Food and the Futurist ‘Revolution’. A Note

The Italian futurist movement dealt with all branches traditionally tied to high culture, but, at the same time, it approached ‘humbler’ fields as fashion, sports and cookery. In his french period, Marinetti met the chef Jules Maincave and they opened together a ‘Futurist’ restaurant. In 1913 Maincave published the manifesto La cuisine futuriste. In 1930, Marinetti issued in Turin the Manifesto of Futurist Cooking. The publication was preceded by a celebration dinner which took place at the Penna d’Oca restaurant in Milan. In Marinetti’s opinion, people think, dream and act according to what they eat and drink.The Futurist crusade against pasta reflects this point of view. If, on the one hand, Futurism embraced a new way of cooking, on the other hand Fascism promoted the reintroduction of traditional Italian cooking. Purpose of this essay is to delineate the contradiction between Futurism and the Fascist movement and regime, in Italy and in Europe, focusing on the aspects related to cooking.