Assignment: Food: The Heart of Italy
America’s reliance on convenient dining allows for the abundance of fast food restaurants, take-out, and delivery services such as Door Dash or Grubhub. In my experience, most meals I’ve had were either alone, in a rush to get to school or work, or in front of a screen. In the United States, food is often treated as a necessity rather than an experience. Instead of taking the time to enjoy their meals, Americans tend to view it as a task to complete before moving on with the more “important” parts of their day. In Venice, however, meals feel intentionally slowed down. Dining is not treated as an interruption to life, but as an important part of it.
One of the largest differences I noticed in Venetian meals was the function of time. John Ruskin writes, “The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace,” and Venetians embody this ideology during their meals (de Botton, 2018). Meals often lasted hours, not because people were constantly eating, but because conversation became just as important as the food itself. The first night, five of us were sitting at a table discussing our opinions on Artificial Intelligence. By the time we finished our meals, people I viewed as essentially strangers slowly turned into friends, all due to the ability to have quality time over a meal. The environment of Venetian dining cultivates these conversations because people are encouraged to sit and talk for hours. There is not a rush of a waiter giving you the bill; you go up to the front to pay when you’re ready. Professor Felluga mentioned that the expectation of Italian restaurants is that you are paying to spend the evening with them for dinner. Rather than treating dinner as a “first stop” before another event, the dinner is the event.
I love the idea that Italian restaurants want you to spend your evening with them. Italian restaurants seem less focused on maximizing efficiency and more focused on the experience surrounding the meal. Unlike many American restaurants, there is little pressure to turn tables over quickly. When we were in Asolo, the pizzaiolo made a statement that if he only cared about the profit, he would not make the pizzas the way he does. Geertz writes, “It is because money does, in this hardly unmaterialistic society, matter and matter very much” (Geertz, 72). In a society that focuses so heavily on money, it is refreshing when businesses care more about the people than the profit, and I see that displayed heavily in Italy.
Speaking of Asolo, one of my favorite experiences with food on this trip was making our own pizzas! We had the privilege to visit Pizzeria Ristorante Cornaro in Asolo and learn to make pizza from a true pizzaiolo. It’s very easy for me to undermine how much work goes into preparing food when fast food is so prominent in my life back in America. Even at Purdue, I do very minimal preparation of food at the dining halls. Taking the time to understand the effort of making the dough, ensuring it’s the right consistency, kneading it correctly, and placing it in the oven at the correct temperature really made me appreciate the food I was eating. My favorite part of this experience, however, was that the pizzaiolo made our pizzas into the shape of a heart! Although it was a small gesture, it touched my heart because it emphasized that the pizza was made by a human. From the time in Asolo, I could tell the love Italians have for food and their pride in it.
One aspect of Italian dining culture I was slightly shocked about was just how prominent Italian food is. In America, I’m surrounded constantly by different types of foreign cuisine: Mexican, Chinese, Korean, Mediterranean, etc.. The dominance of Italian cuisine made me realize how closely food and cultural identity are tied together here. Sometimes I crave a taco or pho, but I would prefer the ability to bond with the others on this trip over another bowl of pasta while appreciating the culture Italians are so proud of.
The pace of modern American life makes experiences like Venetian dining more difficult to sustain. Conversations can happen over dinner, but they aren’t expected to last extended periods of time. Most people don’t even eat dinner with other people, especially when a DoorDasher can drop whatever you’re craving at your doorstep. The increase in technology and emphasis on a busy lifestyle has allowed food to become less of an event, particularly in America.
Dinners in Venice have been something I have valued more than I anticipated I would. My favorite parts of each day have been debriefing at dinner with people from the trip, spending up to two hours laughing and finishing a bottle of wine. I don’t worry about how many calories are in my meal when I order here because they aren’t even displayed on the menu. I’ve been able to truly appreciate the experience of the meals I am having, not just the delicious food that’s on my plate. As I prepare to leave Venice, I hope to carry this slower, more intentional approach to dining back home with me.
Citations:
de Botton, Alain, The Art of Travel. New York: Vintage, 2002 ["On Possessing Beauty"].
Geertz, Clifford. "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight." Daedalus 134.4 (2005): 56-86.
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