemporary foodie, however, has one advantage the preppy could not even imagine in 1980: the internet. The foodie uses the internet to her advantage; she keeps a blog, subscribes and posts to LTH, Chowhound, eGullet, 70 Percent, FoodBuzz and every other community and social networking site relevant to her foodism. She subscribes to RSS feeds of more than a dozen food bloggers and regularly checks up on her personal heroes Michael Pollen (who barely merits a mention in Pigott's book, though he has, for the sake of argument, altered the way thousands, perhaps millions in the US think about food) and Mark Bittman and whoever and whatever the hot chef or hot restaurant opening du jour is. She learns about flavor tripping and is the first to buy the fruit via the internet. She tracks down yuzu growers in California and has a box sent at Christmastime. She knows how to find the best raw milk cheese and she's on every email alert from every artisan producer and distributor in the country. Every month her mailbox fills will gastrozine titles from around the world, and she has lovingly preserved her back issues of Gastronomica in a special box on her bookshelf. Her food ethics are impeccable and she does all her shopping at the farmers' market and may even have a plot in the community garden or in her back yard. And, by virtue of the internet, she, too, may become a celebrity, and then, in the foodsteps of Julie Powell, get a book deal and have her story made into a movie starring Meryl Streep.
This is the context for Sudi Pigott's book, a timely, factoid-heavy, and amusing tome that helps a hobbyist improve her "Foodie Credentials" and climb the Foodie ladder from mere Foodie to Better Foodie, a sort of liminal state of infinite allowance where sandwiches are always porcetta, Gaggenau stoves are not an option, pilgrimages are made to as many food festivals as possible during the year, five kinds of Italian rices are necessary pantry items at all times, as long as they are sustainably harvested, and the only countries with relevant cuisines are India, Morocco (as a stand-in for all things North African), France and, most importantly, Italy. Don't have at least five chefs in your Blackberry contact list? Get cracking, because Sudi Pigott is coming for you.
How To Be a Better Foodie will not take a place in your library next to Harold McGee but it does hold up very nicely in the bathroom, where it will entertain you and your guests when they have more than a few minutes to idle away time on random sections (eg "Better Foodie Parents and Children", "Better Foodie Dining Out Vocabulary" , "Rising on the Better Foodie's Radar"). A compact purse-friendly size and printed entirely in brown (erm, "chocolate") and pink, "conjuring up delectable thoughts of freshly peeled, plump langoustines and hot chocolate fondant of deep intensity and single-plantation integrity" (p 7), the book even looks like a piece of cake. Get what I mean? Bathroom reading, for sure.
In case you still aren't sure of the difference between a "better foodie" from a hobbyist, Ms. Pigott explains it on page 35. In case you are tired of reading, I can summarize it in a word: Stuff.
Sudi Pigott writes:
"WHAT DISTINGUISHES THE BETTER FOODIE FROM A MERE HOBBYIST is actually using the choice items of equipment we so enjoy collecting. After all, working with exactly the right tools increases the pleasure of cooking immeasurably. Almost every shopping trip, especially on our culinary travels, includes feeding our extravagant appetite for kitchen emporia. We find caressing a sycamore chopping board or fondling a monumental granite mortar and pestle as satisfying as others find the most luxurious cashmere sweater or gleaming Harley-Davidson."
When I decided to write about this book, I thought about listing out the items that Ms Pigott describes as essential and the accompanying price tag in US dollars. Some items are a gimme - of course you should have decent knives, but why a 5" chefs knife? At school, the basic knife was 8", though mine are 10". Other items are simply nice-to-have accessories that are unnecessary for most home cooks. Do you really need a Raclette knife or a Stilton spoon?
I haven't listed out the food ingredients that she recommends the Better Foodie purchase (including the "Prada of the Pantry" !!!) but this will give you a pretty good idea of how in Ms Pigott's estimation, stuff makes the person.
From Pages 34-41
Good Knives (brands: Global, Henkel, Wustof, Dreizack, Mac):
5 inch cook's knife
Small paring knife
Serrated vegetable knife
Toed knife for fish
Flexible boning knife for fish
Carving Knife
Steel (it is not for sharpening but for taking the burr out of the knife, Ms. Pigott)
Kai Knives developed with Michel Bras a seven piece set will set you back $2192
Eva Solo Magnets to hold knives
Laguiole Knives with matching fish forks
Laguiole Steak Knives
Cheese knives
parmesan knife
scoop for Vacherin mont d'or
raclette slicer
Stilton spoon
Saucepans - Calpahlon, Circulon, Beka, All-Clad
"Top of the fixated Foodie's wish list is, of course, a full set of Mauviel copper pans...."
A weighty, well-crafted casserole Le Creuset
A preserving pan, preferably copper (for making membrillo, jams, and chutneys)
A bamboo steamer
Griddles
Crepe pan
A heat diffuser
A stainless steel splatter screen
Pressure Cookers
Tall stockpot
Couscoussier
Potato Ricer (or a 10" diameter food mill)
Marble Pastry Slab, built into the kitchen OR a Fernanda Italian wooden pastry board or marble
Chinois
Gaggia coffee machine (She isn't very coffee focused, for one so into food)
Aerolatte
Mortar and pestles - granite or marble
Battery-operated digital probe
Electronic scale
Magimix (basically a handheld blender)
Electric spice grinder
Pasta machine
Kitchen Aid mixer
A wish List for fanatical Foodies the trophy batterie de cuisine that the kitchen savvy, tempted-to-go-pro, Better Foodie covets
A retro hand-operated, heavy-duty meat grinder
A copper cassoulette by Alessi
Mauviel's conical copper (tin-lined) hot chocolate stovetop pot
A rice colander and a sturdy skimmer
Iranian-made electric rice cooker
An old-fashioned Italian meat slicer
A pacojet
An espuma or thermo whip
A Mauviel copper egg-beating bowl
Granite baking stone
A built-in Coffeemaker that grinds fresh beans for each cup - Miele
Handi pots from india to use as serving dishes
Dehydrator cabinets
Vacuum marinators
Rosle Truffle slicer
A Better Foodie Kitchen
Steam Oven - Gaggenau combi-oven
Customized Wolf Cooktop
Induction cooking cooktops
Custom Pantry
Sub-Zero refrigerator drawers
Stainless steel marinating bins
Built-in water filtering systems
Capacious refrigerator
Two sinks
Marble, corian, stainless steel counters, and plenty of them
A very fancy, high end extractor, aka a Hood
This list doesn't include her recommendations for clothes, restaurants, feeding children, giving food gifts, and, gasp, picking out home locations. In case you still don't know whether or not you should buy this book, Ms Pigott provides a quiz on pages 10-13 to help you determine whether you deserve it. Here's a sample question:
a. As usual at your favorite local gastro-restaurant, though you have a sneaky susupicion you've had the sea bass with lobster and tortellini three years in a row now
b. You like to be surprised by dinner at a wondrous new off-the-celebrity-circuit discovery with a menu full of arcane, yet delectable delicacies
c. You'll settle for nothing less than the full three Michelin star experience, preferably with more than a nod to Adria-ism.
If you are a foodie, you'll choose 'b'. And if you answer the quiz and answer with mostly B's, you are, apparently, a "near enough perfect foodie". She cautions, however, that you should "just be careful to keep a sense of proportion and humor about your fastidious dedication to culinary nirvana".
I wonder if Ms Pigott should have taken that advice herself?
