Artisan-cook Xavier Hamon discovered the Slow Food movement while searching for meaning in his profession. “The turning point in my life as a chef was when I got out of the kitchen, put my boots back on and went out into the fields to meet market gardeners, artisan seed growers and fishermen”. Moving from gourmet cooking to a militant commitment, he became president of the Slow Food Alliance of Chefs (since renamed L’Alliance des tables libres et vivantes-The Alliance of free and leaving tables) and federated professionals around environmentally-friendly practices and a revaluation of the culinary professions. Its approach goes beyond the plate, highlighting local, seasonal produce. “I used this systemic vision to try and question my job, to see if I could do it differently, at every level: supply, obviously, but also the way we live in a team, the relationship with other jobs in the sector, other sectors, and how it all fits together”. Renouncing the term ‘chef,’ he chooses the title of “cuisinier”, cook, as if to distance himself from ego but also to show that a dish is the result of the work of an entire team. To perfect his approach, he founded the University of Gastronomic Sciences and Practices (USPG) in Finistère, which “rethinks a nourishing, accessible cuisine, involving all the stakeholders: a training program on vegetables brings together farmers, seed growers, agronomists, and cooks.’“.
Association
Slow Food
Founded in reaction to fast food and fast life, the Slow Food movement has continually evolved since the late 1980s. From the small group of Piedmontese food lovers, led by Carlo Petrini, to the fight against the installation of McDonald’s in Rome in 1986, the movement has become international and transformed into a way of life. ‘In the mid-90s, I had the intuition that we could no longer just talk about gastronomy in the traditional way, as the selfish gourmet or food lover would. Speaking only about culinary arts is now outdated, while global biodiversity is under threat.‘ For Slow Food, quality food requires the combination of these three inseparable characteristics that every food must possess: good, clean, and fair. In order to encourage citizens to become aware of their food, its origin, its taste, and how our food choices impact the rest of the world, the movement has implemented various projects to defend local food traditions, preserve food biodiversity, and promote quality artisanal products. From the Sentinels, small producers fighting to preserve endangered food products, to the Alliance of Chefs, many people and chefs have joined the movement in France and worldwide.
