Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A Rich & Industrious Kitchen
Northern Italy was never a naturally rich or fertile region. Centuries of human labour and
know-how have adapted the shifting Po Delta and shorn up the mountain sides, while a
cosmopolitan outlook has incorporated and refined the endlessly varied flavours we delight
in when we sit down to enjoy a meal.
But what is remarkable about Lombard cuisine is that despite industrialisation and the
radical dietary changes in northern Italy's fast-paced modern cities (Italy's first supermar-
ket opened in Milan in 1957 and its first fast-food outlet arrived in 1982), the food on the
table remains largely local, seasonal and artisanal. Italians buy just a quarter of the frozen
products that the British do, and 50% of their spending is still on fresh, unpackaged goods.
Just check out the food markets in Milan, Mantua and Verona to witness the health of the
local food economy.
But northern Italy is not some timeless land of peasant cooks, nonnas and mammas.
There are over 70,000 registered agribusinesses in Lombardy, producing 15% of Italy's
food and, together with Piedmont, 30% of Europe's rice crop. But many of these industrial-
scale products are actually some of the country's most genuine: ham, cheese, salami and
rice were designed for preservation, transport and trade. Northern Italy's agribusinesses
may cater to the masses but they include 25% of Italy's DOP and IGP quality-assured meat
and cheese products, and 60% of the nation's quality-assured wines.
PROTECTED DESIGNATION OF ORIGIN
Like much bureaucratic legislation, DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) and IGP (Protected Geographical In-
dication) accreditation is boring but important: quite simply, there is a huge amount of money at stake. At last
count, Italy had 221 DOP and IGP products, 20% of which are Lombard specialities, including a wide range of
cheeses,
salame
and rice, but also Mantovan pears, peaches from Verona, asparagus, nuts, olive oil from Lake
Garda,
bresaola
(air-cured beef) from the Valtellina and
cotecchino
(pork sausage). No other European country can
boast as many accredited products. Together, these Italian products generate annual sales of around €8 billion. In a
'post-horsemeat-masquerading-as-beef' world where consumers are ever more sensitive to the quality of produce,
and the price of anonymous ingredients, the little blue and yellow badge that signals a DOP pedigree is priceless.
