Evan Elliot wants to bring the pleasures of real food to a mainstream audience. His method: American Foodways, a forthcoming television series that “celebrates delicious diversity on our plates and in our culture.” To learn more about Evan’s series, see www.americanfoodways.com. And to hear more from him, read on.
TRE: Hi Evan. Thanks for talking with us. What is your current relationship with food?
EE: I think it’s fairly healthy. I mean, I love food–the flavor, the ritual, the nutritional and emotional and cultural value of it. On the other hand, I’m not pure. I shop at Whole Foods more often than I shop at the farmers’ market, and I gobble lunch while sitting at my desk. It’s not very Slow Food to eat lunch alone in front of your computer–even if you read food blogs as you chew.
TRE: Reading food blogs while eating? I uh…have no idea what you’re talking about. So it sounds as though you’d like to change a few things about your own habits. In an ideal world, what would your food routine look like?
EE: In an ideal world, I have a garden, a few hens in the yard, and a trout stream nearby. My pre-breakfast routine entails walking, fishing, egg-collecting, and fruit-and-veggie harvest. For lunch, my wife and daughter and I eat a salad of home-grown greens. For dinner, we invite friends over and we share a rustic meal of local, organic, biodynamic everything. This is the agrarian dream, handed down from Thomas Jefferson to Wendell Berry and Alice Waters, among others. Yes, this dream may sound quaint, and perhaps even elitist in a Marie Antoinette way, but I still think it’s valid. And while I live in a small apartment in a big city, I can at least grow herbs and strawberries on the fire escape–and I do.
TRE: Herbs and strawberries on the fire escape? That’s fantastic! Does it sadden you that our current food culture is so far away from your ideal?
EE: No, I’m not sad. I’m hopeful. While it’s true that millions of our children are overweight and undernourished, and that thousands of our farmers are deep in debt to Monsanto and John Deere, in the last few years I’ve seen a cultural shift towards clean, fresh, honest food. It’s a mainstream movement now; I think of it as a real-food revival. If each of us can grow herbs in a windowsill, and support our local farmers and chefs and food artisans, and cook up a pot of something good to share with family and friends–around the table, with the television off–I seriously think that we’ll create a more sane, stable, and sustainable society.
TRE: What are the main factors driving your passion for food? Have you always been this way?
EE: No. For the first thirty years of my life I took food for granted and didn’t really think about it. Then I read American Fried by Calvin Trillin. I liked his humor and his enthusiasm and his down-to-earth approach to food and eating. At about the same time, I started food shopping at the Greenmarket on Union Square in New York. Between reading and eating, I started to realize that food could do much more than just make the rumbling stop.
TRE: This passion for food goes just beyond eating–how have you turned food into your profession?
EE: It’s not a full-time profession yet. While I do write the food-and-wine pairings column for Edible San Francisco magazine, I also write marketing copy for various companies and advertising agencies. And I teach writing at the University of San Francisco and at UC Berkeley Extension. About two years ago I created and taught a UC Extension class called “The Literature of Food.” I hope to do that again. Anyway, these days my main preoccupation is developing American Foodways. When I find funding, I’ll be a true food professional.
TRE: Can you tell us more about American Foodways and what you need to move the project forward?
EE: American Foodways celebrates the “slow” and unusual regional foods that make this country delicious–and that enrich our culture, too. Each week we travel the back roads to find the most delicious whole-hog barbecue, the tastiest tamales, the most ridiculous crawfish pie that you can imagine. And we meet the people who produce, prepare, and enjoy these foods. When you visit with these people and taste their dishes and hear their stories, you discover this country at its best. At least, that’s the way I see it.
Right now we’ve just started to raise funds. We need money from corporate sponsors or from foundations, or both. Even in this economy, we’re optimistic. Sustainable food is a hot topic, and our program is all planned and ready to go: just plug and play.
TRE: How did American Foodways get started?
EE: It started as a daydream. About five years ago, I was sitting at my desk–maybe eating lunch!–and thinking about the Slow Food movement and about Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It occurred to me that “Slow Food Nation” could be a catchy title for a book or a documentary film or something. So my project began as Slow Food Nation, but for a few years I didn’t do much with the idea. Then about two years ago I changed the name to American Foodways and I started planning my television series in earnest. I admire the Slow Food movement and I support everything it stands for, but I’d like for American Foodways to be broader than Slow Food, alone. It’s a big country, after all, and I think that Slow Food is just a part of a larger shift toward green living.
TRE: Did you go to the recent Slow Food event in San Francisco? I think a lot of people who don’t consider themselves “foodies” are a little intimidated about getting involved in something like Slow Food. Perhaps you could dispel that notion?
EE: Yes, I went to Slow Food Nation, and I was delighted to see so many people there, of all ages. Now, many people think that Slow Food is an exclusive dining club for well-heeled liberals. And in a way, maybe it is. But it aspires to be inclusive. Imagine a decentralized, grassroots movement in which each community creates and maintains its own culture of sustainable and mostly local food–food that’s good, clean, and fair for every animal and person who has a part in its production and consumption. Essentially, you can’t have a healthy society without healthy food, and vice versa. That’s my take on the Slow Food ideal.
TRE: Thanks for chatting with us, Evan. Anything else you’d like to add?
EE: What’s for dinner?
To learn more about Evan’s series, see www.americanfoodways.com
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