Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: between the evils of raw milk and the goodness of chemical additives

Raw milk is dangerous! It has to go through a heating process called pasteurisation in order to be safe for human consumption. At least that's what most policy makers in Westernised countries say. Raw milk also isn't what the consumer wants. Consumers want model products; pretty and predictable. It has to loose weight to become skinny and it always has to have the same consistency and nutritional values all year around. That's what the dairy industry says.


What do consumers say? Huh?! Who? Yeah, you! The one who's reading this either for fun or professionally, but who will quite likely at some stage this week be in front of the dairy section of a supermarket making consumer choices. Unless you are lactose intolerant of course. I mean, have you ever been asked by a diary producer what your preferences and opinions are? In fact, have you ever tasted raw milk? Have you ever been to an old fashioned dairy farm where you were given fresh milk straight after the milking of the cows? Have you ever had to shake a bottle of milk because the fat had separated from the watery part? Did you know that milk tastes differently all year around, depending on the season, the type of food the cow eats and the health of the animal?


You wouldn't be the only one having difficulty to answer yes to at least two of these questions. Most people in westernised countries aged under fifty can't. We are too far removed from food production to occupy our minds with such questions. We trust the food industry and policy makers to take care of our food safety and supply. If they say raw milk and raw cheese should be banned, then so be it. Despite the fact that half the world has been consuming raw milk products for centuries without entire populations being wiped out. So how did they get to that decision? Who are these people anyway?


What's concerning is that these same people, the policy makers, allow the food industry to put a myriad of chemical additives in our food. And this is where it gets tricky. As the world chemical already implies, this is not a natural part of food and therefore not part of our natural eating pattern. What's interesting is that many of these additives have not been sufficiently tested in order to guarantee that long term and cumulative consumption is not harmful to our health.


Let's have a brief look at food history. Since about the fifties of the last century the food industry has increasingly stripped raw ingredients of its natural goodness, substituted natural ingredients by adding cheap chemical components and to add value they fortify foods with the exact vitamins and minerals that are now lacking in many processed foods. If the food industry was anything like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory we may not have much reason to worry. However, since the bottom line is that of making ever growing profits and pleasing the share holders I'm afraid that Charlie has little to do with it.


At the same time, there has been an impressive increase in diet related diseases. These may not have as much to do with chemical additives as they do with sugar and fat intake, but the occurrence of many types of cancer, depression, allergies and behavioural disorders is also rising. Now, I'm not a scientist and even if I was, there is no data at this point in time which can help me substantiate my premise, but my common sense tells me that in two or three generations we will find out what the actual effects of continuous, accumulative consumption of artificial food additives will be on human health. 


So I'm not a professor, but I did study commerce and I learned that there's a golden rule that one can apply to various areas of life: everything has its price tag. Cutting costs by the food industry leads to several hidden costs we prefer not to think about. But as long as we keep buying what the government and the food industry tell us to and stay the hell away from the evils of raw milk we can keep on living in our happy world of make believe. Now where's that damned Charlie? I want my daily fix of magic and a fortified chocolate bar!

To be cool or not to be cool, that is the question... Or the chicken and the egg?

Once in a while you have a day that is unlike any other. It's the kind of day when you realise just how fortunate you are. Today was such a day. We had a class about food technology, which was mostly about food preservation methods and extending shelf life. Not exactly the most exciting subject, but it is like building a house. You may put up a wall and be quite contented about your day's work, however, without a proper foundation the house may not be built to last. In other words; it's basic knowledge we need to have in order form an informed opinion about the food industry.

If it wasn't for my dear and respected colleagues this may have turned out to be a rather dull kind of day. Nevertheless, the University of Gastronomic Sciences brings together people from all sorts of backgrounds and professions, which is truly amazing when it comes to cross pollination of knowledge and view points! Putting these kinds of people together means that the sometimes dry material we are learning is turned into exciting real life situations through all sorts of discussions!

Example? To refrigerate eggs or not. Ok, so maybe you never thought about it, but apparently this is different the world over! Our class is made up of various nationalities, enabling us to do an in class survey immediately. In American supermarkets eggs are in the chilled section and American consumers usually keep their eggs in the fridge. Here in Europe few people put eggs in the fridge. Even in tropical Latin American countries not everyone refrigerates eggs. But what is the reasoning behind all this? Is it purely a cultural issue or is there a scientific explanation? I mean, seriously, I won't be able to sleep tonight without figuring out this dilemma! Luckily our professor is able to provide us with some essential information.

Aha! So you want to know the answer now too, do you? I told you this is intriguing stuff! Ok then, here goes! Eggs do not need to be refrigerated and there is no health risk to storing them outside of the fridge (sorry FDA!). However, it does make them last longer if they are refrigerated. On the other hand, as I'm convinced that science can only overruled by one woman, let's see what my grandmother's opinion is on the matter. She always use to say that only the freshest eggs would do for her cooking. Anything else ran the risk of ruining the result and with the number of hours she would spend in the kitchen, that simply wasn't worth the try. It's not just about how much love you put in a dish, it's also about how much love you put in your grocery shopping.

So, thanks to my class mates and my old grannie, I am able to sleep tonight. I'm already looking forward to breakfast tomorrow. Unrefrigerated, poached eggs on toast! With an espresso of course!

Real chicken soup (no, that's not Campbell's!)

Chicken soup the way we do it in the old country.
Nothing goes to waste. In fact, are you crazy? Throwing the stuff
away that adds the most flavour?! Don't be scared of that chicken
head and feet: it's all part of it, as is chicken breast fillet.

First we enjoy the stock with beautiful handmade pasta

And some more...

Then the Italians teach us foreigners a little trick:
add a splash of red wine to the broth

What can I say? Italians looove chicks!

To eat not too much, not too little, but just enough

I'm in Italy: the land of the good, the tasty and the plenty. If I was an actress who had to put on a lot of weight within a very short period of time I would definitely come here. There's not one moment in the day that one cannot eat in this country. Where ever you go, whatever you do, there is always food involved. And you know what? I love it! I've been here for just one month and my obsession with food has increased to the point that there are few moments in the day that I don't think about food. It's like a mad, all consuming love affair. 


But like passionate love, there comes a moment when you snap out of the warm, fuzzy day dream that has been dominating your life lately. I mean, you love being around the object of your affection, but really, you need a moment for yourself. Call it a breather. Before you overdose, you must lay off the excess and administer the right medicine in the appropriate dosage. But how do you go about it? Do you do it the tough way and go cold turkey? Or do you try to manage the situation by tempering your obsession?

I have to say it is kind of a luxury problem. Never in history did we have so much food so readily available as we do now. And what do we really need to do for it? It's not exactly like we are ploughing the land for twelve hours to then go home and take care of our six children. When my grandparents were young they had meat once a week and they would go out of their minds when it was someone's birthday and they could have cake. Only my great grand father was allowed to have a breakfast of several eggs, strong coffee and a shot of eau de vie. But this man was built like a giant with hands the size of shovels. It kinda makes sense when you think about it. 

I don't eat meat every day either. However, the reason for that is not that I can't afford it. In between such luxuries as holidays, seasonal clothes shopping and expensive tuition fees I am still able to find sufficient financial resources to eat well. I choose to eat animal protein in limited quantities because I believe it's healthier for a human being like myself to eat mostly vegetables, legumes and fruit. In Italy I'm in the right place as there is loads of fresh produce and the peasant kitchen is all about making do with what you have and that definitely isn't steak every night! 

So what is a girl to do when she's invited to a dinner with almost exclusively Italians? It's nothing special really, just four courses with the very best ingredients and lots of love added to it. The only thing is that the second course is served twice, for who's interested, which means everybody. Don't get me wrong, I love a good pasta, but after one plate I've had more than enough and I'm already struggling with the main (which is also a considerably large portion). And here you can't cheat with salad either, as it is served as a separate course. Even gelato doesn't come in size small, so I generally eat half and hope that my grandmother will forgive me for throwing away food. What would my grandmother do in my place? A trip down memory lane teaches me that she was one of the worst perpetrators of force feeding in my childhood. Food is a gift and must be cherished!!! 

Right... I wish she was here so I could show her the excess of food that's available these days. It wouldn't matter anyway. She lived through the war, she knew what it's like to go hungry and she was a trooper. You can't explain gluttony to a veteran like her. Just to get things straight, I'm not into diets or weight loss. A real woman eats and has curves. Full stop. What I'm philosophising about is whether we actually NEED to EAT so much. Which leaves me with one option really. Defend myself at the table for the remainder of my stay in Italy. Because I'm just going to do it my way. I will eat, oh yes Siree!!! Just not too much, not too little, but enough.

How OrganicSassy fell in love with food

My passion is Food. Real Food. Honest Food. Food is what defines us as human beings, as cultures, as identities. I believe quality Food is not only a primary life need; it is our birth right. Food is about flavour, best enjoyed in its unadulterated form. An Italian saying I whole heartedly agree with is: “Good food brings you a little bit closer to God”. Who that god might be can be left entirely to personal interpretation, but the point is that Food adds an extra dimension to life which I would not want to forgo in any case. I have been in love with Food all my life, even though Food and I got off to a rough start.

Food and I met on a cold winters day in 1980 in the picturesque city of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I was born with an allergy to artificial food additives causing a nasty skin rash (eczema). Not exactly a great way to fall in love with Food, but my Hungarian mother, who is from the countryside, always cooked everything fresh and from scratch. However, when I would eat elsewhere (processed foods are extremely popular in the Netherlands) I would have a terrible outbreak of eczema within hours. Several visits to the hospital taught us what we already suspected; Food was playing a dirty trick on me!

During the holidays we usually went to my grandparents in Hungary, where all summer I took great joy and pride in harvesting fresh fruit and vegetables for the lunch and dinner table. My grandmother cooked on an old fashioned stove for which we had to chop wood. She would trade her fresh produce for a live chicken from the neighbour and dissect it in front of my eyes. Nothing in her kitchen went to waste and everything she made was delicious. Including offal that is. This wasn't just a big adventure for me, it also taught me the true flavour and true value of Food.

Back in the Netherlands I would ask my mother why Food there tasted so differently compared to the Food in Hungary. Chicken was tasteless, tomatoes were watery and sour, milk wasn't creamy. I missed the fresh produce, so I started my own little vegetable patch, every week digging out the carrots to see how much they had grown and carefully putting them back in the soil afterwards. Eventually I started questioning why and how the food industry could be allowed to sell products that were harmful to our health and wellbeing. No one could answer my questions. 

When I was eleven years old I read Anita Roddick's book about The Body Shop and I decided that I wanted to do work through which I could give back to the earth, animals and the community. Not much later, during my adolescence, I read about philosophy, history and politics. I never joined or supported any particular political movement, but I strongly believe that altruism and a strong social safety net should be the cornerstones of a civilised society. I convinced my family and friends to choose fair trade and organic products wherever possible. They did back then and still do now.

Not surprisingly, I got into the kitchen at a very young age and never really got out. I love growing Food, shopping for Food and the process of preparing Food to share with others. However, I didn’t become a chef as life had a different scenario in store for me. It all started with Slow Food and reading Michael Pollan's books. They gave me answers but also created more questions. I had to DO SOMETHING! Two years ago I started my own business in food marketing focusing on the niche market of local organic and artisanal Food. Today I am in Italy where I study at the University of Gastronomic Sciences. My love affair with Food was built to last...