True, true

Fridays are for food in this space and I’ve just come back from what I consider the greatest food country on the planet, Italy.  I’m not going to dwell on my usual themes of great ingredients simply prepared although we were lucky enough to have many meals done exactly that way. Rather, what struck me on this trip was how true the entire culinary culture of the nation has remained to itself. If you go to some of the big culinary countries you see the influences of other countries creeping in. That’s been true throughout history.  Japan‘s “katsu” is a bastardization of the word cutlet, for example, as that country opened up to the world and the “katsu-retto” joined the culture.  Of course, I’m of the opinion that France, which many people consider a great food country, would be a relatively minor cuisine if it hadn’t been for the influence of Catherine de Medici, an Italian princess, marrying the future king of France in the late 1500’s and bringing her Italian chefs with her. Obviously, our country is the most amalgamated culinary country of all.

There is something to be said for taking the best of other cultures or other businesses and adapting them. Japan has done this successfully forever. China and India are doing it now.  Italy even did it on two notable occasions in food – once a bunch of centuries ago with noodles from China and once just a few hundred years ago with the tomato from (we think) the Aztecs.  For the most part, however, their food culture has been very insular.

I have another theory.  Food and family are inexorably tied in Italy.  I have no clue what the marriage rates are of Italians to non-Italians but I’ll bet it’s low.  When families sit to eat a meal, it can take hours.  It’s a chance to bond and no one is in any hurry to leave (or go back to work).  More on how that part of their food culture affects your humble tourist and their businesses next week.

Being true to one’s self is always a good thing as long as it’s done with a mindset that encourages open thinking, even if you reject outside things after careful consideration.  That’s true for business as well as food.

Thoughts?