Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Italian Table
Let's be honest: you came for the food, right? Wise choice. Just don't go expecting the
stock-standard fare served at your local Italian restaurant back home. In reality, Itali-
an cuisine is a handy umbrella term for the country's diverse regional cuisines. Des-
pite the diversity, there is almost always one constant - whether you're tucking into a
hearty
farro
soup in some Tuscan
osteria
or devouring a
pizza margherita
in its home
town, Naples, you'll be struck with culinary amnesia. Has anything tasted this good,
ever? Probably not.
THE BIG FORK MANIFESTO
The year is 1987. McDonald's has just begun expansion into Italy and lunch outside the bun seems to
be fading into fond memory. Enter Carlo Petrini and a handful of other journalists from small-town Bra,
Piedmont. Determined to buck the trend, these
neoforchettoni
('big forks', or foodies) created a mani-
festo. Published in the like-minded culinary magazine
Gambero Rosso,
they declared that a meal should
be judged not by its speed, but by its pure pleasure.
The organisation they founded would soon become known worldwide as
Slow Food
(
www.slowfood.com
) , and its mission to reconnect artisanal producers with enthusiastic, educated con-
sumers has taken root with more than 100,000 members in 150 countries - not to mention Slow Food
agriturismi
(farmstay accommodation)
,
restaurants, farms, wineries, cheesemakers and revitalised
farmers markets across Italy.
Held on even-numbered years in a former Fiat factory in Turin, Italy's top Slow Food event is the bi-
ennial
Salone del Gusto & Terre Madre
(
www.salonedelgusto.it
) . Slow Food's global symposium, it
features Slow Food producers, chefs, activists, restaurateurs, farmers, scholars, environmentalists and
epicureans from around the world…not to mention the world's best finger food. Thankfully, odd years
don't miss out on the epicurean enlightened either, with special events such as
Slow Fish
(
Click here
)
in Genoa,
Cheese
(
www.cheese.slowfood.it
)
in Bra and the annual
Slow Food on Film
(
www.slowfoodonfilm.it
) in Bologna.
The secret is in the ingredients. Each is chosen with careful consideration to scent, texture,
ripeness and the ability to play well with others. This means getting to the market early and
often, and remaining open to seasonal inspiration. To balance these ingredients in exactly
the right proportions, Italian cooks apply an intuitive Pythagorean theorem of flavours you
won't find spelled out in any recipe - but that is unmistakable with your first bite.
