Discard the past. Consume the present. Thirst for the future.
These beliefs characterize Italian Futurism (Futurismo) in the early 1900s. The founder of the Futurist movement, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, birthed the idea at the turn of the century when he drove his car off the road to avoid a pair of cyclists. When he emerged from the ditch, he was a changed man with a vision for the future. It was a future of speed, technology, violence, and youth. His vision gathered a following in Italy and honored the invention of machines. It challenged culture’s sedentary nature by destroying the old and accelerating the new. Seeking to shed the weight of the past, it had influence on multiple facets of the culture—industrial design, literature, fashion, and even gastronomy.
La Cucina Futurista was a dining movement crafted in Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurist Cooking (1930). Like many Futurismo manifestos, La Cucina Futurista was a radical idea that greatly disrupted the culture. This manifesto banned pasta from the cuisine. As one could guess, this idea was unpopular in Italian culture. But it was the mission of Futurismo. La Cucina Futurista declared war against starchy foods that embodied the people’s weaknesses, complacency, and nostalgia. Seeking to eradicate this neutrality and cultural laziness, the gastronomical movement went where no chef had gone before.
It was revolutionary. The movement encouraged the mixture of foods previously deemed incompatible: mutton with shrimp, banana with cheese, and herring with strawberry jam. Political discussions were forbidden during dining, and the space was replaced with art. While eating, people indulged in sensory experiences. Perfumes were offered for one course to excite the nostrils. Certain foods were placed on the table and left untouched for the sake of smell and visual aesthetic. Some courses were be rushed, so food would be quickly consumed. Others were be drawn out so people could savor the intricacies of taste. Music was played to delight the ears while chemists concocted new flavors. It was a full sensory experience that promoted the joy of new things. Where the old food culture was a means to connecting with history, La Cucina Futurista was a means to connecting with the future.
Marinetti claimed that we must “eat with art to act with art.” It was a beautiful idea: Our diet influenced our thoughts and expression. By bringing art to the plate, we could paint our palette in manners that could spark breakthroughs in taste and even health. But like much of Futurismo, it was an eccentric idea that never seeped into mainstream culture.
The movement toted some great ideas and some awful ideas. Airplanes, automobiles, and robots were deemed great ideas by popular culture. As for futurist meals…here’s to hoping they find plates beyond the history books.
