Mountain Gastronomy (part 1)
The different food approaches that skiers + weekend hikers have VS mountaineers, skimo, climbers...
There are two mountains in (almost) every mountain.
One is the mountain most people know and think of: it is an anthropic mountain, centred on the fruition of it by humans. Ski areas, lifts, and parking lots, restaurants and “things to do” are elements of this mountain, which are just slightly different in semantics from a mall or Disneyland.
The other is a non-anthropic mountain, where few humans move carefully in an environment with various grades of hostility and technical challenges.
These two mountains may be located on the same mountain, but their semantics are abysmally different and almost opposite.
The anthropic mountain
The human presence is rather ubiquitous in the Alps. No genuine wilderness is so deprived of human presence compared with true wilderness like Canada (the Rockies) or others wild spaces in the US.
One element of this anthropic mountain is the presence of engine-powered mobility systems that often go beyond collective transport.
If I can understand that lifts are a way to bring more people closer to mountain tops (with all the considerations of the case: do we need more people in that fragile and dangerous area? I don't think so, but mountain communities believe bringing tourists is better than creating a living environment for communities, so there we go), individual ascension choices is what I loathe the most.
More than a collective transport system, in fact, anthropic mountains are characterised by events and spaces for cars, motorbikes, snowmobiles and helicopters (for example, races and heliski).
A growing number of humans come to these mountains with their usual demands: food, shelter, and entertainment.
The average human is quite stupid and boring.
Being told by magazines and societal pressure for an aspirational lifestyle that “going to the mountains is cool,” they will go there, applying their usual paradigms to the surroundings.
So we will see in this anthropic mountain the presence of restaurants and entertainment that these people like.
Usually, downhill ski and starred restaurants. Or downhill snowboard and aprés ski. Or sledge hopping and fast food restaurants. Any combination works.
The same environment we may find in Ibiza, Costa Smeralda, Saint Tropez, Magaluf, and Marbella is the environment we see in Cortina, Madonna di Campiglio, Courchevel, Canazei, Sierra Nevada or Andorra.
The mountain per se is irrelevant.
The attractions pull people as they would be pulled somewhere else if suddenly, the snow disappeared (which is, actually), and skiing would be made into a non-fashionable thing.
The non-anthropic mountain
The non-anthropic mountain is where humans are not made into the centre of everything.
There may be paths or signalisations, but they are more of a safety feature than something that acts as a trigger or a pull for crowds.
What unites non-anthropic mountains is the need to make a significant effort to reach them and “do something” around, atop, or inside them. Be it hiking, climbing, mountaineering, or any of the winter variations of these activities, you sweat and burn calories, and you are, more often than not, rubbing edges with the concept of danger.
Mountain Gastronomies
Similar to the existence of anthropic and non-anthropic mountains, at least FOUR different gastronomies are ascribed to mountain environments.
ONE
The first mountain gastronomy is the classical of any anthropic-mountain one.
In a sort of displaced Disneyland, customers will demand the same type of food (if not the same), be it downtown Milan, on a mountain or at sea.
The eponymous restaurant representing this gastronomy is Langosteria: a non-place that can exist in its vacuum and equally exist in any environment, as it is not the environment that matters. It is the banality of the customer who wants to eat tuna tataki or sashimi (or whatever plate is fashionable at the moment) wherever they please, whether atop a mountain or on a plushy beach.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find swanky sushi and fast foods in (respectively) posh and commoners locations.
TWO
The second mountain gastronomy is the opposite: the subsistence gastronomy of mountain huts that receive their supplies by perilous means (often by helicopter) needs to cater to hungry crowds and prepare, store, and transform food for consumption under dire conditions.
One example may be those mountain huts offering food and lodging above 2800 metres.
They offer simple, everyday and local food, made with care but often without going beyond what is known.
Oftentimes to keep prices low and due to know knowing better they take their supplies from industrial compounds of dubious eco-social-sustainability.
THREE
The third mountain gastronomy is travelling gastronomy: food that is brought individually up by the human, be it freeze-dried food that needs to be blended with water and cooked on a portable stove by the individuals, be it panini or other food solutions that can be consumed underway,´.
There is a gastronomic angle to this food.
A growing number of “cook in the forest” people already find a quick and easy solution. They are frequently bearded men who look like woodchoppers and often cook with only two utensils: a cast iron pan or pot and a huge knife.
My favourite is Chef Nanni, who brings delicious traditional food from the centre of Italy alive through his easy-to-follow recipes. Not made for a big mountain trip, but more for casual trekking or mountain dwelling.
I’m for once not in favor of dragging a cast iron pan and other cooking paraphernalia when climbing, but you do you.
Additionally, there are already those who work on improving pre-packaged freeze-dried food. Adding spices or interesting ingredients can elevate a bland pre-packaged food.
Some already build alternative recipes to bring along without resorting to pre-packaged food. My favourite so far is Walking Nose, who is more of a walker than a climber but can cook for real in any setting (his Christmas dinner in a tent is quite epic).
FOUR
The last category is what the future could look like for mountain food served atop a mountain, and it is a fascinating read - we will delve into what some visionaries are doing to the mountain food ecosystem. I will leave you with a bit of an appetite for it: find it in the following newsletter.
I am not sold on the firebox craze, but I do enjoy miscalling the popular youtube channel 'firebox stove' and I have to admit, 'firebox steve' seems like the kind of guy I would hate to have as a friend.