Q&A with 'Renaissance Man' Fred Plotkin '78
Nov. 8, 2007
The Wisconsin Alumni Association welcomes Fred Plotkin '78 to UW-Madison for the inaugural Alumni in Residence program. A collaboration of several campus partners, the program brings an alumni leader to UW-Madison to present a series of lectures and discussions for students, parents, faculty, community members, alumni and friends. Learn more at uwalumni.com/plotkin.
An expert on classical music and Italian cuisine, Plotkin recently talked with WAA about his unique pathway and perspective as a modern-day Renaissance man.
WAA: You describe yourself as a pleasure activist. What is that exactly?
Plotkin: I don' mean to be evasive, but a pleasure activist is what each person interprets it to be. People always seem to think it's about sex, but it's not a sex thing, though I suppose it could be. It's really about the senses - about smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound. I believe that Americans have become detached from their senses. We miss the subtleties of life. Our food is so riddled with chemicals to boost taste that we can no longer distinguish original flavors. If you go to a rock concert, the amplifiers are so loud that you can't hear the subtleties in the music. We've been given these wonderful senses, and being a pleasure activist means helping people try to use them fully.
How did you become interested in this?
I like to say it's in my blood. I was born where [New York City's] Lincoln Center now stands. After the center opened in 1962, my mother worked in public information there. Arts have always been a focus for me.
So you must have been an enthusiastic singer.
Not really. I was always more interested in the technical aspects of performance. Opera attracted me because it offers the most difficult combination of technical problems to solve - music, acting, movement, dance, even explosions, battles, and riots.
You didn't even study music at the UW?
No, I studied the Italian Renaissance. Before I came to Madison, I did a lot of research about colleges, and I chose the UW because it would let me study the kinds of things I wanted to. I didn't want to repeat my high school curriculum, and I had a wide range of interests. At a place like Yale, you had to take the program they told you to. But at the UW, I could take classes in language, literature, history, art, theater, and no one told me it was wrong. And life outside of class was an education, too. I came to Madison on a scholarship, but it disappeared in my sophomore year, and I had to get a job working as a fry cook at the McDonalds on Lake Street.
Is that how you got into food? Seems like a strange place for an advocate of the slow food movement.
I was always curious and experimental with food. When I worked at McDonalds, I got fed up with the way they wanted me to make burgers, using reconstituted onions and stuff like that. So I'd bring in my own ingredients. But that isn't what really got me started in food. It was actually Luciano Pavarotti who convinced me to write my first cookbook. He told me my cooking was like his mother's.
Now, there's a compliment "cooking like a native Italian".
It starts with Wisconsin - or with my study abroad in Italy. I went to Bologna, where they have the best food in Italy, and therefore the best food in the world. People there take their food very seriously. I remember going to the market, and there was a woman there selling fruits and vegetables. I'd tell her I wanted three tomatoes in an Italian market, you don't just pick up food. You tell them what you want and wait for them to hand it to you. So I'd say I want three tomatoes, and this woman would ask me what I wanted them for. I'm making a sauce, I'd tell her, and she'd say, "No, those tomatoes aren"t good for sauce. These other tomatoes are better for making sauces." For every ingredient I bought, I'd get another lesson in cooking. And I learned to use my nose, to judge things without touching them.
Do you ever wonder how your life might have been different if you'd been born at Madison Square Garden instead of the Lincoln Center?
Yeah - though I'd have said Yankee Stadium. I guess then it would have been hot dogs and electronic organ music.
-Interview by John Allen
Plotkin's week at UW-Madison will include lectures for students and community members on campus and around Madison. Highlights include:
* Friday, Nov. 9: The Private Michelangelo: The Man Behind the Art. From 2 to 3 p.m. as part of WAA's Fall Day on Campus, Plotkin will discuss the life of Michelangelo Buonarroti.
* Monday, Nov. 12: Opera with the Experts."Panel discussion, Participants will engage with Plotkin from 6:30 to 9 p.m. for a panel discussion with Allan Naplan, general manager of the Madison Opera, and UW Artist in Residence Bill Lutes, a 1978 UW graduate.
* Wednesday, Nov. 14: In the Footsteps of Michelangelo: Sculpting a Biography. This free event from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. will feature a preview of Plotkin's in-progress book about Michelangelo.
* Wednesday, Nov. 14: Mediterranean Diet: Fact and Fiction. Plotkin will provide insight about how 29 nations practice this ancient approach to living. This free event begins at 7 p.m. and is part of Wednesday Nite @ the Lab.
* Thursday, Nov. 15: Columbian Exchange: How Christopher Columbus Changed Food, Wine, Commerce and Politics in Europe and the Americas. Plotkin will host a lunch and lecture from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. about Columbus' influence in the history of cultural exchange, and how we grow and eat food today.
* Thursday, Nov. 15: The Wonderful Food of Italy: Creating a Cookbook. Foodies can join Plotkin at 4:30 p.m. to learn what it really takes to write a cookbook at this free lecture, sponsored by Friends of the Library.
UW-Madison co-sponsors of the Alumni in Residence program include the College of Letters and Science Honors Program; Division of Continuing Studies; Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UW-Madison; Anonymous Fund; University Lectures Committee; and Friends of the Library.
Founded in 1861, WAA offers UW alumni and friends a wide variety of services, including the award-winning On Wisconsin Magazine, Badger Insider Magazine, career services, international travel opportunities and lifelong learning events. Learn more at uwalumni.com.
The Wisconsin Alumni Association welcomes Fred Plotkin '78 to UW-Madison for the inaugural Alumni in Residence program. A collaboration of several campus partners, the program brings an alumni leader to UW-Madison to present a series of lectures and discussions for students, parents, faculty, community members, alumni and friends. Learn more at uwalumni.com/plotkin.
An expert on classical music and Italian cuisine, Plotkin recently talked with WAA about his unique pathway and perspective as a modern-day Renaissance man.
WAA: You describe yourself as a pleasure activist. What is that exactly?
Plotkin: I don' mean to be evasive, but a pleasure activist is what each person interprets it to be. People always seem to think it's about sex, but it's not a sex thing, though I suppose it could be. It's really about the senses - about smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound. I believe that Americans have become detached from their senses. We miss the subtleties of life. Our food is so riddled with chemicals to boost taste that we can no longer distinguish original flavors. If you go to a rock concert, the amplifiers are so loud that you can't hear the subtleties in the music. We've been given these wonderful senses, and being a pleasure activist means helping people try to use them fully.
How did you become interested in this?
I like to say it's in my blood. I was born where [New York City's] Lincoln Center now stands. After the center opened in 1962, my mother worked in public information there. Arts have always been a focus for me.
So you must have been an enthusiastic singer.
Not really. I was always more interested in the technical aspects of performance. Opera attracted me because it offers the most difficult combination of technical problems to solve - music, acting, movement, dance, even explosions, battles, and riots.
You didn't even study music at the UW?
No, I studied the Italian Renaissance. Before I came to Madison, I did a lot of research about colleges, and I chose the UW because it would let me study the kinds of things I wanted to. I didn't want to repeat my high school curriculum, and I had a wide range of interests. At a place like Yale, you had to take the program they told you to. But at the UW, I could take classes in language, literature, history, art, theater, and no one told me it was wrong. And life outside of class was an education, too. I came to Madison on a scholarship, but it disappeared in my sophomore year, and I had to get a job working as a fry cook at the McDonalds on Lake Street.
Is that how you got into food? Seems like a strange place for an advocate of the slow food movement.
I was always curious and experimental with food. When I worked at McDonalds, I got fed up with the way they wanted me to make burgers, using reconstituted onions and stuff like that. So I'd bring in my own ingredients. But that isn't what really got me started in food. It was actually Luciano Pavarotti who convinced me to write my first cookbook. He told me my cooking was like his mother's.
Now, there's a compliment "cooking like a native Italian".
It starts with Wisconsin - or with my study abroad in Italy. I went to Bologna, where they have the best food in Italy, and therefore the best food in the world. People there take their food very seriously. I remember going to the market, and there was a woman there selling fruits and vegetables. I'd tell her I wanted three tomatoes in an Italian market, you don't just pick up food. You tell them what you want and wait for them to hand it to you. So I'd say I want three tomatoes, and this woman would ask me what I wanted them for. I'm making a sauce, I'd tell her, and she'd say, "No, those tomatoes aren"t good for sauce. These other tomatoes are better for making sauces." For every ingredient I bought, I'd get another lesson in cooking. And I learned to use my nose, to judge things without touching them.
Do you ever wonder how your life might have been different if you'd been born at Madison Square Garden instead of the Lincoln Center?
Yeah - though I'd have said Yankee Stadium. I guess then it would have been hot dogs and electronic organ music.
-Interview by John Allen
Plotkin's week at UW-Madison will include lectures for students and community members on campus and around Madison. Highlights include:
* Friday, Nov. 9: The Private Michelangelo: The Man Behind the Art. From 2 to 3 p.m. as part of WAA's Fall Day on Campus, Plotkin will discuss the life of Michelangelo Buonarroti.
* Monday, Nov. 12: Opera with the Experts."Panel discussion, Participants will engage with Plotkin from 6:30 to 9 p.m. for a panel discussion with Allan Naplan, general manager of the Madison Opera, and UW Artist in Residence Bill Lutes, a 1978 UW graduate.
* Wednesday, Nov. 14: In the Footsteps of Michelangelo: Sculpting a Biography. This free event from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. will feature a preview of Plotkin's in-progress book about Michelangelo.
* Wednesday, Nov. 14: Mediterranean Diet: Fact and Fiction. Plotkin will provide insight about how 29 nations practice this ancient approach to living. This free event begins at 7 p.m. and is part of Wednesday Nite @ the Lab.
* Thursday, Nov. 15: Columbian Exchange: How Christopher Columbus Changed Food, Wine, Commerce and Politics in Europe and the Americas. Plotkin will host a lunch and lecture from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. about Columbus' influence in the history of cultural exchange, and how we grow and eat food today.
* Thursday, Nov. 15: The Wonderful Food of Italy: Creating a Cookbook. Foodies can join Plotkin at 4:30 p.m. to learn what it really takes to write a cookbook at this free lecture, sponsored by Friends of the Library.
UW-Madison co-sponsors of the Alumni in Residence program include the College of Letters and Science Honors Program; Division of Continuing Studies; Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UW-Madison; Anonymous Fund; University Lectures Committee; and Friends of the Library.
Founded in 1861, WAA offers UW alumni and friends a wide variety of services, including the award-winning On Wisconsin Magazine, Badger Insider Magazine, career services, international travel opportunities and lifelong learning events. Learn more at uwalumni.com.
