True Stories, Book Two - Cosmopolis Redux (a Trailer Trash Tracys Remix)

the next speaker is um a living book of the so-called fine dining uh scene of the past three decades he is an incredible man and his knowledge is just outstanding it's mindboggling really to talk to him about food restaurants and and the evolution of that he knows just about anything for many many many many years he was a talent scout believe it or not such a thing has existed for a a leading European even World magazine called the Gambar Roo and there he traveled the world to find the next uh great chef or the next great restaurant the next great mouthful so when you talk to him he will tell you when P was 23 years old and you know cooking in Sant Chen and etc etc there isn't a restaurant worth eating at that he hasn't been to many many times and for some strange reason he also found himself at in Copenhagen uh three months after our restaurant was open I can remember I was totally blown away that this man this uh total you know Gourmet that traveled everywhere and had you know on speed dial every single of the world's top chefs that he suddenly was there but he figures that out that's what Andrea does and he can also do a lot of good things things for you he's truly a chef's man and he is brilliant and I'm sure that most of you chefs who knows him who knows him in here has the utmost respect for him I do and he's here today to talk about memory please welcome to the stage Andrea petrini [Applause] [Music] hello [Music] guys you wish you were R so go do dance because it's Traer trash Trac playing for you please [Music] Revolution won stand your CH is that [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] my I like this fune I like it very much because it's a a perfect Pop Song by A Perfect British pop song I love it because it's clean because it's very very clean you can give it just a couple of Beats you can give it a couple of measures and then you can read it like an open book no secrets no Mysteries it turns its guts upside down listen to The Hairy melodics like Ray Davy Ray Davies with the Kings and when the bus is play it sounds like pit Townson swirling his guitar in Baba Fast Track s side a of who's NE next cha 1971 listen to the ecoin the floppy harmonies of the vet underground it seems that even Nico the singer she might be singing there now please Jump Ahead say go 10 20 years later 90 early '90s do you feel the show gazing The Rock Show gazing do you copy the feedback in traes of the guitar of bands like My Bloody Valentine and the liquid vocals like dripping honey of Jesus and the Mary Chain and their song just like candy one can even feel the flapping slow down bus lines in his gas it sounds a bit like Angelo badalamenti the composer who makes this music music for David Lynch and Julie Cru the singer might be mouring in the dark right now welcome to Twin Peaks welcome to the Lost information Highway overload this song for me is a collision of multiple possible wordss a crash an information overload synthetized into just one perfect world one perfect song a whole universe a whole story unfold in 3 minutes and 5 53 seconds now let's imagine this song is a dish how can it be as transparent as this song how can a dish be as readable as sketchy as immediate as only a catchy song can be how can it tell how can a dish tell its mple story how can it digress it isase without losing the narrative Drive who knows let's go it the mysteries of creation but please don't forget behind the Mysteries always lay lays the memory even if talking about memories it seems to me that one thing our time is definitely losing is our remembering of things of time past our memories are Vanishing gun from the stoves and from the libraries and twice a day gun from the restaurant too anyway we seem to live with that we seem to do like nothing at ever happened things go fast they get accelerating every day faster and faster they even break the frontier of sound we rush every day we rush into the future and we believe in the kitchen outside in everyday life we believe that the future is in front of us maybe I don't know because it seems to me that we forget what the Chinese Wise Guys always said future doesn't stretch in front of us not it's not something that in front of me in front of you view something frontal the Chinese think that future comes instead from behind us from the back from our back future comes like clouds like a fog falling down and in a world without memory yesterday's zos are today's unknown soldiers we eras day by day all bits of our Collective memory we believe our agenda to be kind of a blank book you open your book and then you you feel it with notes to scribble down with experience at the at the Present written at the present time of course we like speed we like the kick of the adrenaline speed in a kitchen like in our daily life we get high on that but when we run too fast nothing nothing really moves nothing really changes around us I think and we might not even notice what has happened to us we run too fast for example I do not remember who I was when I started writing this story it goes so fast it's just a blink of an eye take the French they F their future was their past already set once and for all in front of them where are they now where are the French I might be exaggerating a little bit but it seems to me they are nearly as extinct as theis and they just left us left us with a few pyramids as as a relic as a as a gift as a souvenir an Noone souvenir memory serves but memory sleeps and memory lapses for example let's be practical I do not remember last time I tasted the Bears the Bears is a wild plant usually picked up in the in the Alps probably the last time I tasted labers I don't know the name in English sorry uh is David tutan around here David tutan no but anyway you understand why probably the last time I tasted laar was at Mark Vera one of these restaurant years ago five six seven years ago and I love these leaves they have a bitter intense taste we a clear Insight of aums and then all of a sudden laar disappeared from my plate from my Pate from the kitchen and for years and years then last December I found it back pretty far from the Alps where it usually gross and it was in Paris at David tutan restaurant a restaurant called like a substance run by a young pupil of the old Master Mark Vera there she was again laar like a newborn girl but it seems to be that nobody none of the clients none of the food critics seemed to recognize the Bears from before but everybody seemed to love it and seemed to Discover It Like a Virgin a new madon it took five or six or seven year to completely disappear from the restaurants and then to reblossom again like a cycle some may call it a miracle like it never had existed before continents Glide is worldwide note but also complete whole regions of our memories disappear from our Atlas talking about this pardos talking about Vera how long did it take from the closing down of these two restaurants at the Zenit of his Fame restaurants that were in miva and in an how long did it take for him to sleep away from the records to be almost forgotten by all and now is coming back from the past our recent past like a kind of ghost because is going to open a new restaurant memory fails yesterday's heroes are kind of today's TV stars one wonders when Marco Pier white stopped being a chief and Marco Pi white is the chef who before Rene before andoni before Chang before gr a before atala he was the guy that started the old thing the chef who stood by the idea that being a chef doesn't M doesn't mean just being a cook it seems obvious to me but it was not at the time Marco Pi white was the one who opened the doors of his restaurant who took Society by the storm and he was the first one who occupied the front pages the First Media darling we are talking the end of the 80s the guy who 10 years before say Creative Commons you know Creative Commons this kind of thing which is on internet when you you agree that your work it might be an essay a study a scientific study when you publish it you give it to the public and if if if someone wants to work on your study wants to add things to correct things want to uh do an extension of your work it can do that with no copyright so he Mar op white was the the guy who 10 years in advance on Creative Commons on gorillas the rock band and on Janan was the one the first one who literally stole his mentor recipes he went to very famous French chefs in those days he stole their recipes and made them his own kind of improving a fixed repertoire that was never meant to be improved he was to me a punk rocker who never turned a new waiver maybe maybe Marco white might vote now for the conserva for the conservative party he might also do theor Cube ad but without him we would have had no modern briti British cooking no Gordon Ramsey no ason blumental no Tom ains no Marcus wearing nor Fus nor travor hi Fergus I Trevor nor Claud bosy no Jason aterton no Brett Graham no Michael Johnson no n Mendes no Yan TS no Ali Kat altino somewhere and probably no and I know that in the bleakest hours of the night the CH son he might ask himself where can I find a cook with guts with patient as Mar oper white in the old days and and I wouldn't be here today myself had I not stumbled in December 89 in mopier white the man who kind of changed my life and incidentally pushed me through doing what I keep doing telling and writing true stories and it looks like an old frank capras movie it's a beautiful life what if Marco Pier White had never existed will we all be here today what if fadri had not taken had not taken over the small Country Restaurant on top of the hill of Rosas will we we be here today where renei will be and MIM and myself too and I not had beaten on a 94 95 dinner at at buly my first dinner at the bully by the strangest menu ever by its textures by the crispy floppy quail eggs I remember that dinner for me was like entry into blue vet the movie and that was kind of nearly 20 years ago now fan like Mark Vera has closed his premises and he getting ready like Vera to come there to come back with with his own Foundation you can stay away too long you might risk to miss your train and there's always a new train leaving so now please try to imagine this story imagine a young Chef an European Chef who left Europe say 10 years ago when fan and Marco were at the highest in their initial careers this Chef might have gone at the other end of the world leaving the old one to its techniques its Poetics its memories its roots whatever and now he might have come back a few years later say two a couple of years ago he might have come back and find the world completely changed despite the net despite the tweets despite ether.com and all the blogs he would find himself in Europe in a completely changed world the old Idols are gone and not back again he might have missed the social the economic changes the Euro crisis he might have missed also a lot of things the end of the emony of technique in the kitens the extinction of the French colonialism they rise and fall like Zig stardos of the Spanish cuisine from Mars the Italians or always at the starting blocks and always beaten four to zero then of course he might also have missed the blossoming of the Nordic Cuisine but this young Chef this hypothetic young Chef might have also have missed a change of the status of the chef not just a cook not just a notor not just an interpreter of his country of his land of his raw materials the raw materials of the region where he works but now the chef has become also a moral figure a social promoter a vector for social change think of masura what he did yesterday think of Renee REI think of gona in Peru and many many other smart guys willling or not a chef and now in the political Auditorium it goes to Symposium like this mad one there's a lot of responsibility a lot of weight on his shoulders and that's a lot of responsibility for just one shoulder but between the two of us I like the idea of a responsibility because it weeps our appetite for knowledge responsibility feeds the memory and for me without memory there is no lasting appetite I have called this speech this friendly speech Cosmopolis reduxx because in this way it is a tribute to a fantastic book also recently made into a major Motion Picture Cosmopolis in the original book Cosmopolis dond delilo the writer imagines The Strange Day of a Trader Wall Street shark trying to reach the other end of New York just to go to the airdresser just for an airut but this Trader this young Trader is stuck in a gigantic traffic jam so he spends all his days all all his day from morning to night blocked stacked inside his car white while outside the whole world goes a walk dilo's writing is extremely dry abstract conceptual and still it has a sort of narrative drive and it is very very interesting that this young Trader a young wolf a master of Wall Street a master of the world that he has inside his car all the technology to control to control the world he has got computer simulation screens and TVs connected to the to the Dow Jones but it is too late 911 has kind of happened there are riots in the street occupy everything the world is falling apart technology doesn't help anymore to control the situation it doesn't help anymore to control the information the apocalypse is coming okay that's a great spectacle the ultimate show and we can enjoy we can enjoy it Through the Windows of his car of our car it stays spot and outside the world flows by like a like a kind of a vision and it's a beautiful Vision indeed he stuck in the car and the world flows by like in slow motion and let's make this very clear I'm not opposing slow and fast I love fast food and yes I do I love fast culture pulp culture B movies and like mimura I also love horror movies so if if you think if you may think that I'm lobbing for the slow food po you can shoot me now right now on this grounds in a time like ours when speed seems to be the only dope when everything we do is projected around the world immediately when we do not even have the slightest bit of time to think about before we press the button maybe it's now maybe it's nice here and then to slow down for a while and breathe maybe we could even relax on the Terrace and watch our Titanic sinking down that's a good spectacle sink down in the leather chairs of our car and have a glance through the window and watch the future coming at you from behind your back that's what the sign the Chinese said finding fine dining restaurants are dying slowly news papers are closing Guys restaurant guys are left streetly with no readers food critics seems to be on the do and that and that's just right [ __ ] the food critics thank you and then social networks are taking over we have never been more social and nobody has ever has ever been more alone than now it's a good time to take a seat for the last picture show but if you do not want to be just simple Spectators we need to change our sense our point of view in a certain way we should cook like we think or like we should think we should do some kind of sustainable cooking as much as we should do some sustainable thinking let's cook let's let's think with guts and with soul and we should take a step back and watch ourselves from a little distance Just Let It Go Just for a while we should do what we do thinking trying to find out why we do it for who we do it we shouldn't just think about ourself we shouldn't just seize the instant the moment the present moment the present moment just want us to speed up to speed all the time and to react to the speed to the present time we should cook we should do everything we do thinking about our Legacy how we should think how to leave something to others something that could be meaningful something that could be useful something that could be used by Generations still to come some that could have kind of magnetic power something that goes beyond the contingencies of the present let's make an example we all do menus that follow the seasons we all cook seasonal and that's fine that's even more than fine living with its time listening to the sound of the veggies growing on the ground questioning their nature through pots and pants and we leave a snapshot of what we think they are and what we think we are but let's be in the present with the foot and Al well let's be in the present but also with a foot in the future let's conceive something not just for the year now but also for ears decades to come something that doesn't just need to breathe the air of the present that doesn't want to fit just with the present but wants to dream The Shape of Things to come let's imagine for a second for a second we are Charlton e at the end of the planets of the apes and discovering the Statue of Liberty we found our world completely destroyed completely changeed we found ourself in a completely strange position and that changes everything don't you think when we open up a book we ask a book to open up for us another perception we ask a movie to let us enter in another dimension but isn't that what we aspire to go into another dimension to open up our perceptions when we go to a restaurant we ask a restaurant to also nourish our mind to experience it seems to me another space and time to build up fors that could nourish a collective m memory and whip up our appetite I could say let's ferment our thoughts for the future like the guys from the Nordic Food Lab ferment their beans and see how they react how the future interact and what if what if being avanguard was not simply being ahead of time what it for what it what if being aard was Finding a space beyond time hating cooking thinking not just for the present but already in another time a could that could be read that could reveal his meanings also 15 20 25 years from now a dish let's imagine a dish that could tell us in decades to come how we were what we fought what we have been fighting for and long for I think that we need to escape to to say goodbye to the contrs of time we need to say goodbye to the personal to the personal egos goodbye to the easy daily routines we need to say goodbye to what is just meaningful for today what to what is just meaningful for the present time let's think everything we do write a story cook a dish make a movie make wine like it was a message like like it is a mean a symbolic Legacy a symbolic Heritage for the for the generations to come picture this and this is really amazing kind of 20 years ago a bunch of Searchers of scientists of Architects of thinkers a group of philosophers of artists and musicians started a fantastic project and when I say artists and musicians do you know the musician the British musician briano you know it you know briano right is part of this project this project is based in San Francisco and it has started working on a project of a very very slow slow clock a clock whose mechanism would move would click say every two years a click every 20 years every 50 years a clock that would ring bong bong every 100 years think a big ban that would salute every new centry and that's all that would ring every 100 years this symbolic big band which is already in construction we could find it still working and clicking at a time when we will be already gone it's a symbol of course it's the symbol of the survivors whatever the nuclear wall a symbol of new age it's a symbol of a legacy of what we were or what we aspired or what we hoped a symbol of a better world and I like the idea of this very very very slow clock it's a mechanism this clock is a mechanism that would encourage a long Vision a vision opened to the Future as opposed to a short Vision a shortsighted vision which is the vision of just the present day this clock is clock this this clock is called the clock of the long now and the association this Foundation is called the long now foundation and you can find it on the internet the long now foundation.com the goal of this Foundation seems to me is to reink time and responsibility is to think in the long term instinctively to think how to better understand the necessity of the long-term responsibility to define a wider operation scope of the notion of responsibilities when you do not think shortterm just for yourself when you do not cook just shortterm for the now for the menu for the clients for the seasonal menu when you do not cook just for yourself when you don't cook just for your present ego you don't cook for the present day you could cook for generations to come you could cook thinking of a future Community you could C for your sons and your son Sons you mean to do something still meaningful that will have still some meaning in Generation generation to come this long now Foundation is an educational frame of mind to experience to imagine a Time past our present time the long now it rings it runs just the sounds it evokes another space and time now now we deal just with the daily service the deadline to respect the article to send the book to finish the immediate selfish desire and the immediate need the long now extends itself into time a space where past and future meet where past become the future and the future fully a knowledge is aite for memory and believe me I I want my appetite back I want my memory back once in a while I do my ritual coming out last January for example in Paris I did my 2012 coming out I say out proudly and loudly I love Daniel Patterson he's the only guy who can cook for me with the same form of poetry of elliptical poetry as say gas s the film director when he shoots a movie say restless and if you do you're coming out once you can do it twice so here it is another true story the final story just for you since my early teens when Patti SM the guar the singer was wishing to sound like a real [ __ ] Rock and Roll [ __ ] me since I was a kid I always wished to be Jewish that was really my dream to be as Jew as Kafka as Anna arent as Susan sonag as Lenny Bruce to be a Jew like the young Roman palanski or like Daren arosi or Philip Trot and 20 years later poor Philip throt he hasn't got the Nobel Prize yet and of course had I been a Jew in another life maybe one day I could have married also the beautiful Anna pooni I love the Jews because they certainly know a lot of much more than you than us they know a lot of about Legacy they know a lot about memory about Heritage and in their own way in a very strange way they truly believe in a strange way that future lies somewhere in the past their culture is very often geographically determinated but still it moves in Uncharted territories at least for for us for me and they have this gift and I really loved it because they know how to separate what is relevant what is Meaningful from what is not they can separate what is useful just for today and what is maybe much more useful for later what what is for nobler purposes useful for the whole Community we think a lot they think a lot about their community and we do not when they play when they speak they might speak at the at a single person like I you first single person but in their wordss in the music in their writings there Al there there is always the shape of a plurality of a community of a collective identity and they cly they certainly know how to mourn how to long for what is lost memory for example they know how to depart how to turn their back to the gimmicky mermaids of the present they definitely know how to say goodbye and we too we should say goodbye and move forward somewhere else we we should all say goodbye to present time and invent all together a kind of a new one so here is my last tip for you I want you to introduce you to my favorite Jewish band they might sound a little bit menitis a little bit Mormon but they truly come from Israel this band is called winter family and this song is like a mantra like a Jewish Mantra if that can exist a mantra that can teach us how to say goodbye and to tell him just four minutes a long goodbye to the whole story of our past and future lives a four minutes Mantra that I dedicate to the long now can we have the video the winter family great I look at her shedding tears water flowing from her eyes her body still dping milk from the heart to the Earth down stretches her arms tonight up high goodbye goodbye almost but then little fish s in her stomach little cat SLA In Her Arms Little Star shines in her sky without ever being a little child I look at her shedding tears water flowing from her eyes her body still dripping [Music] milk from the heart to the Earth down stretching just her arms goodbye goodbye almost by [Music] [Music] I look at this young man extinguished eyes and accomplish smile let the light be born in you follow your little star stretch your arms up high goodbye goodbye almost leave but then die [Music] look at this little girl smil filled with love filled with bells playing with her star brother secretly stretch your little arms tonight byebye goodbye goodbye live but then die there they go walk this land follow a little star the shines just for them stretch your arms tonight up high goodbye goodbye there they go walk this land Follow Little Star the sh just for them stretch your arms apart goodbye goodbye there they go walk this land follow sh for stretch [Music] your goodbye goodbye there they go walk this land follow L St the shs just for them stretch your arms up high tonight goodbye goodbye there they go walk this land Follow Little Star shine is just for them stretch your arms up high goodbye goodbye there they go walk this land Follow Little Star the sh just for them stretch your arms up goodbye [Music] goodbye they go walk [Music] this just for them stretch your arms goodbye goodbye there they go walk this land fall little star that shines just for them stretch your arms goodbye [Music] goodbye so don't you think it's time we try to learn how to say goodbye so at least ladies and gentlemen here is mine goodbye okay