Our region is fast becoming both a high-end breadbasket for gourmet New York City restaurants featuring top-quality ingredients, and also a culinary destination in itself. And for the most part, this is a great thing—as much for our economy as for our landscapes and our stomachs.
But as that status rises, so does the risk that excess and affectation will overrun the honest enjoyment of good, heathy food made well.To that end, this controversial new article in The Atlantic Monthly is must-reading for Hudson Valley foodies, even though most will howl at it like an animal being led to slaughter.
In Fed Up: The Moral Crusade Against Foodies, critic B. R. Myers argues convincingly and searingly—pun intended—that “gluttony dressed up as foodie-ism is still gluttony.” Tweaking author Francine Prose (and the foodie movement’s habit of reporting non-critically on itself), Myers writes:
Not surprisingly, [Prose] regards gluttony primarily as a problem of overeating ... In fact the Catholic Church’s criticism has always been directed against an inordinate preoccupation with food—against foodie-ism, in other words ... A disinterested writer would likely have done the subject more justice.
The author reviews a host of recent books by chefs, foodies, and other authors like Prose, and with genuine flair pronounces them not merely lacking literary worth, but also any awareness of their own vanities and hypocrisies. From the elevation of gluttony into a quasi-religion, to the pretentions of ostentatious connoisseurship, to the false invocation of “tradition” to justify self-indulgence, Myers racks up telling point after point:
The Roman historian Livy famously regarded the glorification of chefs as the sign of a culture in decline. I wonder what he would have thought of The New York Times’ efforts to admit ‘young idols with cleavers’ into America’s pantheon of food-service heroes.
But Myers’ most biting critiques are saved for the foodie movement’s smug and self-affirming embrace of cruelty:
Restaurant reviews are notorious for touting $100 lunches as great value for money. The doublespeak now comes in more pious tones, especially when foodies feign concern for animals. Crowding around to watch the slaughter of a pig—even getting in its face just before the shot—is described by Bethany Jean Clement (in an article in Best Food Writing 2009) as “solemn” and “respectful” behavior. Pollan writes about going with a friend to watch a goat get killed. “Mike says the experience made him want to honor our goat by wasting as little of it as possible.” It’s teachable fun for the whole foodie family. The full strangeness of this culture sinks in when one reads affectionate accounts [of] children clamoring to kill their own cow—or wanting to see a pig shot, then ripped open with a chain saw: “YEEEEAAAAH!”
Again, many of us who support local, sustainable agriculture or just nutritious food—including the restaurants, growers, and distributors in our region who make it possible—may find this stiff rinse of mouthwash has a bit too much sting. No sacred cow is spared here, not Michael Pollan, nor even Alice Waters... But Myers’ polemic is an essential read for anyone who wants to get it right, cutting out the excesses and vanities of the foodie movement while keeping the more rigorous, useful core intact.
(That link to The Atlantic again: click here.)
