Yesterday and Tomorrow
Last Saturday, I was sitting on a tour bus in Florida with Jerry Di Vecchio, the legendary former food editor of Sunset magazine. We were on a tour of the Everglades with Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) an organization of women leaders in food, beverage and the hospitality industries.
Retired from Sunset after 40 years, Jerry is now a freelance writer and an active food consultant. Just for fun, as we watched egrets and exotic scenery fly by, we started brainstorming some of the foods we take for granted today that weren’t so prevalent or didn’t exist in American supermarkets earlier in our lifetime:
Yogurt…cilantro and other fresh herbs…tofu in the supermarket (not just in Asian markets)…the array of cheeses, both imported and American…the variety and quality of breads…prepackaged chicken and turkey parts…the many types of salad greens…the choice of olive oils and vinegars…prewashed spinach…
We’ve come a long way in the U.S. — and especially in California. I asked Jerry for an historical perspective since she has been a major influence in shaping Western food tastes.
The Past
“The idea of eating well in California is just absolutely indigenous,” Jerry says. She remembers a Native American food expert who spoke at a seminar. She was exasperated that the state of California was teaching students that Indians subsisted on acorns. As Jerry tells it, the speaker said, “Sure, they’re a good food to store and to eat when you didn’t have anything else, but why would we sit around eating acorns when we could live on salmon, crab, duck, oysters or shrimp?”
Pioneers who moved to California discovered the bounty. New culinary heights were reached with the Gold Rush and the building of the railroads. Those who had money “couldn’t spend it fast enough,” Jerry says. “The hotel menus were glorious. People were tripping across the country all the time and eating well.”
The Influence of Sunset
Sunset played its part beginning in the 1930s. Larry Lane, Sunset’s founder, was a former Better Homes & Gardens salesman, Jerry explains. Knowing he didn’t have the vast resources to compete with his former employer, Lane chose to focus on what was different and special about the West.
“When I started work, there was a list of ingredients we considered ours – artichokes, avocados, persimmons, all types of citrus, lamb and most of the fresh fruits and vegetables, since California was a leading agricultural producer,” she recalls. Then there was the relationship between food and gardening. “Sunset was always involved in garden-related stories – you grew it; you ate it.”
Sunset introduced Westerners to a wide variety of ethnic cuisines, reflecting California’s diverse population. The magazine helped to mainstream ethnic ingredients, thanks to its recipe philosophy, Jerry says. “If you buy a package of 40 wonton wrappers because you need 15 wontons for a Chinese recipe, Sunset showed you what to do with the rest – you made crackers out of them…you did things to them so you could use up the whole package. And soon you stopped thinking of them as an ethnic ingredient but simply an ingredient.”
The Future of Food
Jerry is a vibrant participant in the food scene who is always looking ahead, so I asked her for her take on the future of food. “I just don’t think there’s any question that sustainable agriculture is something people are waking up to. Parents in this generation are so involved with their children and so focused on their well-being,” Jerry says.
“Yes, there’s childhood obesity, but the learned person, the person paying attention, is buying organic. They’re trying to eat better.”
But they’re doing it in a difficult time. “It takes a different kind of planning. Most people are too tired to think about meal planning. So they’re buying organic processed food instead of making everything from scratch.”
She looks at kids as the hope for the future. “Kids are talking their parents out of smoking,” Jerry says. So once educated, why not influence the quality of the food supply? She points to the need to reestablish to kids where their food comes from. “They do relate – it takes hardly any effort – once they see it, they’re not dumb, they understand (the value of the food source).”
Kids also eat out more than any generation ever did. And they have more sophisticated tastes. The demands they’ll make for quality food ingredients, prepared well and conveniently, will bring untold new food staples to our refrigerator and pantry.
So on another bus trip five years from now, who knows what new marvels will have become integral to tomorrow’s supermarket?
INSIGHT: Reach moms and kids with quality food choices by articulating true benefits.
