Leaders at UN food summit tone down menu over fears of hypocrisy

The Times ^ | 6/4/2008 | Richard Owen

[bruinbirdman]

World leaders attending the UN food summit in Rome settled down today to a "modest" lunch in order not to be accused of "hypocrisy" as they were at the last world food summit six years ago.

Lobster, goose and foie gras have given way to pasta, mozzarella, spinach and sweetcorn. "It does not look good if leaders discussing global starvation are seen to be dining lavishly," an official of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. "At the last summit in 2002 we did not give enough thought to the menu and were open - unfairly, in our view - to the charge of hypocrisy."

The summit six years ago aimed to halve the number of the world's hungry by 2015. Like this week's meeting, it was held amid tight security at the FAO's palatial headquarters, housed in the former Fascist Ministry for the African Empire near the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus.

The 2002 menu, published by The Times, began with foie gras on toast with kiwi fruit and lobster in vinaigrette, followed by fillet of goose with olives and seasonal vegetables and ending with a compote of fruit with vanilla, all accompanied by an array of fine wines.

This time the catering was scaled down. Leaders first ate vol au vent stuffed with sweetcorn and mozzarella, followed by a pasta dish with a sauce of pumpkin and shrimps, and then veal meatballs and cherry tomatoes, with a fruit salad and vanilla ice-cream for dessert. The wine was a "straightforward but very acceptable Orvieto Classico", officials said.

Tomorrow the lunch menu features cheese mousse, pasta, green beans and pineapple with ice-cream, all washed down with a Nero d'Avola Cabernet from Sicily. On Thursday, the last day of the summit, delegates will be offered courgette tart, parmesan risotto, ragout of veal with sautee potatoes, and lemon mousse for dessert with a strawberry sauce, with Pino Grigio from Trentino as the wine.

The inclusion of mozzarella is seen as a UN vote of confidence in the cheese, which is made from buffalo milk. Earlier this year buffalo farms in the Campania region were quarantined because of a scare over allegedly high levels of dioxin, the result of the Naples rubbish crisis, in which uncollected mountains of waste have turned toxic and been set on fire by desperate residents.

Tonight the food summit delegates repair for dinner to the Renaissance-era Villa Madama, in the hills overlooking Rome, which is used for government hospitality. Italian officials said, however, that neither Mr Mugabe nor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, had been invited to the banquet, hosted by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister.

The FAO was founded in 1945, initially to help countries devastated by the Second World War to re-establish food supplies and later to help the newly independent countries of the Third World. It works alongside IFAD (the International Fund for Agricultural Development), which finances Third World farming projects, and the World Food Programme (WFP), which supplies emergency aid.

That 2008 menu in full:

Vol au vent avec mais et mozarelles

Pates a la creme de potiron et crevettes, Paupiettes de veau avec tomates cerises et Bailic Epinards a la romaine

Salade de fruit avec glace a la vanille

Vin: Orvieto Classico Poggio Calvelli 2005

[Perdogg]

Eating well, courtesy of the US taxpayer.

[brivette]

chdck please,

[stayathomemom]

They can afford to eat corn?

[joebuck]

Still a long way from a Coke and a slice.

[CaspersGh0sts]

I’m all for iceberg lettuce and a poptart. Maybe a Yoohoo on the side.

[Freedom_Fighter_2001]

How about sorghum and water from the communal well/cesspool?

[doodad]

It does not look good if leaders discussing global starvation are seen to be dining lavishly

Buddy, I did not elect, nominate or even ask you for your "leadership." Enjoy your meal you mooch.

[doodad]

Orvieto Classico Poggio Calvelli 2005

Only $100 per bottle. You know, the cheap stuff.

[RJL]

At the last summit in 2002 we did not give enough thought to the menu (Lobster, goose and foie gras) and were open - unfairly, in our view - to the charge of hypocrisy."

The UN exactly!

[nomorelurker]

Sorry I can’t resist Spam, Spam, Spam and SPAM.

[dennisw]

I would put them on a bread and water diet

[hinckley buzzard]

The wine was a "straightforward but very acceptable Orvieto Classico", officials said

I think these insufferably pompous hypocrite gasbags should get in the spirit of it all: eat some tortillas and frijoles, maybe a few grasshoppers and beetles. Wash it all down with an unpretentious but amusing glass of water. Then get the hell over themselves and get a real job.