Democratic cuisine

Luciano Lombardi, AKA Vignadelmar, is an historic collaborator with Doctor Wine who is currently the manager of Bella ‘Mbriana, a large and famous trattoria/pizzeria just outside the city of Lecce. Here they serve massive amounts top quality beers, fine wines and well-made food but, he tells me, because of the restaurant’s size it is never taken into consideration by food critics. And this despite the fact that their customers almost always leave content after spending an enjoyable evening and spending a reasonable amount.

The fact that they fail to get recognition from the specialized press reminds me of those actors, like Clint Eastwood in his spaghetti western days, who are ignored or frowned upon by critics but adored by the public, only to be praised and re-evaluated many years later often by these same critics. The same is true for artists like Van Gogh, Modigliani and Caravaggio and philosophers like Marx or Nietzsche, who were all more or less under-valued in their lifetimes. But here we are dealing with ‘democratic’ cuisine, food that everyone can comprehend and enjoy, which does no cost an arm and a leg and is made using local, seasonal ingredients and according to traditional recipes. In other words, places like the majority of those you can find in Slow Food’s Osterie d’Italia restaurant guide which is, for me, the best and most original one you can find in Italy. And the reason for this is that it bucks the trend by focusing on eating establishments, some of which may serve a lot of people, which are managed with competence and common sense and represent the backbone of Italy’s restaurant sector.

What’s more, they are the places where the vast majority of people can afford to eat. This fact alone should be sufficient to merit the attention of food critics who, in the interest of their readers, should almost be obliged to pay greater and more in-depth attention to them. Certainly, more attention than what they at present pay to those often over-rated restaurants boasting Michelin stars. If we at Doctor Wine were like them, we would only review wines that no one could afford. Now, while it is true that at times we do look at these wines, in our Wines Under Ten euros and Wine of the Day columns we give much more space to ‘democratic’ wines available at affordable prices.

What I would like to see is a return to reviewing the restaurant sector in a reasonable way, one which provides a service and respects those who read the reviews, as opposed to sterile critiques of haut cuisine. Preference should be given to traditions, places, people and the food offered, with less attention paid to a quest for a particular flavor, often obtained using invasive techniques. In other words, the aim should be to satisfy the desires of the general public and not the organoleptic whims of a restricted number of wealthy and often ignorant clients who do not bat an eyelash when paying 1,000 euros for a dinner for two.