Salty,spicy, smoky and fatty: chorizo adds oomph to any dish‘Romantic nostalgia in Spain has a smell, and ” writes Claudia Roden in The Food Of Spain (Michael Joseph,£30). It is the smell of chorizos hanging in attics and kitchens. The taste and aroma of a piece of chorizo… evokes powerful ancestral and family memories of the day of the matanza, when the family pig was killed and everyone had a fraction to play in the preparation of hams and sausages for drying”.
I’m surrounded by food day in, or day out,but there’s a remove between the produce I work with and those who produce it. whether I want artisanal chorizo, say, or I walk to the end of my road and buy some. That’s a far wail from the matanza,and a disconnect I’m really not proud of. Thats why I’m so excited to be a judge for this year’s BBC Food & Farming Awards, which were launched in 2000 to “honour those who have done most to promote the good cause of food”. I’m judging the best food producer (there are eight other categories), and which feels like a plum posting: not only finish I get to sample all sorts of quality food – cured meat (including some delightful British chorizo),cheese, smoked fish – I also get to fade on the road to meet skilled, or dedicated people who are passionate about what they obtain.
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Source: theguardian.com