Checchino and Monfortino

A certain schizophrenia seems to be pervading current wine and food criticism which, on the one hand, praises narcissistic and out of touch chefs and, on the other, sings the praises of “authentic” wine tradition.

Speaking recently with a journalist who I will not name, a veteran wine and food critic, I heard some statements that were contradictory to say the least. Our conversation began with a discussion on the attitude food critics had towards certain restaurants specialized in traditional cuisine.

On my part, I complained that a guide I collaborated with had dropped the Roman restaurant Checchino dal 1887, a temple of Roman cuisine in the Testaccio neighborhood where coda all vaccinara (ox-tail strew) was invented. At the same time, the guide gave high ratings to trendy restaurants in that same neighborhood that not only lacked any history but also, in my opinion, any real gastronomic merit. The great traditional dishes were overlooked in favor of a stateless and ignorant cuisine, the product of improvised fusions. Needless to say, our discussion became quite heated and I heard myself being defined as defender of “stuffy” traditional cuisine and basically a dinosaur among food critics.

I struggled to bite my tongue. Immediately after, however, I heard the same person give a sermon in favor of the most classic Barolo wines, Monfortino first among them, bitterly criticizing all those who dared veer away from the most authentic traditions by using new-wood barrels and experimenting with methods that, in his view, prejudiced the true typicity of those wines. This was crazy, I said to myself, why are the recipes from Checchino “stuffy” while by the same measure Monfortino is the best there is? Make no mistake, Monfortino is truly an immense wine and while I agreed with him on this, some consistency or coherence was warranted when defining what is authentically traditional. This because it also has to do with cultural importance, as well as organoleptic considerations, and I would put into the same boat the vaccinara from Checchino, the shanks of Josko Sirk and the Subida from Cormons as well as the “schlutzkrapfen” of Patesheider hof on the Ritten of Bolzano, just to name a few examples.

A certain schizophrenia seems to be pervading current wine and food criticism which, on the one hand, praises narcissistic and out of touch chefs and, on the other, sings the praises of “authentic” wine tradition.

If you have has similar experiences, let me know.