porco eccittato just does not sound tasty delicous

October 21, 2009 10:10 PM

So, we have been invited to a party which celebrates 100 years of Italian Futurism...

and I am not sure what kind of food to bring. Guests have been charged with bringing something from (or inspired by) the Futurist Cookbook. I've read this synopsis of the Futurist Cookbook recipes, and to be honest, nothing is jumping out as particularly yummy. What are your suggestions for futuristic Italian food which don't involve stuffing a chicken with ball bearings?

posted by Wavelet to food & drink (8 comments total)

A really masculine dish that exudes speed, danger, war and jingoism, then eventually leads to a fascist dessert.

Maybe do shots of chilled stracciatella from test tubes, then pair it with extremely spicy sausage made to look like the consequence of an auto accident, and top it off with a really metallic looking cupcake with a fake rubber cockroach cooked inside?
posted by Damn That Television at 10:24 PM on October 21, 2009 [4 favorites]

Even better-- have a frosting painting of Marinetti's corpse done on top of a Pound cake. Not exactly the theme, but you'll be able to play the "What, don't you GET it?" game.
posted by Damn That Television at 10:31 PM on October 21, 2009 [3 favorites]

Well, according to that hilarious synopsis (thanks, by the way, good read) Marinetti hated pasta, but I immediately thought of imitating the feel of thisfamous sculpture by Boccioni, only in pasta. I'm thinking that you could somehow make an underlying structure and drape pasta along it, and bake it into shape, so it's crispy. Or maybe fry it! The key is to capture that feeling of movement and speed. Then you could make various types of colorful sauces in squeezy bottles and have people apply their own go-faster stripes.
posted by Mizu at 10:43 PM on October 21, 2009

This might be a cop-out since no cooking is involved, but
you could draw up a label to look like this or this or this.
Paste it over the existing label on a can of olives.
posted by at the crossroads at 11:20 PM on October 21, 2009

At my place of work last year we had a Futurist Banquet to accompany an exhibition on the European avant-garde. I wasn't present, but apparently the menu included 'Aerofood' ('Fennel, olive, candied fruit or kumquat and a strip of cardboard to which are attached velvet, silk and sandpaper', accompanied by the sound of aeroplane noises and the scent of carnations) and 'Elasticake' ('A ball of puff pastry with red wine zabaglione, a stick of liquorice and a prune').

It all sounds a bit British and restrained compared to the Futurist Banquet held last week at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art:

The main event was a whole 800lb cow that had been spit-roasted for 18 hours the night before, bicycled through the city to the museum, then butchered by a team of all-female chefs. Amidst the eruption of cultish clapping, the slabs of beef were delivered by conveyor belt from the sacrificial table to the different food stations, one of which ground up the beef using a hand-operated meat grinder before stuffing it into fried corn tortillas, constructing beef ice cream cones.

As the unsettling soundtracl featuring emergency sirens and faltering cow moos, moans and screams played on, attendees' senses feasted on uncomfortably constant motion. Clanging bells of bicyclists averting oncoming foot traffic rode the circumference of the venue, while jumbo screens depicted car and plane crashes, complete with morbid body extractions. An animated poet performed from different spots of the room with gusto in a foreign language, wielding a megaphone, followed by a remote controlled plane circling overhead, filming the chaos beneath, Wine was poured from gasoline canisters, avocade liqueur puree was served in martini glasses, while tasty beef bites were passed around.

Now that's the way to do it! More photographs here.
posted by verstegan at 11:37 PM on October 21, 2009 [3 favorites]

You could do a sheet cake and buy all different size letters and do a futurist typography design on it.
posted by Brainy at 1:56 AM on October 22, 2009

verstegan: "Now that's the way to do it! More photographs here."

HA! A former roommate of mine is working in one of those pictures. Ruling.
posted by beerbajay at 4:48 AM on October 22, 2009

I enjoy the idea of presenting (somewhat) normal food with a futurist approved serving mechanism or with futurist packaging (stracciatella from a test tube or wine in a gasoline canister...I can DO that).

Thank you to all!
posted by Wavelet at 9:12 AM on October 22, 2009