Sunday 3rd April, along with just about every top chef and foodie, I went to the first ever MAD event at the Sydney Opera House. So the name MADSYD is Danish for FOOD SOUTH which fitted in perfectly with the location, itself designed by another Dane. Started by legendary Noma chef Rene Redzepi in 2011 in Denmark, this symposium is about sharing ideas and making them a reality. This was the first time the event was open to the public. The overall topic was Tomorrow’s Meal.
Momofuku’s David Chang and Rene Redzepi addressed this topic. Rene said the quality of what is in restaurants may be higher, but they’re all the same. “It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you eat something and you close your eyes and you don’t know where you are in the world and you don’t even know what season you’re in anymore,” said Redzepi. “On any given Monday, throughout the year, we eat the same thing – avocado smash.” He further commented that with the explosion of the internet chefs may know more about technique but he lamented the lack of craft. Curiosity is a word which cropped up a lot during the afternoon and Rene especially feels that we should harness this in children for them to learn about food and become foragers and by 2017 this will be part of the school curriculum in Denmark. Chang believes that “the smaller casual diner is going to become more fractured”, and that we would see more specialisation, like in Asia, where there are eateries dedicated to one dish alone. He ended this session with the challenging statement “I think that the future will be less delicious in order for it to be more sustainable.”
Native food and the importance of all Australians embracing it was covered off by Clayton Donovan, Kylie Kwong and Gail Quarmby of Outback Pride. It was gratifying to see Kylie acknowledge the pioneers of using native foods in restaurants: Ray and Jennice Kersh of Edna’s Table which opened 35 years ago and Jean-Paul Bruneteau from Rowntrees. She spoke of her mother’s influence and learning that “food makes you happy and connects you” then explained her light bulb moment, learning a whole new culinary alphabet and her close collaboration with the Quarmbys in sourcing the produce. “Tomorrow’s meal will always be found in celebration, collaboration and community” she said.
Zimbabwean farmer and food activist Chido Govera gave a moving presentation, entirely without notes. From a starving 7 year old orphan living with relations, she refused to marry a 40 year old stranger when she was only 13 but managed to learn about mushroom farming utilising food waste. Hard work and determination have seen her immensely successful in this, sharing the knowledge, helping to feed 13 communities and support vulnerable children, she is now fostering seven herself. She’s just 30. Tomorrow’s meal should“unlock the potential of everyone”.
Social researcher, Rebecca Huntley spoke of the importance of food for social interaction and not just nutrition and believes we have social food inequality. Therefore food security and food issues have to influence wider policies (health, housing, community, cities). She believes food is a platform to facilitate learning and add value for farmers. It can be transformative and hopes for“Tomorrow’s meal for peace”
“Can a recipe be a social gesture?”
Charismatic Massimo Bottura from Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italygave a stirring, illustrated address which received a huge response. You can see it herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHYMVCY5vrI. He declared that “culture is the most important ingredient for the future”. His, and others, very real concern for the distribution of food was moving.
He asked “Can a Recipe be a social gesture?”
As an example, when an earthquake caused a bell tower to collapse on a factory with 360,000 wheels of parmigiana reggiano, hundreds of dairy farms lost years’ of cheese production. So he made up a recipe which used lots of cheese – a dashi (stock) out of shaved parmigiana and cooked the rice in this broth – it looked like plain white rice but it tasted like cheese. He shared the recipe online and thousands of people made it just that night. At the end of the year no cheese was unsold, not one dairy farm closed – it all sold out. “A recipe can be a social gesture”.
Here is the recipe if you would like to try it!http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/10/27/163700590/for-the-love-of-cheese-diners-unite-in-italy
“Cooking is a call to act”
He promised his dying mother that he would be an agent of change. So when he went to Expo in Milan in 2015 which had a theme of Feed the Planet, he opened Refettorio Ambrosiano, a soup kitchen with the help of other top chefs from around the world turning food waste into new meals for the disadvantaged and homeless. “I’ve seen things that you people wouldn’t believe! Alain Ducasse at 8.30am was unloading the truck with ugly eggplants and start chopping the eggplants in the kitchen. Ferran Adria in the kitchen – cooking!… 65 friends from an all over the world turned 15 tonnes of food into 10,000 healthy, beautiful meals,” he said.
“It’s never the change we want that changes everything.” He said. And in conclusion “We need more places that unite people at the table, we need more places that revive neighbours, we need more places that restore the body and the soul. “
