Food on the Dole blogger (and former Uncommon Ground chef) Hugh Amano publishes a spot-on dissection of the problem with all those $75-a-pop Slow Food Underground Dinner Parties:
And as I was, in my chef’s coat, passing h’ors douevres, talking about the farms the food was from and how we prepared the food, a lot of people sort of dismissed the spiel, seeming more interested in flicking the chives off the pulled pork and blue corn hush puppies and otherwise altering things to their liking. Which is kind of funny at an event designed to bring us back to simpler times, enjoying food that a host lovingly prepared and created after someone else lovingly grew/raised/produced it.
As an antidote to this fussiness and message-missing, Amano proposes a potluck: “Each guest bringing a dish/drink/dessert, and being ready to talk about it. Whether it’s a story like the one about the family pot roast recipe (calling for a certain sized hunk of meat, only to instruct the cook to cut off the last 2 inches for some reason shrouded in mystery until grandma explained “oh! well, otherwise it wouldn’t fit in the pot we had!”), or a story that starts out as “Well, I’m a terrible cook, so I made…”, let’s get together and eat some casseroles and more, anything really, and (re)connect with food and others.”
Interested? Get in touch with Hugh and make something beautiful happen. We have a feeling this baby’s going to be big.
Aboveground Dinner, otherwise known as the Potluck [Food on the Dole]
