The delights and problems of watching Molto Mario
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Date: 2020-05-19
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Comments and reviews: 9
BoyBalastog
I like that you avoided any direct prescription yourself throughout this rather touchy subject. I didn't grow up watching Mario, although I certainly knew about him. I myself would rather not come to any hard conclusions until the dust settles down on this, but I do agree with you that how a show immediately makes you feel relative to what you know about who made it is a personal matter and we cant help but to feel the way we do about these things, whichever way you lean. On principle though, I would very much argue that the eagerness with which the media demonize and attempt to erase things with any sort of controversial association to the hot-button topic of the day is disingenuous. This has been true even before the advent of PC culture, where any big controversy that engulfs a public figure could essentially eject them from prominence for good, whether or not its eventually proven that he/she is actually guilty. We can't help but feel a certain way, whether to defend or condemn anything to do with Mario Batali, but of course it should ultimately fall on whether he actually did any of what he is accused of, and in what context it happened in. The restaurant industry is low-key but notorious for its hazing culture, most famously embodied by Gordon Ramsay's angry chef persona (apparently he runs his real kitchens with a similar crunchtime attitude, and it rubs off on his various head chefs. Some aspects of camaraderie and personal contact formed from that culture can come off as inappropriate to the uninitiated or to the disillusioned. I certainly think there are big problems with restauraunt workplace culture that needs to be addressed with regard to pressure and emotional abuse towards newbies and subordinates, but I also don't want people to intentionally misinterpret otherwise innocuous aspects of how these workplaces express kinship towards each other. Maybe Mario went too far one too many times, but I personally wouldn't be surprised if the majority of accusations are just completely overblown cases of harmless but unwanted contact.
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I like that you avoided any direct prescription yourself throughout this rather touchy subject. I didn't grow up watching Mario, although I certainly knew about him. I myself would rather not come to any hard conclusions until the dust settles down on this, but I do agree with you that how a show immediately makes you feel relative to what you know about who made it is a personal matter and we cant help but to feel the way we do about these things, whichever way you lean. On principle though, I would very much argue that the eagerness with which the media demonize and attempt to erase things with any sort of controversial association to the hot-button topic of the day is disingenuous. This has been true even before the advent of PC culture, where any big controversy that engulfs a public figure could essentially eject them from prominence for good, whether or not its eventually proven that he/she is actually guilty. We can't help but feel a certain way, whether to defend or condemn anything to do with Mario Batali, but of course it should ultimately fall on whether he actually did any of what he is accused of, and in what context it happened in. The restaurant industry is low-key but notorious for its hazing culture, most famously embodied by Gordon Ramsay's angry chef persona (apparently he runs his real kitchens with a similar crunchtime attitude, and it rubs off on his various head chefs. Some aspects of camaraderie and personal contact formed from that culture can come off as inappropriate to the uninitiated or to the disillusioned. I certainly think there are big problems with restauraunt workplace culture that needs to be addressed with regard to pressure and emotional abuse towards newbies and subordinates, but I also don't want people to intentionally misinterpret otherwise innocuous aspects of how these workplaces express kinship towards each other. Maybe Mario went too far one too many times, but I personally wouldn't be surprised if the majority of accusations are just completely overblown cases of harmless but unwanted contact.
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BluesChanteuse
I agree. It's hard to know what I feel. Like you, I have Italian (Sicilian) heritage but, I knew nothing of my Italian side of the family growing up. (Family drama). Yet, I always had this penchant for Italian cooking and I quite frankly don't remember where I picked it up by osmosis. It certainly wasn't from my Irish side. Later when Mario Molto came on I watched in rapture because his descriptions of how and why the food came from, made me feel like I was learning things that growing up with my Italian side of the family would've taught me. Later in life when I did get in touch with that side of the family, they were amazed at how much I knew about cooking and how I had similar recipes and techniques to what THEY had. I had of course garnered them by paying especially close attention to Mario when he would speak of the Palermo region of Sicily, . Multi Mario connected me to the part of my culture that family drama had denied me. It helps speed my bonding with them and my aunt, a superstitious Sicilian, believed her dead mother (my grandmother) was actually speaking through me. . That being said, I'm a strong feminist and Mario s conduct sickened me and I have a hard time watching and I can't help but take it a little personally. . But he is like a sort of an embarrassing uncle to me in a weird way, that gave me an undeniably precious and profound gift in bonding with my family. And I have to admit I struggle between feeling too disgusted to watch him, to feeling a genuine loss and sadness because of it.
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I agree. It's hard to know what I feel. Like you, I have Italian (Sicilian) heritage but, I knew nothing of my Italian side of the family growing up. (Family drama). Yet, I always had this penchant for Italian cooking and I quite frankly don't remember where I picked it up by osmosis. It certainly wasn't from my Irish side. Later when Mario Molto came on I watched in rapture because his descriptions of how and why the food came from, made me feel like I was learning things that growing up with my Italian side of the family would've taught me. Later in life when I did get in touch with that side of the family, they were amazed at how much I knew about cooking and how I had similar recipes and techniques to what THEY had. I had of course garnered them by paying especially close attention to Mario when he would speak of the Palermo region of Sicily, . Multi Mario connected me to the part of my culture that family drama had denied me. It helps speed my bonding with them and my aunt, a superstitious Sicilian, believed her dead mother (my grandmother) was actually speaking through me. . That being said, I'm a strong feminist and Mario s conduct sickened me and I have a hard time watching and I can't help but take it a little personally. . But he is like a sort of an embarrassing uncle to me in a weird way, that gave me an undeniably precious and profound gift in bonding with my family. And I have to admit I struggle between feeling too disgusted to watch him, to feeling a genuine loss and sadness because of it.
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Colin
I think that the merits of enjoying or appreciating the work of someone who has a problematic personal life is related to the content and context of it. It's much harder to watch and appreciate the Cosby show where Bill Cosby is portrayed as a good role model and caring family man, when he took advantage of a lot of people and hurt them and betrayed their trust. When it comes to a cooking show I think you can separate the show from the man outside of it. You can take the recipes and the fan fare, you don't have to take the chef too. I think that this is the metric of how I can make up my conscious about the enjoyment and supposed support I give something. I also think and feel that saying where a company spends its profits and the moral association of that is frivolous. In a society where there are such long chains of supply and distribution, I don't believe there can truly be a morally neutral market. Somewhere along the way someone is dirty and in some way your money through multiple hands makes it to them and you can't help it. It's certainly easier to not support a company directly by the merits of their missions statements and ideals but after that it's hard to determine and I don't think any responsibility lies within the consumer. That's my two cents though. If someone disagrees I'm willing to hear your thoughts and have a calm discussion about it.
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I think that the merits of enjoying or appreciating the work of someone who has a problematic personal life is related to the content and context of it. It's much harder to watch and appreciate the Cosby show where Bill Cosby is portrayed as a good role model and caring family man, when he took advantage of a lot of people and hurt them and betrayed their trust. When it comes to a cooking show I think you can separate the show from the man outside of it. You can take the recipes and the fan fare, you don't have to take the chef too. I think that this is the metric of how I can make up my conscious about the enjoyment and supposed support I give something. I also think and feel that saying where a company spends its profits and the moral association of that is frivolous. In a society where there are such long chains of supply and distribution, I don't believe there can truly be a morally neutral market. Somewhere along the way someone is dirty and in some way your money through multiple hands makes it to them and you can't help it. It's certainly easier to not support a company directly by the merits of their missions statements and ideals but after that it's hard to determine and I don't think any responsibility lies within the consumer. That's my two cents though. If someone disagrees I'm willing to hear your thoughts and have a calm discussion about it.
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Danielle
I think for something like The Cosby Show it's a no-brainer. You don't stand to benefit from an old family sitcom in any way that you couldn't benefit from watching a new one. The problem with Molto Mario is that the show contained techniques and ideologies that people could still stand to benefit from. Another thing to consider is something like Minecraft. Notch, Minecraft's original creator, has said some horrible things on Twitter. Thing is, he no longer work for the company that manages Minecraft, and other employees of that company have come out against the things Notch has said. Minecraft still originated from Notch and contains ideas from his mind, but he no longer has a hand in its future development. The Cosby Show featured Bill Cosby, but he's no longer working on it. Of course, nobody's working on it anymore, but is it possible to say that the Cosby recorded in The Cosby Show is a different person from the Cosby sitting in prison? It's hard to say. I leave this as an open question, what separates The Cosby Show and Molto Mario from something like Minecraft, ideologically speaking.
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I think for something like The Cosby Show it's a no-brainer. You don't stand to benefit from an old family sitcom in any way that you couldn't benefit from watching a new one. The problem with Molto Mario is that the show contained techniques and ideologies that people could still stand to benefit from. Another thing to consider is something like Minecraft. Notch, Minecraft's original creator, has said some horrible things on Twitter. Thing is, he no longer work for the company that manages Minecraft, and other employees of that company have come out against the things Notch has said. Minecraft still originated from Notch and contains ideas from his mind, but he no longer has a hand in its future development. The Cosby Show featured Bill Cosby, but he's no longer working on it. Of course, nobody's working on it anymore, but is it possible to say that the Cosby recorded in The Cosby Show is a different person from the Cosby sitting in prison? It's hard to say. I leave this as an open question, what separates The Cosby Show and Molto Mario from something like Minecraft, ideologically speaking.
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Caty
While I've heard of Molto Mario, I don't recall ever having watched his program. I think your presentation was well balanced, as you considered Mr. Bitali's contributions to cooking, and his personal challenges. There was a similar situation with Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet. No indictments were brought against him, but his television program was cancelled. It was one that I thoroughly enjoyed. As for pasta/sauce technique, I use the in-skillet method for thinner sauces. such as oil/herb/garlic, or a creamy porcini. But, that's the only type of sauce with which I use simple strand pastas. like an even coating of the on the spaghetti, capellini, etc. With the heartier sauces, such as you presented, I top the pasta with the sauce. However, I only use shapes that will capture, the sauce in little chambers - shells, penne, rigatonni. Strand pasta isn't MAN ENOUGH for a hearty sauce.
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While I've heard of Molto Mario, I don't recall ever having watched his program. I think your presentation was well balanced, as you considered Mr. Bitali's contributions to cooking, and his personal challenges. There was a similar situation with Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet. No indictments were brought against him, but his television program was cancelled. It was one that I thoroughly enjoyed. As for pasta/sauce technique, I use the in-skillet method for thinner sauces. such as oil/herb/garlic, or a creamy porcini. But, that's the only type of sauce with which I use simple strand pastas. like an even coating of the on the spaghetti, capellini, etc. With the heartier sauces, such as you presented, I top the pasta with the sauce. However, I only use shapes that will capture, the sauce in little chambers - shells, penne, rigatonni. Strand pasta isn't MAN ENOUGH for a hearty sauce.
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Caleb
I'm of two minds about the issue. Obviously Mario Batalli and others of similar allegation are more than their worst moments. Everyone has done things they would love to go back and change. On top of that, like you pointed out, the show is more than just Mario. However, in cases like this, and so many others like it, other sources of media, of product, of information, of entertainment exist. As a non-Mario example, Lostprophets was a band that i loved as a youth, and I'd still love them now if not for their vocalist's heinous acts. So many other bands exist that fill that emo rock niche that i feel no desire to continue listening to a band that makes me go oh right, the child rapist. There's something to be said for each side and frankly I'm not sure which wolf is correct to feed.
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I'm of two minds about the issue. Obviously Mario Batalli and others of similar allegation are more than their worst moments. Everyone has done things they would love to go back and change. On top of that, like you pointed out, the show is more than just Mario. However, in cases like this, and so many others like it, other sources of media, of product, of information, of entertainment exist. As a non-Mario example, Lostprophets was a band that i loved as a youth, and I'd still love them now if not for their vocalist's heinous acts. So many other bands exist that fill that emo rock niche that i feel no desire to continue listening to a band that makes me go oh right, the child rapist. There's something to be said for each side and frankly I'm not sure which wolf is correct to feed.
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Will
I think we have an issue with separating art from the artist because sometimes the art is influenced by the context of the artist. Personally, I don't think someone's art/product should really affect the quality of a product, but that still doesn't mean they shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. I think we create this dichotomy where if you enjoy someone's product you're failing to hold them accountable for their actions because you're supporting their endeavors, but I think there's a way to appreciate the product for itself while also holding people accountable for their actions, and I don't really think it's talked about a lot in the wake of Me Too
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I think we have an issue with separating art from the artist because sometimes the art is influenced by the context of the artist. Personally, I don't think someone's art/product should really affect the quality of a product, but that still doesn't mean they shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. I think we create this dichotomy where if you enjoy someone's product you're failing to hold them accountable for their actions because you're supporting their endeavors, but I think there's a way to appreciate the product for itself while also holding people accountable for their actions, and I don't really think it's talked about a lot in the wake of Me Too
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Will
So on the topic of should we still consume media if a bad person will profit from it, personally I think you should as they are not the only people profiting from it, for instance, Kevin Spacey In baby driver, I hate what he did, but by not watching the movie I m not just punishing him but also all the other actors and production staff that helped make the movie. Ofc it s entirely personal preference whether you choose to support those productions or not. It also depends on the extent they profit, Baby driver had a lot of big name actors so Spacey s cut would be much less proportionally compared to Mario s as he is the star
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So on the topic of should we still consume media if a bad person will profit from it, personally I think you should as they are not the only people profiting from it, for instance, Kevin Spacey In baby driver, I hate what he did, but by not watching the movie I m not just punishing him but also all the other actors and production staff that helped make the movie. Ofc it s entirely personal preference whether you choose to support those productions or not. It also depends on the extent they profit, Baby driver had a lot of big name actors so Spacey s cut would be much less proportionally compared to Mario s as he is the star
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Brooksington
Pasta finishes in the sauce, to do otherwise is heresy! 1! Honestly though, I think it depends upon the sauce. Most tomato sauce dishes I prefer to assemble in the pan, whereas some creamier sauces, like an alfredo, I find work equally well with sauce placed atop the noodles after cooking them to perfection. Exceptions abound of course, but when cooking leftover pasta(sauce, I tend to cook the pasta fresh and take a hunk of frozen homemade sauce out of my freezer and finish it in the pan with the noodles. Fantastic video, please dont stop making them, I love your mix of. philosophy? with cooking.
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Pasta finishes in the sauce, to do otherwise is heresy! 1! Honestly though, I think it depends upon the sauce. Most tomato sauce dishes I prefer to assemble in the pan, whereas some creamier sauces, like an alfredo, I find work equally well with sauce placed atop the noodles after cooking them to perfection. Exceptions abound of course, but when cooking leftover pasta(sauce, I tend to cook the pasta fresh and take a hunk of frozen homemade sauce out of my freezer and finish it in the pan with the noodles. Fantastic video, please dont stop making them, I love your mix of. philosophy? with cooking.
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