食の安全の旗手の新刊

昨日紀伊国屋の洋書コーナーに入ったら、高度に産業化された食品産業を批判しているMichael Pollanの新刊Cookedが発売されていました。

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (2013/04/23) Michael Pollan 商品詳細を見る

ご自身のサイトでの紹介文です。In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen.（Cookedという本で、Michael Pollanは自身の台所でこれまで未開拓だった領域に足を踏み入れている）と始まっています。ええ、ブログタイトルにしているuncharted territoryが使われていたので取り上げさせてもらいました（笑）

Cooked
A NATURAL HISTORY OF TRANSFORMATION

In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth— to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture. Both realms are transformed by cooking, and so, in the process, is the cook. Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan’s effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements.

調理方法をfire, water, air, and earthという四つに分けて論じていくなんて、加工食品反対、地産地消を提唱していたPollanが内省的、哲学的になったのだなと思ったら、やはりベースには食を自分たちの手に取り戻すという気持ちからこのような本になったようです。

The effects of not cooking are similarly far reaching. Relying upon corporations to process our food means we consume large quantities of fat, sugar, and salt; disrupt an essential link to the natural world; and weaken our relationships with family and friends. In fact, Cooked argues, taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable. Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, opens the door to a more nourishing life.

この本の方向性、Pollanの方向性を簡潔に述べてくれているのでニューヨークタイムズでのReviewです。“In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto”という本で“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”という7語で食のムーブメントを表現していたけど。新しいこの本を出すことで“And cook them.”という3語を加えたのだと書き出しています。

Pollan Cooks!
Mark Bitmann
The New York Times, April 18, 2013

The seven most famous words in the movement for good food are: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” They were written, of course, by Michael Pollan, in “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” the follow-up to “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”

Now Pollan might add three more words to the slogan: “And cook them.” Because the man who so cogently analyzed production and nutrition in his best-known books has tackled what he calls “the middle link in the food chain: cooking.”

But Pollan isn’t about to become a cookbook writer, at least not yet. In “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation,” out Tuesday, he offers four detailed recipes, used as examples to explore how food is transformed: for Bolognese, pork shoulder, sauerkraut and bread, each an illustration, he says, of the fundamental principles of cooking.

Pollanのサイトにも本に掲載されているというレシピが紹介されていました。例えばClassic Meatballs Recipeが以下です。以前はTOEICでレシピが出たこともあったのですが、まったくでなくなりましたね。社会生活からビジネス色をより強めているということでしょうか。

Classic Meatballs Recipe

This recipe makes surprisingly light meatballs, good enough to eat by themselves or in a tomato sauce on pasta. The secret here is the ricotta. The meatballs are best with more than one kind of ground meat — beef and pork, or beef and lamb are both good. The recipe is adapted from one in Epicurious, based on a recipe in The Meatball Shop Cookbook by Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow.

Yield: Makes about 2 dozen 1 1/2-inch balls

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds 80% lean ground beef (I do half beef and half pork and I imagine it would be good with half lamb too).
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
4 cups Classic Tomato Sauce

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Drizzle the olive oil into a 9×13-inch baking dish and use your hand to evenly coat the entire surface. Set aside.

Combine the ground beef, ricotta, eggs, bread crumbs, parsley, oregano, salt, red pepper flakes, and fennel in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated.
（後略）

アマゾンを調べて見たらもう少し安いバージョンが5月に出るそうなので、それまで待ちたいと思います（苦笑）