Futurist meals
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Futurist meals is derived from the Manifesto of Futurist Cooking (1930). The Futurist movement recognized that "men think, dream and act according to what they eat and drink" so cooking and eating needed to become subservient to the proper aesthetic experience that Futurism favored. Revolutionary in its expectations of overturning set patterns and expectations some of its more interesting ideas for the realm of cuisine were:
- No more pasta for it causes lassitude, pessimism and lack of passion
- Perfect meals requiring:
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- originality and harmony in table setting including all implements, food aesthetics and tastes)
- absolute originality in the food
- Sculpted foods including meats whose main appeal is to the eye and imagination
- Abolition of knife and fork
- Use of perfumes to enhance the tasting experience
- Meals where some food is not eaten but only experienced by the eyes and nose
- Food arrives rapidly and contains many flavors but only a few mouthfuls in size
- All politics and speeches are forbidden
- Music and poetry forbidden except during intervals
One of the settings of these perfect meals incorporated the Futurist love of machinery where one ate in mock aircraft whose engines' vibrations would stimulate the appetite and tilted seats and tables to "shake" out the diner's pre-conceived notions while the tastebuds would be overwhelmed by highly original dishes listed on aluminum cards.
Traditional kitchen equipment is replaced by scientific equipment, bringing modernity and science to the kitchen thus eliminating the limiting. Equipment included:
- Ozonizers -- to give food the smell of ozone
- Ultraviolet ray lamps -- activates vitamins and other "active properties"
- Electrolyzers -- to decompose items into new forms and properties
- Colloidal mills -- to pulverize any food item
- autoclaves, dialyzers, atmosheric and vacuum stills to cook food without destroying vitamins
- Chemical indicators or analyzers to help the cook determine if sauces need more salt, sugar, vinegar etc.
The Italian public was not won over by the manifesto and the movement's ideas regarding cuisine. While other aspects of the Futurist movement in the realm of art gained a certain amount of popularity, the revolutionary movement in food was a failure.
[edit] References
- Manifesto of Futurist Cooking
- Davidson, Alan. Oxford Companion to Food (1999). "Futurist meals", p. 327
