{Please join us in welcoming Chef JoAnna Minneci. Chef JoAnna runs a home catering and personal chef business at chefjoanna.com, and has made several appearances on tv including an episode with Bobby Flay on The Food Network.  As if that were not enough, take a bite of this:  she and her husband are currently transforming 10 acres of abandoned forest in Tennessee into an organic farm and “Bed & Bistro”, and have plans to build a gourmet restaurant featuring fresh farm raised produce and meats.  You can follow their progress and growth on the Mockingbird Acres blog.

In this very special guest post for Savory Tv, Chef JoAnna teaches us how to incorporate slow food into our fast and busy lifestyles.  Thank you JoAnna! }

Slow Food for Normal People

You may hear famous foodies and professional chefs talk about “slow food” all the time .  Many of us have grown weary of hearing about it, but if you’d like become more familiar with the term, click here to read the wikipedia article for it.

On a grand scale, Slow Food seeks to reconnect people with the food they eat.  They pay attention to the cultures, community, and production behind it.  Slow Food’s members include culinary professionals, food enthusiasts, farmers, food producers, educators, and students.  Slow Food USA aspires for a world in which all people can eat delicious food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it, and good for the planet.

On a more immediate scale, and to understand how the movement got it’s name, slow food is meant to be a direct contradiction to Fast Food.  Italian journalist Carlo Petrini in 1986 organized a protest in response to the opening of a McDonald’s, and was dubbed the father of the movement.  Since then, the Slow Food moment has developed chapters all over the world, and succeeds in making us feel guilty about whether or not what we’re eating is good enough.

Michael Pollan wants us to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”.  Julia Child would make these offhand comments on her television show, “The French Chef” of how much better life would be if people would take the extra time and make food like they did in the old days.  Don’t get me started on Alice Waters, who I find to be more of a culinary bully than her adversary Tony Bourdain.  Back in March ’09,  I posted my thoughts about that Leslie Stahl piece on “Saint Alice”. Waters has the right idea, but in my opinion her methodology is flawed.  Her premise is that eating good, nutritious food is a right, not a privilege, but her manner of spreading that philosophy reeks of elitism.   Even Julia Child talked a little smack to Alice Waters:

“You have an unduly doleful point of view about the way that most people shop for food.  Visit any supermarket and you’ll see plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.  And if you don’t like the looks of what you see displayed at the market, complain to the produce manager.”

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Yum.  Chef Mario Batali speaks to Time Magazine in this recently released candid 10 question video interview, including answers to the following:

• What attracted him to Spain for his show with Gwyneth Paltrow
• His thoughts on Gwyneth and what it was like to travel with her
• African and French influences in Spanish cuisine and his new cookbook
• Disaster dishes, what went wrong
• His favorite two childhood meals served by his mom
• His thoughts on Ferran Adrià and dining experiences at the restaurant El Bulli

And did you know?  Mario is starring in a new movie to be released in 2010, entitled “Bitter Feast”. It’s currently in post production, and is a horror comedy film about a chef who takes revenge upon one of his food critics.  Watch the (slightly gory) teaser trailer here.  Go Mario!