I'll tell you how the food vocabulary has changed: Cinzia Scaffidi is a guest at the Festival
"The food and wine journalist has an almost impossible task: he must tell with words a sector where words are not enough. If he has to describe a taste that you have never felt before, he has no way to do it. And the use of adjectives is often useless, redundant. The truth is that to know what those who tell us about food are talking to us, we must have tried those flavors at least once. Otherwise it is useless ".
Word of Cinzia Scaffidi, which al Festival of Food Journalism will be the protagonist of the debate on the language of food and wine journalism, scheduled for Friday at 16.45.
Graduated in Philosophy, a twenty-year career in journalism (she is registered with the Order by 1993), today she runs the Slow Food Study Center, where he works from the 1992, and teaches at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo and in other contracted universities. Two years ago he published a volume that rewrote the rules of language to tell food: "Eat as you speak". This is a list of one hundred words, among other things structured in a curious way, we could say "hypertext": through bold there are references from one page to another that allow a funny reading even in random order. The protagonists, however, are the words. And in particular their change of meaning occurred over the years for historical, cultural and custom reasons.
“For example, think of words as safe, clean, fat, thin: over the years they have taken on opposite meanings with respect to the originals. An example? If 50 was rumored to be a product years ago "it is found in all supermarkets" it was a great compliment, today the idea of a "supermarket brand" immediately gives a negative impression ". What is this change due to? “Fundamentally to the evolution of customs, but also to technology. The arrival of advertising has brought confusion into the language, with adjectives linked to tradition used to present industrial products. And finally to a substantial leveling of words, which today must be explained without giving their meaning for granted ”.
On the influence of blogs and new technologies on the use of language in the description of food, Cinzia Scaffidi has a clear idea: "The times and the users have changed more than the language: now anyone can have their say, everyone can be an expert. Let's say that the linguistic line has changed. And even advertising has changed language and ways: through social media, a private profile is enough to be seen, made known, given importance ".
By Daniele Angi
