the movie: The Piano, 1993
the meal: Grilled Halibut with Warm Cabbage, Onion, and Apple Slaw, Black Quinoa with Pine Nuts, Corn, Olive oil, Parsley and Lemon, Queen Mother's Cake
March is National Women’s History Month and Sara and I decided that this would be a great theme for bottlemoviemeal. National Women’s History Month began as National Women’s History Week, and came out of a 1980 Carter administration (duh) proclamation that began a concerted push to elevate the recognition and achievements of women throughout history. When the push began in 1980, the topic of women’s history was languishing on college curricula and less than 3% of the content of teacher training textbooks mentioned the contribution of women in history. Women of color, and women in the fields of science, math and art were omitted, depriving generations of schoolchildren with good female role models. (That’s no excuse, Dr. Summers.)In 1987, NWHW became NWHM with the help of some good lobbying and Ronnie Reagan. (Thanks, Nancy.) And while the theme for this NWHM's 30th anniversary is writing women back into history, the three women who inspired their way into our hearts and blog need no rewriting because in our lifetime, they wrote the book, as well as the bottle, the movie, and the meal. Alice Waters, Maida Heatter, Jane Campion and Elena Walch mostly need little introduction, so we'll let this grouping of their oeuvres do the talking.
Inspired first by Alice Waters and then the fresh halibut looking up at me from the glass case at my local fishmonger's, I decided on the Grilled Halibut with Warm Cabbage, Onion, and Apple Slaw as our honorific meal. There is little that hasn’t already been said about the paradigm shift in cooking that Alice Waters has been the centrifugal force for here in the US, but from a very personal perspective, her work both in the kitchen and beyond have had great influence on me since I started cooking independently in college back at Duke with my good bud John Neumark in the early 80’s. And the ethic of fresh, mostly local and sustainably harvested foods has always been my text.For a super side, I make a little black quinoa (just 15 minutes!) and toss it with olive oil, pine nuts, parsley and lemon as a salad-like toothy companion to the meaty hunk of grilled halibut. The slaw works very well as a tangy, savory and crunchy counter to the tender roasted fish, and the quinoa suitably grounds the plate in a sweet, nutty and earthy place that holds it all back from taking off.
For dessert, we went to the Queen of Cake, the Doyenne of Dessert, the Boss of Baking, Maida Heatter, and opted for chocolate—what else? This cake is one of the recipes for which she is famous, and it captures her essence—light but rich, moist and decadent, this cake is an incarnation of dessert. If you haven’t Maida’ed yet, this is a good one to try. (Don’t be put off by the length of the directions—Maida’s just very detailed. It's relatively easy to make.)
Elena Walch was an architect until she decided to abandon the structure of buildings for that of grapes, and decided to devote her energies to making the best possible wines from two “Grand Cru” equivalent sites that her family owns in the Alto Adige area in Northern Italy. This Pinot Grigio is yummy and well built, unlike some of those McMansion Pinot Grigios that have proliferated. It is strong and carries nice notes of lemon, yellow plum fruits and walnut. It’s refreshing and delicious and stands up very well to the halibut. We expect to see lots more from this directed and talented winemaker in the future.I cannot imagine a better film to capture the essence both of a woman as well as the tumultuous arc of women’s history(which, granted, is a bit presumptuous coming from a guy). In The Piano, Jane Campion masterfully, aesthetically, and emotionally captures the charged spirit and soul of a woman while telling a painful story that, in a distilled form, reflects the narrative of women in history.
Ada McGrath is a mute woman in 1800’s New Zealand who, by virtue of her mail-order bride status, is shipped off to an unforgiving remote Maori area with the only two things she loves, her daughter and her piano, to become the wife of a man who is in no way her match. The piano is her muse and source of self-expression in an otherwise completely intolerant environment, and the establishment, in the form of the landowner who “bought” her, wrestles with the power and force of this independent and strong-willed person that simply refuses to play along.
While the peaking narrative arc of Ada’s story more likely captures the crystallized rebellious spirit of the women’s movement in the last 40 years, her life predicament is firmly grounded in the mores of our centuries old male dominated world. The intense unleashing and discovery of personal and sexual freedom in this movie is more powerful than I can describe. That Ada can emerge mostly whole in a narrowly avoided Pyhrric victory, and not only survive, but reinvent, as a more complete woman with a firm and accepted sense of self, is shudderingly beautiful. It makes my cheeks quiver with dampness.
The lyrical quality of the film, the wonder of each glaringly beautiful frame, the beauty of the haunting role of music as a main character, the awesome power and strength captured by Holly Hunter as Ada McGrath, the wisdom and complete vision of Jane Campion, and the utter imagination and creativity that envelope this difficult theme all make this movie one of the best all time for this blogger and husband.
Now go, cook, watch, eat and reflect on the savory joy of what it means to be a woman.
I wish I knew.
Recipes:
Grilled Halibut with Warm Cabbage, Onion, and Apple Slaw: http://bit.ly/dwx8Cd
Black Quinoa with Pine Nuts, Corn, Olive oil, Parley and Lemon: http://nyti.ms/3a8ial
Queen Mother's Cake: http://bit.ly/dqlOLr
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