Posted on 01/07/2006 6:56:01 PM PST by Pikamax
The baker who beat McDonald's From Richard Owen in Rome
AFTER a five-year battle, the fast-food giant McDonald’s has retreated from a southern Italian town, defeated by the sheer wholesomeness of a local baker’s bread. The closure of McDonald’s in Altamura, Apulia, was hailed yesterday as a victory for European cuisine against globalised fast food.
Luigi Digesù, the baker, said that he had not set out to force McDonald’s to close down in any “bellicose spirit”. He had merely offered the 65,000 residents tasty filled panini — bread rolls — which they overwhelmingly preferred to hamburgers and chicken nuggets. “It is a question of free choice,” Signor Digesù said.
His speciality fillings include mortadella, mozzarella and eggs or scamorza cheese, eggs, basil and tomato, as well as fèdda, a local version of bruschetta — toasted bread drizzled with olive oil and salt and covered in chopped tomatoes.
McDonald’s opened in a piazza in the centre of Altamura, 45km (30 miles) south of Bari, in 2001, infuriating devotees of traditional Apulia gastronomy such as Peppino Colamonico, a doctor, and Onofrio Pepe, a journalist. They campaigned against McDonald’s as the Friends of Cardoncello, named after a southern Italian mushroom.
Altamura, founded in the 5th century BC and rebuilt in the Middle Ages by Frederick II, is famed for its fragrant, golden bread — and for Signor Digesù’s victorious panini.
“There was no marketing strategy, no advertising promotion, no discounts,” Il Giornale commented. “It was just that people decided the baker’s products were better. David has beaten Goliath.”
The queues outside the bakery grew longer while McDonald’s gradually emptied, despite the best efforts of Ronald McDonald, the mascot clown, changes of management, children’s parties and special offers.
In July 2003 Altamura bread was recognised by the European Union as a protected regional product after lobbying by Enzo Lavarra, Euro MP for the Bari area, Rachele Popolizio, the Mayor of Altamura, and Giuseppe Barile, head of the local bakers’ association.
Signor Pepe said that he regretted the loss of 20 jobs at McDonald’s, but “tradition has won”. The campaign was supported by the Slow Food Foundation, founded in 1986 by Carlo Petrini, an Italian journalist incensed by the opening of a McDonald’s on the Piazza di Spagna near the Spanish Steps in Rome. It has 82,000 members in 107 countries.
Despite a series of closures around the world and active opposition, McDonald’s increased worldwide sales by 4 per cent last year. Jim Skinner, the chief executive, said that it was “the leading global foodservice retailer”, with more than 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, 70 per cent of them “owned and operated by independent local businessmen and women”.
Shirley Foenander, vice-president for marketing and communication, said that McDonald’s had adapted to local cuisines and tastes.
But Signor Digesu’s victory was seen as more than a local setback by some. The French newspaper Libération said it showed that there was a “peaceful alternative” to the militancy of José Bové, the French farmer and anti-globalisation protester, who was given a three-month prison sentence after ransacking a McDonald’s in the town of Millau in 1999.
THE BREAD THAT RAN THE BIG MAC OUT OF TOWN
Altamura bread was the first baking product in Europe to be granted a DOP certificate, and is so far the only Italian bread to qualify for the honour. DOP stands for Denominazione d’Origine Protetta, or denomination of protected origin, the equivalent of DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata, or denomination of controlled origin), used for wines. DOP products must be specific to a geographic area
The bread is made from locally grown durum wheat flour with yeast, water and marine salt, according to a recipe dating to 1500. The formula is almost certainly older, however, because Horace, the Roman poet, called the bread “the best in the world”
The flour must be ground in mills within the communes of Altamura, Gravina di Puglia, Poggiorsini, Spinazzola and Minervino Murge, all in the province of Bari. The baking process has five stages from the rolling of the dough to baking
It is baked in an open oak wood oven. It is unusually long-lasting and was originally created for shepherds and farmers who worked in the fields and hills of Apulia for days or even weeks at a time
Altamura bread is the basis of several local dishes, including a winter soup called cialda, in which slices of the bread line a pot to which are added water, onions, tomatoes, parsley, basil, potatoes, olive oil, olives, celery and lemons
1 loaf italian style bread cut into 1/2" thick slices
5 large ripe tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
Extra Virgin olive oil to taste
vinegar to taste
Kosher salt and fresh ground black peper.
Slice the tomatoes, crush and dice the garlic and put into a bowl. Drizzle in olive oil and vinegar to taste, season with salt and pepper and set aside for flavors to marry.
Take the sliced italian bread and brush it lightly with olive oil, season with salt.
Now, some people will tell you the secret to bruscetta is in the tomatoes, or the olive oil, or the vinegar. They're wrong. The secret to good bruscetta is in the toast. So here's the proper way to toast it.
It absolutely must be made over a charcoal fire, so get Old Fireball ready to go. When your charcoal is raging hot, clean off your grill top and lightly brush it with some olive oil on a paper towel.
Now, put the bread, oil and salt side down, over the fire. Watch it carefully so you don't burn it. As it cooks, carefully brush the other side of the bread with some oo and season that with salt as well.
When it's toasted all brown, crunchy, and wonderful pull it off the grill.
Now, you're ready to top the toast with the chopped tomato mixture and enjoy a simple yet marvelously tasty treat.
Bon apetito...
Regards,
L
Too much Ginger?
"I dunno, looks to me like the people simply made a choice between food and tasteless wafers."
I understand what you mean. That's the reality of what happened. But read the line in the introductory paragraph again:
"The closure of McDonald’s in Altamura, Apulia, was hailed yesterday as a victory"
Hailed as a victory? *Relative* to who? Not the customers, I'd bet. But a victory for those who seem themselves in a culture war against Americans.
To relative to that point of view, yes, they look at it as an either/or choice, and are happy to see less choice for consumers.
I eat panini every time in Italy while traveling. Mmmm... can't wait. McDonald's NEVER! I'll be back next week!
Il nomo es Michael. Ciao!
Thank you for the recipe! It sounds delicious!
PANE DI PASTA DURA (DURUM WHEAT BREAD)
Ingredients
For the biga -
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 tbsp. yeast
2 tsp. sugar
pinch salt
3 cups unbleached flour
For the dough -
1 1/2 cups cold water
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups durum flour (semolina flour or continental flour)
Directions
1. To make the biga, mix together the water, yeast, sugar and salt.
Beat in the flour, cover, and leave overnight.
2. To make the dough, mix together the water, sugar, salt and olive oil.
Gradually beat in the flour.
Tear the biga into small pieces and add to the dough.
3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic.
Shape as desired and place on floured baking sheets.
Cover and allow to rise 30-40 minutes.
4. Bake in an oven preheated 180oC oven, until golden.
-------------------------------------------------------
In traditional bread bakeries in rural Italy, bread for a new day is started with a bit of unsalted starter taken from yesterday's bread making. The starter is known as "biga", pronounced bee-ga.
No new dry, cake or wild yeast is added, just a cup or so of yesterday's biga.
Of course, since the concentration of yeast cells is lower than in a packet or more of purchased yeast, the bread takes longer to rise.
It simply takes longer for the yeast cells to multiply to the point that enough CO2 is released to raise the bread.
But the slow rise contributes to the very well developed, distinctive flavor of these country loaves.
Plus you can go away to work or whatever for the day and come back to bake it later on.
Wow, that bread sounds good! I'll have to make some. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the translation. I was about to suggest that truth_seeker really needs to get his dog to the vet's office as soon as possible. :=)
It sounds like MONJA MONJA....EAT EAT.
I actually know that it does - my comment was a bit of a lame attempt at humor.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh....OK!
Truth_seeker, an honorary Italian by virtue of 37 years marriage to a woman whose parents came from the region of Bari.
So if the guy makes award winning bread, I say (again):
Mange, mange. Tear the bread with your fingers, and dip it in sauce or oil, to suit your taste.
My mother in law came to America (SoCal) in 1946. Mustard greens grew wild all over the place, and she would pick them, for another great authentic Bari item.
Pasta, with boiled mustard greens and oil. One of my favorites. Very healthy, too.
And the bread.
I was trying to stick to Atkins by ditching the bread, eating the burgers and washing it down with iced tea. The McDonald's in Frankfurt, Germany didn't have ice tea. They did offer tiny cups of Coke or large cups of beer. Beer was cheaper and tasted better. Too bad they don't do this at the US stores. They could even keep an Irish theme with Harp Lager/Killian's/Guinness for variety.
The pope was being treated at the clinic around the corner from our hotel. My wife felt comfortable enough in Rome to venture off on her own while I was presenting my technical papers at the CAN conference. It was her first time in a non-English speaking environment. She did just fine.
I'm not diabetic, but I am very allergic to wheat. That cuts the choices of Italian food down to a few dishes with meats and sauces devoid of any pasta or bread. No matter what the cuisine, I shun wheat with a vengeance.
Before or after dropping the rifles?
You're confused. Italy is not France.
No confusion. A commonly repeated quip after WWII referred to "Fine Italian rifles. Never fired. Only dropped once." I think Italy has done much to shed that image. A French rifle would serve as a staff to support the white flag.
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