Beer and Food

I miss Bert and Harry Piels. I miss hearing the familiar words "Schaefer is the... One beer to have... When you’re having more than one!" anticipating another inning of amazin' baseball as described over the radio in a laid back southern accent by the likes of Red Barber and Mel Allan.

Those were the days when there were still fifty, or so, regional breweries that churned out can after can of "American Lager." From New York came "12 Horse Ale", from the Mid-West, "Hamm's", and from the West, "Olli" (a.k.a. Green Death). All of these breweries were also filling the taps and cold boxes of local taverns, pubs, and saloons.

The attention of the American public wasn't on what was in the beer can, or their beer glass, or contained in the ubiquitous twelve ounce long neck beer bottle. No, the American public was in love with the burgeoning behemoth - mass media. They could listen to baseball games from a state away, and laugh at "Uncle Miltie" every Saturday evening. Sponsors of these programs were also learning how to advertise over these mass-media outlets. The most successful form of advertising could be used for both radio and television marketing. That form of marketing was the "jingle."

The "jingle" was a short, snappy tune with short, snappy lyrics that made up the advertising message. You could whistle these "jingles" and the words to the ad became part of the language. These "jingles" were the hit tunes of a generation weaned on radio and television. These "jingles" glued together the rest of what we heard and saw on radio and television. No matter how bad the news, or how badly the local sports team was doing, no matter how bogus the radio show, the "jingles" were there to remind us that without that product nothing would be possible and we could whistle there message as we strolled to perdition with a smile on our face and a "jingle" in our heart.

I miss Burt and Harry Piels...

Over the last few weeks I had the opportunity to be part of two events that introduced the Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink. The first was at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, and the second was three days later in New York City, at the Institute of Culinary Education.

Both of these events involved panel presentations and discussions that included questions, answers, and comments from the audience.

At both of these events the panelists were interesting, entertaining and concentrated on the growth of the culinary awareness in the United States.

There was a great deal of comment on the artesian cheeses, breads, beers, wines and ciders that are now coming on the market. There were comments made on the development of grocery store chains adding bakeries and prepared foods to their inventory of items sold and produced on the premises.

What I found missing in all of the discussions was the “forest” so to speak. The “trees” (see the preceding paragraph) were all discussed but left those in the audience with the impression that the food styles of the marketplace had undergone a major change. What was missing was any exploration of the marketing and manufacturing of food and drink by the mega-producers.

Let’s face it folks, the majority of beer drunk in this country comes from three brewing companies, most of the food consumed is highly processed and is produced by agra-companies that dominate the agricultural industry of North America.

The “Goliath” companies still control almost all the food manufacturing and production in this hemisphere. The heritage produce and craft brewed beers, hand made cheeses and small batch baked breads are negligible economic influences. That is, until you factor in the psychological impact of these food-industry “Davids.”

The influence of the microbrewers on the mega-brewers is evident in the attempts of Blue Moon (Coors) and the efforts of Anheuser-Busch to maintain market share by either buying small breweries (Red Hook) or manufacturing brews that their marketing says takes brewers from all over the world to produce.

As far as the food producers and marketers, you can now find processed foods that claim to have humble heritage being sold by most of the major food producers. The image of any “artisan” food product coming out of Kraft’s kitchens is hard to digest, let alone accept.

However, the influence of the artisan and heritage produce providers in the food market have had as much influence on the food service and production industry far out weighting its financial clout.

It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and that being said, that is what we are getting -  imitations.