flavors saved my life pt. 2

today I would like to share two things that are of interest to me from Mireille Johnston and M.C. Richards and that I think pair nicely.

I.
A couple months ago I was searching “richard olney” on YouTube, hoping to find something I had never seen. This something ended up being the series “A Cook’s Tour of France” hosted by Mireille Johnston and produced by the BBC. You can find the entirety of the series online uploaded by John Whiting, a food historian and kind of classic gourmand seeming guy. Each episode highlights the culinary traditions of a different region of France and is densely packed with segments in each half hour spot. An ex-professor, she’s able to weave history, politics, and emotion together with examples of cookery so tightly it’s easy to miss some of the nuance she presents.

I have a particular fondness for the first episode of the second season on the Loire Valley, the garden of France. It’s a nice watch for this time in the Midwest because the show features a lot of fruit and vegetable preparations and a great, succinct explanation of what dessert is. But for this edition of “flavors saved my life” it’s the elementary school taste class that really gets me.

It’s so fun to watch the class work to widen their experience, their expressions and shyness feel relatable. Then there is the idea that all five senses are important in our perception of taste as the class tastes five colors of fromage blanc. Cub and I have been talking about sight a lot lately especially as it concerns our tongue and brain’s perception of rosé. Does it really remind us of Italy or is it just dark? There is also the resonance of touch here, for us it would be the wine touching the earth, the winemaker’s hands, technology and aging vessels, your drinking vessel, your mouth, your stomach. So much touch! Lastly, the sweet sentiment: Here they are learning how to be attentive to a wide variety of fragrances, tastes, aroma, textures so that they can enjoy the pleasures of life fully and hopefully transmit a rich collective memory later.

II.
In her classic Centering, teacher, poet, and ceramicist M.C. Richards writes:

Appreciation requires a discipline of selflessness. I tell them the expression of personal taste is not our primary goal. The development of taste is: the ability to taste what is present. I try to exercise this sleeping or lethargic member by making it clear that I am not primarily concerned with what we like. I am concerned with our power to grasp, to comprehend, to penetrate, to embrace. There are different levels at work here as elsewhere. On the other hand, there is an attachment to liking and disliking that obstructs learning and deeper enjoyment. The right to opinion must be honored without exception, but not all opinions are equally honorable. Though everyone is free to be who he is, ignorance and cruelty are not freedoms.

The shop opens for the weekend tomorrow, we added some new things (mostly to serve COLD) last Friday from Cantina Giardino, Babass, Le Coste, Gilles Azzoni and we have some makgeolli too from Hana based in Brooklyn. DM @rainbow_wines or email rainbowwinechi@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thanks for keeping us busy, ciao!