Rome Sustainable Food Project

On July 4th, 2011, INDEPENDENCE DAY…

cutting of the American Academy 4th of July cake & 'Le Cercle Rouge' at Villa Medici

…American Academy-style involved an Americanissimo coleslaw, homemade potato chips, grilled hamburger with fixins, potato salad, and watermelon lunch (making for a strange greeting for newly arrived guests who heard so much about the amazing seasonal local Roman RSFP cuisine) followed by the dramatic arrival of an elaborate patriotic blueberry and strawberry decorated American flag cake – but for the evening we defected to the French Academy – Villa Medici - overlooking the city for a firework-free evening for the first night of their outdoor summer film series – kicking off with the stylish but seemingly endless (2’20″ – including a half hour heist scene that would be hard to imagine coming out of any a.d.d. Hollywood editing room today) 1970 crime thriller ‘Le Cercle Rouge‘ directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and starring Alain Delon, Gian Maria Volonté and Yves Montand.

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By Fritz Haeg on July 4, 2011 | film, food
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On June 23rd, 2011, ‘HUNGRY CITY: WILD ROME’…

Carolyn Steel and Mona Talbott (left) digging into desert on a fig leaf at the end of the Hungry City: Wild Rome dinner for 120 with oily bread bag menus (center) and garden scavenged table goods

…was the loose title for this evening’s marathon of activities that I organized at the Academy – kicking off with a rousing talk by “Hungry City” author Carolyn Steel (narrowly arriving in time from London) about the relationship between food and cities – specifically Rome (wheat mills floating on the Tiber – license for a stone slab fish counter at the market worth more than a house – fake food fed to not quite distinguished enough feasting dinner guests only there to fill seats – Monte Testaccio mountain of discarded terra cotta amphorae…) taking us all the way up to present day Roman and global food and city circumstances (20% of meals in America are consumed in a car, one billion people are overweight and one billion are malnourished globally…), and happily ending at her vision of the future which she refers to as ‘sitopia‘ – after that it was responses from members of the Academy community including scholar fellow Michael Waters, architect advisor Carlo Vigevano, and RSFP chef Mona Talbott – followed by a casual reception in the vegetable garden under ripe apricot and susine laden trees – and culminating in a feast for 120 in the courtyard on one long L-shaped table under the arcade covered with coffee-dyed cast-off Academy bedsheets cum table-clothes upon which were scrawled handwritten food-related quotes from Roman residents excerpted from the upcoming Roma Mangia Roma book, then generously sprinkled and piled (like a forest floor) with all of the various random garden and kitchen detritus I had been gathering all year (pine cones; bean pods and leaves; fruits and seeds; dried sage, bay and rosemary cuttings; tufa rocks; all of my empty glass jars full of dirt and candles), plus big hunks of Roscioli bread (which looked remarkably like the lightweight tufa rocks – in a good way) and various courses served on fig leaves and grape leaf lined terra cotta roof tiles scavenged from out back – all enjoyed to the amplified sounds coordinated to the courses by Paul Rudy, and the lighting and central hanging plant branch daisy-chain chandelier by Giovanna Latis – under which the kitchen staff piled all of the goods related to the meal including a controversial lambs head which I – though vegan – was ultimately all for, since it showed those meat-eaters where their meat was coming from. (plus super big thanks to Ben Barron, Walker Williams-Smith, Sarah Ripple, and Eleonora Recupero, the classy, eager, and efficient foursome of local youth who assisted)

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By Fritz Haeg on June 23, 2011 | food
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On June 14th, 2011, THE ‘HUNGRY CITY: ROME’ EVENT…

Hungry City: Rome

…that I am organizing at the American Academy in Rome for June 23rd has just been announced – spread the word to Roman friends….

HUNGRY CITY: ROME – an evening with CAROLYN STEEL, British architect, lecturer, and author of ‘Hungry City’ on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 at the AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME at Via Angelo Masina, 5

18:00 LECTURE introduced by: FRITZ HAEG, Garden Club of America Rome Prize Fellow – with responses from: MONA TALBOTT, Rome Sustainable Food Project Executive Chef; CARLO VIGEVANO, Abbate e Vigevano Architetti principal; MICHAEL WATERS, Donald and Maria Cox Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize Fellow – presentation in English, followed by garden reception – 20:30 DINNER – by ROME SUSTAINABLE FOOD PROJECT (SOLD OUT)

On June 23rd, 2011 Carolyn Steel will give a public lecture at the American Academy in Rome related to her best selling 2008 book “Hungry Cities: How Food Shapes our Lives,” which depended heavily upon early research in Rome, and how the ancient city fed itself. She will discuss the ways in which cities evolve around food, and in particular how the city of Rome has been shaped by these influences over time. Responses and questions from selected members of Academy community including chef Mona Talbott, architect Carlo Vigevano, scholar Michael Waters, and moderated by Academy fellow Fritz Haeg, will lead to an open discussion to be followed by a garden reception and a special Rome Sustainable Food Project dinner al fresco.

Carolyn Steel is an architect, lecturer and writer whose chief interest is exploring the inner lives of cities, focused on developing a lateral approach to urban design that looks at the everyday routines that shape cities and the way we inhabit them. She has run design studios at the London School of Economics, London Metropolitan University and at Cambridge University, where her lecture course ‘Food and the City’ is an established part of the degree program. Her 2008 book “Hungry City: How Food Shapes our Lives” follows food’s journey from land to city, through market and supermarket, kitchen and table, waste-dump and back again, to show how food affects all our lives, and impacts on the planet. Check out Carolyn’s book, the review in the Guardian, and TED talk.

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By Fritz Haeg on June 14, 2011 | food
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On May 23rd, 2011, ACADEMY DINNERS…

the table waiting for another RSFP dinner in the AAR cortile

…have happily moved back outside – after almost seven months of meals in the formal dining room – with the warm weather to the central cortile where we gather around one super long table intoxicated by the blossoming jasmine.

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By Fritz Haeg on May 23, 2011 | food
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On April 21st, 2011, PEA SHELLING SEASON…

busy hands trying to keep up with crate after crate

…is upon us which means that I am often confronted by a table full of pea pods ready for shellers when passing through the cortile on my way out for some errand which gets distracted by the sirens of those bulging pods ready for that days soup, salad, gnocchi, risotto,  pasta – and I find myself 15 minutes later so engrossed that I forgot where I was headed.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 21, 2011 | food
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On April 20th, 2011, RSFP ROOFTOP SALAD HARVEST…

Miles gathering lettuce for the Academy dinner

…was a proud moment today, as Miles from the Rome Sustainable Food Project kitchen – which energizes us with daily meals of local, seasonal, organic and delicious food made from the freshest Roman stuff around grown by farmers they know by name – arrived at my door with two empty crates inquiring about the possibility of harvesting some of my out-of-control more-than-I-can-eat bright green and burgundy lettuces taking over the Roman rooftop garden for this evening’s dinner.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 20, 2011 | Uncategorized
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On December 6th, 2010, THE BISCOTTI BOOK…

A tea reception for the new Biscotti book by Mirella Misenti (left) and Mona Talbott (right)

…featuring recipes from the kitchen of The American Academy in Rome by Mona Talbott and Mirella Misenti just had a very civilized Academy event and tea reception to celebrate the release of the first in a series of books to come from The Rome Sustainable Food Project. (publisher’s webpage)

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By Fritz Haeg on December 6, 2010 | food
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On September 25, 2010, DAILY COMMUNAL LUNCH AT THE ACADEMY…

around 60 fellows, staff, and visitors gather around the lunch table for a midday communal moment

…is the biggest pleasure of the day (next to dinner), where everyone lines up at a serving table laden with the local, seasonal, organic, gorgeous creations by the Rome Sustainable Food Project kitchen at the Academy, and then sit down at one endless table in the cortile for conversation over some of the best meals I have ever had – featuring lots of Roman beans, vegetables, and fruits that are even satisfying this vegan – and I still can’t believe this is the new ‘normal,’ where every meal, every day feels like a special event.

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By Fritz Haeg on September 25, 2010 | food, Rome
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On September 19th, 2010, GIOVANNI BERNABEI…

Giovanni Bernabei at his stand at the Testaccio market

…is the farmer just outside of Rome – who supplies most of the fresh, local, seasonal, and organic produce to chef Mona Talbott at the American Academy in Rome (they have a picture of him up on the wall in the kitchen) – and this morning Mona introduced me to him at his stand at the first market of the season in Testaccio – and I hear that he will take me in as part of the family when I start to go up there and spend time on his farm – can’t wait! (more on the Rome Sustainable Food Project – and much more to come here…)

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By Fritz Haeg on September 19, 2010 | agriculture, food, Rome
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On September 9th, 2010, THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME VEGETABLE BEDS…

the new vegetable beds in the Mercedes and Sid R. Bass Garden

…were established as part of the new Rome Sustainable Food Project spearheaded by Alice Waters (in beds originally created for cut flowers in the Bass Garden behind the Academy) have been on my mind since I first found out that I would be coming here a few months ago – and I am finally here and looking forward to helping out the gardeners on Wednesday mornings to learn what I can about growing food in this climate – but we will be starting by pulling out the summer crops, spreading some compost, and planting seeds for the Fall and Summer. (more on the Bass Garden)

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By Fritz Haeg on September 9, 2010 | gardens, Rome
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