“Sei vivo ora - Mangiare merda fritta! (You are alive
now – eat fried shit!)” screams writer/philosopher/poet/chef Daniele De Michele. We have stumbled across Don Pasta’s
latest project, Food Sound System: part jam band, part slam poetry exhibition,
part cooking show. The band lays
down a background track that sounds to me like it could be the bridge from just
about any Widespread Panic song, while the De Michele goes to work with his
hand-crank pasta maker and his make-shift stove. When the food is prepared, he jumps on a chair at the front
of the stage, seizes the mic with both hands and launches into an emotional
monologue bordering on frenzy in praise of the Italian cuisine and its rightful
place as a centerpiece of the culture.
It is truly a spectacle to behold.
A video says a million words:
At the conclusion of the speech, he feeds each member of the
band a handful of the pasta dish he has made (yep, a handful, not a fork full)
and then takes his pot out into the audience, to share his creation with the
crowd. He works his way through
the seats, and everyone takes a bite; hands or a shared fork are the preferred
method of delivery. Then, when he
runs out of pasta, he returns to the stage to begin the creative process again.
