Futurist meals
Encyclopedia
Futurist meals comprised a cuisine and style of dining advocated by some members of the Futurist movement
, particularly in Italy
. These meals were first proposed in Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
and Fillia
's Manifesto of Futurist Cooking, published in the Turin Gazzetta del Popolo on December 28, 1930.
The Futurist movement
recognized that people "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, some of its more interesting ideas for the realm of cuisine were:
The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking also proposed that the way in which meals were served be fundamentally changed. For example:
One of the proposed settings for these "perfect meals" incorporated the Futurist love of machinery. The diners would eat in a mock aircraft, whose engines' vibrations would stimulate the appetite. The tilted seats and tables would "shake out" the diners' pre-conceived notions, while their taste buds would be overwhelmed by highly original dishes listed on aluminium
cards.
Traditional kitchen equipment would be replaced by scientific equipment, bringing modernity and science to the kitchen. Suggested equipment included:
The Italian
public was not won over by Marinetti's manifesto regarding cuisine. Immediately following its publication the Italian press broke into uproar. All classes participated in the dispute that ensued. Every time pasta was served in a restaurant or a private house there was heated debate. Doctors were measured in their response, agreeing that habitual consumption of pasta was fattening and recommending a varied diet; but the Duke of Bovino, Mayor of Naples, was firmer in his views: "The angels in Paradise," he told a reporter, "eat nothing but vermicelli al pomodoro [fine spaghetti with tomato sauce]." Marinetti replied that this confirmed his suspicions about the monotony of Paradise.
The Futurists amused themselves and outraged the public by inventing preposterous new dishes, most of which were shocking due to their unusual combinations and exotic ingredients. For example, mortadella
with nougat or pineapples with sardines. Marinetti wanted Italians to stop eating foreign food and to stop using foreign food words: a bar should be called quisibeve (literally, "here one drinks" in Italian), a sandwich should be called traidue (between-two), a maître d'hôtel a guidopalato (palate-guide), and so on. Elizabeth David
, the cookery writer, comments that Marinetti's ideas about food contained a germ of common sense, but behind his jesting lay the Fascist
obsession with nationalism. Marinetti wanted to prepare the Italians for war. "Spaghetti is no food for fighters," he declared.
One Futurist dessert, called Italian Breasts in the Sunshine, features almond paste topped with a strawberry, then sprinkled with fresh black pepper. This is one of the few palatable dishes in Marinetti's Futurist Cookbook.
Another entry in the cookbook describes a Tactile Dinner. Pajamas have been prepared for the dinner, each one covered with a different material such as sponge, cork, sandpaper, or felt. As the guests arrive, each puts on a pair of the pajamas. Once all have arrived and are dressed in pajamas, they are taken to an unlit, empty room. Without being able to see, each guest chooses a dinner partner according to their tactile impression. The guests then enter the dining room, which consists of tables for two, and discover the partner they have selected.
The meal begins. The first course is a 'polyrhythmic salad,' which consists of a box containing a bowl of undressed lettuce leaves, dates and grapes. The box has a crank on the left side. Without using cutlery, the guests eat with their right hand while turning the crank with their left. This produces music to which the waiters dance until the course is finished.
The second course is 'magic food', which is served in small bowls covered with tactile materials. The bowl is held in the left hand while the right picks out balls made of caramel and filled with different ingredients such as dried fruits, raw meat, garlic, mashed banana, chocolate, or pepper. The guests cannot guess what flavor they will encounter next.
The third course is 'tactile vegetable garden,' which is a plate of cooked and raw green vegetables without dressing. The guest eats the vegetables without the use of their hands, instead burying their face in the plate of vegetables, feeling the sensation of the greens on their face and lips. Each time a guest raises their head to chew, the waiters spray their face with perfume.
Between each dish the guests finger the pajamas of their dinner partner.
|date = 28 August 1930}}
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
, particularly in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. These meals were first proposed in Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was an Italian poet and editor, the founder of the Futurist movement, and a fascist ideologue.-Childhood and adolescence:...
and Fillia
Fillìa
Fillìa was the name adopted by Luigi Colombo, an Italian artist associated with the second generation of Futurism.-Biography:Fillìa was born in Revello, Piedmont....
's Manifesto of Futurist Cooking, published in the Turin Gazzetta del Popolo on December 28, 1930.
The Futurist movement
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
recognized that people "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, some of its more interesting ideas for the realm of cuisine were:
- No more pastaPastaPasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...
, as it causes lassitude, pessimism and lack of passion - Perfect meals requiring originality and harmony in table setting, including all implements, food aestheticsAestheticsAesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
and tastes, and absolute originality in the food - Sculpted foods, including meatMeatMeat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
s whose main appeal is to the eye and imagination - Abolition of the knifeKnifeA knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
and forkForkAs a piece of cutlery or kitchenware, a fork is a tool consisting of a handle with several narrow tines on one end. The fork, as an eating utensil, has been a feature primarily of the West, whereas in East Asia chopsticks have been more prevalent... - Use of perfumePerfumePerfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...
s to enhance the tasting experience
The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking also proposed that the way in which meals were served be fundamentally changed. For example:
- Some food on the table would not be eaten, but only experienced by the eyes and nose
- Food would arrive rapidly and contain many flavors, but only a few mouthfuls in size
- All politicalPoliticsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
discussion and speeches would be forbidden - MusicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and poetryPoetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
would be forbidden except during certain intervals
One of the proposed settings for these "perfect meals" incorporated the Futurist love of machinery. The diners would eat in a mock aircraft, whose engines' vibrations would stimulate the appetite. The tilted seats and tables would "shake out" the diners' pre-conceived notions, while their taste buds would be overwhelmed by highly original dishes listed on aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
cards.
Traditional kitchen equipment would be replaced by scientific equipment, bringing modernity and science to the kitchen. Suggested equipment included:
- Ozonizers -- to give food the smell of ozoneOzoneOzone , or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope...
- UltravioletUltravioletUltraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
ray lamps -- to activate vitamins and other "active properties" - Electrolyzers -- to decompose items into new forms and properties
- Colloidal millsColloid millA colloid mill is a machine that is used to reduce the particle size of a solid in suspension in a liquid, or to reduce the droplet size of a liquid suspended in another liquid. This is done by applying high levels of hydraulic shear to the process liquid. It is frequently used to increase the...
-- to pulverize any food item - Autoclaves, dialyzers, atmospheric and vacuum stills -- to cook food without destroying vitamins
- Chemical indicators or analyzers -- to help the cook determine if sauces need more salt, sugar, or vinegar
The Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
public was not won over by Marinetti's manifesto regarding cuisine. Immediately following its publication the Italian press broke into uproar. All classes participated in the dispute that ensued. Every time pasta was served in a restaurant or a private house there was heated debate. Doctors were measured in their response, agreeing that habitual consumption of pasta was fattening and recommending a varied diet; but the Duke of Bovino, Mayor of Naples, was firmer in his views: "The angels in Paradise," he told a reporter, "eat nothing but vermicelli al pomodoro [fine spaghetti with tomato sauce]." Marinetti replied that this confirmed his suspicions about the monotony of Paradise.
The Futurists amused themselves and outraged the public by inventing preposterous new dishes, most of which were shocking due to their unusual combinations and exotic ingredients. For example, mortadella
Mortadella
Mortadella is a large Italian sausage or cold cut made of finely hashed or ground, heat-cured pork sausage, which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat . Mortadella is a staple product of Bologna, Italy...
with nougat or pineapples with sardines. Marinetti wanted Italians to stop eating foreign food and to stop using foreign food words: a bar should be called quisibeve (literally, "here one drinks" in Italian), a sandwich should be called traidue (between-two), a maître d'hôtel a guidopalato (palate-guide), and so on. Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David CBE was a British cookery writer who, in the mid-20th century, strongly influenced the revitalisation of the art of home cookery with articles and books about European cuisines and traditional British dishes.Born to an upper-class family, David rebelled against social norms of the...
, the cookery writer, comments that Marinetti's ideas about food contained a germ of common sense, but behind his jesting lay the Fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
obsession with nationalism. Marinetti wanted to prepare the Italians for war. "Spaghetti is no food for fighters," he declared.
One Futurist dessert, called Italian Breasts in the Sunshine, features almond paste topped with a strawberry, then sprinkled with fresh black pepper. This is one of the few palatable dishes in Marinetti's Futurist Cookbook.
Another entry in the cookbook describes a Tactile Dinner. Pajamas have been prepared for the dinner, each one covered with a different material such as sponge, cork, sandpaper, or felt. As the guests arrive, each puts on a pair of the pajamas. Once all have arrived and are dressed in pajamas, they are taken to an unlit, empty room. Without being able to see, each guest chooses a dinner partner according to their tactile impression. The guests then enter the dining room, which consists of tables for two, and discover the partner they have selected.
The meal begins. The first course is a 'polyrhythmic salad,' which consists of a box containing a bowl of undressed lettuce leaves, dates and grapes. The box has a crank on the left side. Without using cutlery, the guests eat with their right hand while turning the crank with their left. This produces music to which the waiters dance until the course is finished.
The second course is 'magic food', which is served in small bowls covered with tactile materials. The bowl is held in the left hand while the right picks out balls made of caramel and filled with different ingredients such as dried fruits, raw meat, garlic, mashed banana, chocolate, or pepper. The guests cannot guess what flavor they will encounter next.
The third course is 'tactile vegetable garden,' which is a plate of cooked and raw green vegetables without dressing. The guest eats the vegetables without the use of their hands, instead burying their face in the plate of vegetables, feeling the sensation of the greens on their face and lips. Each time a guest raises their head to chew, the waiters spray their face with perfume.
Between each dish the guests finger the pajamas of their dinner partner.
Sources
. Text of the manifesto from RaiLibro.|date = 28 August 1930}}
- Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso, and Fillia, La Cucina Futurista, (ed. Pietro Frassica), Milan, Viennepierre Edizioni, 2009
- Davidson, Alan. Oxford Companion to Food (1999). "Futurist meals", p. 327