Slowly does it - MCV - Melbourne Community Voice for Gay and Lesbian Readers

Written by Dark Lord

Wednesday, 30 January 2008 21:56 - Last Updated Thursday, 31 January 2008 00:48

What the hell is slow food? S.M. King explains.

From Kenya to Brazil, and right here in Melbourne, slow food is speeding up as a vital global
force.

Borne of ethics and nurtured by bold ecological protest, it’s a serious movement. In practice,
however, it’s a helluva lot more fun than your average anti-globalisation rally. The dreadlocks
are few, the chanting is altogether silent, and the food could convert even the staunchest
neo-con.

I’m telling you: if there’s a right wing nut in your life who speaks like an extra from American
Psycho, a good sour dough loaf could be the answer. I enjoyed such a persuasive loaf this
month. I also had terrine, pickle, extraordinary warm salad and a cherry tart coaxed into being
by the slow and steady hand of Remi Bancal. The former sommelier at The Ritz of Paris tends,
harvests and prepares his own food at Glencoe Rural Retreat in northern Tassie. 

As I nursed the comfortable heft of slow-tempo satiety and watched, through a glass of local
Barrington pinot, a happy chook enjoy her last hours before being bread-crumbed, I became a
slow food born-again. Bancal’s end-to-end approach to cuisine elegantly typifies some slow
food fundamentals. Viz, eat seasonally, locally and ethically. And mind that you ruddy well enjoy
it.
Happily, you needn’t travel to the Apple Isle to learn and take pleasure in slow food. A handful
of daring Victorian cooks have been striving to revive time-honoured methods of food
preparation. Or, emphasising the local.

Former Taxi Dining Room entrepreneur Paul Mathis is doing much of the latter with 100 Mile.
As the literal moniker suggests, almost everything is sourced from within a 160 kilometre radius
of the kitchen.  So, there’ll be none of your bleating for posh Italian mineral water here.

Alla Wolf-Tasker of the Lakehouse has a near-legendary reputation as a disciple of the

seasons and as a mentor for local producers. (Sometimes, very local. Next time you pop into
her Daylesford dining room, say hello to the geese outside who all seem to be called Foie

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Slowly does it - MCV - Melbourne Community Voice for Gay and Lesbian Readers

Written by Dark Lord

Wednesday, 30 January 2008 21:56 - Last Updated Thursday, 31 January 2008 00:48

Gras.) Her dedication has enhanced appreciation for all things slow. It’s also helped the
Regional Producers Day evolve. Next Sunday, you can see how those Food Sovereignty types
party when they get together. And try some of the best chèvre this side of the Loire Valley.

The key course in this degustation of hope, however, is A Taste of Slow. There will be neither
whiff of patchouli nor hint of soy curd. But, you might still learn a good deal about the ethics of
what you eat and the shape of global capitalism.

N.B. Coffee enthusiasts be warned: you may be converted to a morning cup of single estate,
Fair Trade beans. 
On the weekend of February 22-24, passionate cooks, growers and theorists will argue, eat
and do their slow, genial best to rearrange the local palate.

The slow emphasis will continue throughout the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.
Throughout which, you’ll find this food reporter slowly growing slowly happy beneath a barrel of
biodynamic and ethically brewed beer.

Ah. The rebellious and plucky things we do for revolution.

If you’ve ever suspected that the world is choked by its mania for over-consumption, and you’d
like to fix it without buying a John Butler Trio CD, slow food may prove your new creed. This
delicious compassion will slowly change the world.

www.melbournefoodandwine.com
www.atasteofslow.com.au
www.slowfood.com

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