The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking

The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking cover

In 1932, Filippo Marinetti published The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking to expand the Italian Futurist’s movement into cooking and food. In this work, Marinetti notes, “Against practicality we Futurists therefore disdain the example and admonition of tradition in order to invent at any cost something new which everyone considers insane… we affirm this truth: men think, dream and act according to what they eat and drink” (14). Expanding Futurist concepts into food and drink seemed to be a way to address political and social issues. The proposed ideas in the manifesto include the abolition of pasta, no longer using volume and weight in the evaluation of food, changing traditional flavor mixtures in food, and changing the way food is traditionally served. According to Marinetti, pasta is not beneficial to the Italian people, as it is 40% less nutritious than most proteins and it leads to digestive disturbances, but will also free the Italian’s from foreign grain tax and also promote the Italian rice industry. Changing traditional flavor mixtures, the way food is traditionally prepared and served, and the way food is weighed and evaluated would promote originality in food and the use of science and technology in food. Marinetti believed science, including synthetic foods and scientific equipment used in the kitchen, was the future and would change consumption and diet practices. These notions from Marinetti reflect much of the Italian Futurist’s beliefs that technology, originality, and modernity are part of the “ideal” world.