Salone del Gusto / Terra Madre 2014 - The Marketplace and Dinner Dates

In my last posting I tried to give a condensed overview and explanation of what "Slow Food" is exactly, at least from my perspective. You can of course go over to their website and have a nosy around to suit yourself, of course. As it is a concept and a movement then there are not only many interpretations as to what that means, but it also means that there are many directions that this multi faceted organization could and has gone.

The first and most obvious direction was to recognize the multitude of small farmers and food producers that are, not only the backbone of food production here in Italy and worldwide as well, but are often an almost hidden part of the economy that needs and deserves to have more light shown on them.  Italy has done pretty well over the years to cultivate an awareness of traditional foods and methods of making products that were maybe once everyday products that have now become artisanal as they have been overshadowed by the enormous companies that dominate the food landscape. You can find many programs on TV that go around Italy seeking out small family farms and artisanal producers and focuses on their foods and lifestyle and community as part of travelogues here in Italy. I must say it is a tradition that I have noticed and greatly admired since I have lived here. 

"Slow Food" has built on that tradition and in 1996 they organized the first "Salone del Gusto" (roughly translated as an exhibition of taste or flavor)  in Turin "dedicated to artisanal, sustainable food and the small-scale producers that safeguard local traditions and high quality products."  This food fair has been built on the platform of an Italian and International marketplace for showcasing, sampling and purchasing what the exhibitors have brought to this biennial event. Held in the historical old Fiat factory building, called the Lingotto, it is an enormous sprawling showplace that offers an overwhelming sensory experience. The event runs from 11am to 11pm for 5 days, so you would think there would be plenty of time to take it all in, but I must warn you that there are just so many intriguing facets to this event that you will be hard pressed to make your way through the swirling sea of gustatory offerings.  

I have tried to share a small portion of the Marketplace spectacle through my collages of my photo impressions this year, so that you might get a feel for the breadth of the show. 

One of the more well known parts of the "Salone del Gusto" that takes product tasting to another level, are what are called "Dinner Dates".  These are exclusive dinners featuring special ingredients some familiar and most likely,  some not, but all of the highest quality interpreted by celebrated chefs from around the world in a variety of exclusive settings. This year there were 20 dinners over the 5 nights with limited seating and so these are highly sought after dinner dates, which sell out quickly inspire of their pricey tickets. This type of exclusivity does play to what has been an ongoing critique of "Slow Food" as being an exclusive eating club. It is a fair criticism, and one that they have tried to address through many of their ever expanding initiatives that promotes their core belief that everyone deserves "good, clean and fair food" which you can learn more about following the link. 

I personally think they have done much to counter balance this criticism, but there is still so much to do in this area and in so many directions whether it is fighting for the right to biodiversity, competing on a more level economic field where small produces can actually compete, not damage the environment doing so, and ultimately having pricing that the producers make a decent wage, whilst still being affordable to all economic incomes. Much work ahead to accomplish that goal and it will take a lot more of us banding together to make that happen. More on that in the next post. 

The two Antonias 

So back to the Dinner Date. 

I was very fortunate to accompany my friend Antonia, visiting from Florida, and enjoy the dinner date entitled "Antonia's Vision." Antonia chose this dinner based on their common name and it turned out to be a wonderful selection. The food was accessible and to me familiar and yet with interesting and artful interpretation from Antonia and her team of what looked like female chefs, when they all came out at the end to take their much deserved bows. Each of the six courses were paired with some lovely wines from the Veneto region from where Chef Antonia Klugmann hails from. She was just awarded a Michelin star to her restaurant L'Argine in Venco` (Go), which is in the Friuli, Venezia, Guilia region and all of her dishes seemed to echo the culinary tastes of these two regions with the turn of her unique touch. 

I won't go into all the details as I have added the menu with some snaps of the food to give you an idea of the dinner and do believe me that it was all quite delightful, sometimes surprising and definitely delicious.  I have been asked if I thought the dinner was worth the €90 price tag and it is something I have asked myself as well. By nature and how I was raised, I have trouble spending a lot of money on food, when I am generally thinking how many groceries it will get me, especially when I may have found the meal lacking. This meal did not disappoint, but frankly the aspect of the dinner that knocked it out of the park for me, was the people that we were seated with for the dinner. The two couples what we were randomly seated with were delightful  and interestingly enough, we had much in common. Three of us were avid bread bakers, all Slow Food members and believers. My friend Antonia's business is called The Loft 5 from Anna Marie Island in Florida. She is a tour de force with her talent and staff that goes from designing and planning your event, to catering, styling it and making sure everything goes off without a hitch.  She has teamed up with the King Family Farms and created their very successful "Table to Farm" dinners, that were featured in Southern Living Magazine. You can read about that event here. The two Antonias had much in common. 

The other two couples were charming and extremely fascinating as well. One couple were from Switzerland and both were graphic artists and interesting conversationalists as well. The other couple were from Portugal. They have a business aptly called Food, People & Design. What style and beauty in these talented hands. If that business isn't enough, they also have a farm a couple of hours out side of Lisbon where they have reclaimed some ancient olive trees that are said to be over 1,000 years old.  They work in conjunction with their neighbors and even have set up an adoption program for their trees, to help nurture and provide for these very special trees. Do go to their site and consider adopting one of their trees or purchasing some of their organic oil. I am so impressed with their vision and hard work. Go to their site Azeitona Verde here.  

Needles to say, our dining experience was lifted even higher with such lively exchanges of stories and ideas. For me that was as much of the highlight of the dinner as the food and wine. In regard to the earlier question that was posed to me, "was it worth the money?" I would have to say unequivocally in this case, yes. I only hope that everyone else who attended any of these dinners would be able to say the same.  You just have to make the most out of whatever comes your way and we enjoyed every aspect of this dinner. I'm still savoring this experience even today.

My next post on this event will be on what "Slow Food" does beyond the sensory experience. I hope you will return for that post coming up shortly.

Merry Christmas and Buone Feste a Tutti

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We're enjoying a white Christmas and hope you all are enjoying a pleasant time with the ones you love. If you want to see a little of what we are up to at Bella Baita, then play our Smilebox for a taste of Bella Baita. I'll be back to posting real soon.
Wishing you peace and prosperity and maybe even a visit with us at Bella Baita, Italian Alps Mountain Retreat in 2011!

Slow Food's Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, another chapter

If you have never heard of the "Slow Food" movement, then you must not be from around these parts. Then again, you probably aren't alone. They say that over 200,000 people attended this year's edition of "Slow Food's" "Salone del Gusto 2010". It was a big woop de do, really. A little background for you if you are unfamiliar, otherwise you can just skip down to the photos.  The "Slow Food" movement was born in Piedmont Italy in the small town of Bra, as a protest against the rise of fast food culture seeping into Italy. Specifically the installation of a McDonalds near the Spanish Steps in Rome was the outrage that pushed the original group to action. Now, some 25 years later, the "Slow Food" movement has gone global and metastasized into many different avenues of food networks and communities. It continues to evolve into so many facets, with recognition and development for high quality food, their producers and consumers. The emphasis being on small biodiverse farms and related producers to be able to support themselves and their families with ancient traditions and modern innovations while not harming the environment or the consumers. Building relationships and opportunities to share ideas and brainstorm how we can move forward together in a sustainable model of  decent food for all. Lofty goals indeed and difficult to attain, and yet we must try. They have started a conversation about food and the politics of food, that is gaining momentum and needs to flourish and take place on many levels. So we start at the grass roots level and every 2 years the "Salone del Gusto", provides a market place open to the public with a reasonable entrance fee, €20, where buyers and sellers can meet and sample all the wondrous products on offer. 

So much to taste so little time

There are presentations of various food and drink in smaller settings as well as "pull out the stops" dinners, showcasing high quality and often unusual or rare ingredients turned out by celebrity chefs.  There are opportunities to participate in the smaller "Taste Workshops" that showcase a variety of diverse subjects like, "Cheese and Mostarda from the Po Valley" or "the Vermouths of Catalonia", to name just a couple.

Pomodorini from Calabria

There is also Terra Madre, which grew out of a need to give small producers, world wide,  a voice and visibility in which to develop sustainable food networks and communities. This loosely knit consortium comes together, here in Torino, to support, discuss, and debate the politics and ecology of food. A place to exam the many facets and layers of food, a sharing of ideas and ways to impact positively in our global community. Food is definitely one of my passions and I feel passionate about the way it is produced and concerned that everyone should have access to and be able to afford wholesome food. Fabrizio and I share this passion. It is a human rights issue for me. Naturally, we appreciate and support the goals of this organization as it continues to evolve and work in our own way to raise awareness while supporting local growers and traditional foods an culture.

Fabrizio and I feel strongly about preserving the culture and traditions of our mountain region. We created our T.E.M. association (Touristic Ecosostenibile Montano/ Sustainable Mountain Tourism) several years ago to help support the local economy while promoting our greater valley through culinary tourism showcasing local food and producers. We also are involved with clearing and marking of our local mountain paths and stocking the mountain streams with trout, and a wide variety of other projects all aimed at preserving and reviving the mountain traditions and bringing tourism into our area that will have a positive impact.
Fabrizio and I have worked closely the past few years with our friends the Bernard family traveling abroad to help with the English speakers. We also have been involved with the Regione Piemonte and the Provincia di Torino with the "Paniere" (basket of typical products) producers and to bring to fruition of our "Strada Reale dei Vini Torinese" in hopes of broadening our Piemontese promotion.

These Scandinavian Terre Madre delegates'
(who stopped by Bernards a few times)
faces summed up the spirit of the "Salone del Gusto" for me!

When I wasn't working at the Bernard booth I got a round to snap a few photos and run into some of the  other Slow Food people we have met at some of the other festivals. I must also thank artisan chocolatier Chef Gaetan Tessier, one of the owners of "ChocoMotive" from Montebello, Quebec, who so graciously remembered our conversation of 2 years ago and how I missed having cranberries. He brought me a huge bag of dried ones. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see him, so he gave them to Fabrizio for me. What a sweetheart and what a score! I can hardly wait to put them into all kinds of goodies. He also gave us a sample of their chocolates and they are worth tracking down. Gorgeous and delicious!

 I can't show you the ChocMotive chocolates, because we already devoured them. Urp! Here's another chocolatiers wares from the show. 

Whimsical and I'm sure tasty

 I can't show you the ChocMotive chocolates, because we already devoured them. Urp! Here's another chocolatiers wares from the show.

This  delicious 5 kg Gilber Pannetone bakes for 3 hours in the oven
and perfect for New Years festivities
I loved the Pear and Fig one! 

The street food was great.
Love, love, love, fresh Ligurian farinata!

Always entertaining.

Colorful

Musical 

and always temptingly delicious!

Don't miss the 2012 edition of the Salone del Gusto!

It's worth the saving up and waiting!

We'll see you there.

Hike to Bourcet in Upper Chisone Valley

Getting up into the higher mountains is always a thrill for me. The anticipation, the fresh mountain air, the wildflowers, the discoveries along the path, the views and the sense of accomplishment are some of the aspects of a days outing with my boots and buddies that satisfies my soul.
It might seem odd to you, that it would be such a thrill for me, seeing that I already live in the mountains, but naturally it is my own back yard and you know what they say about familiarity?

I love the mountains and even though I do live in the mountains, I love nothing more than getting out and up into them. The anticipation of a new walk in the woods when pull on my well worn boots and fill the water bottles up, brings a lilt to my step and a smile to my face.

It all feels so good, the jaunt in ones step that lasts just until the heat sets in, in earnest, and the water bottle's refreshing liquid has lost it's cool refreshing ways and the novelty of this new hike begins to wear a little thin.  The realization sets in that the spring in your step has done sprung, about the time that it dawns on you, that for the past hour you have been trudging up the lovely, but very wrong hillside from  which you were wanting to arrive, oh my....

When you finally see the much anticipated church just up above your head and although it is indeed a welcome sight, even if it undoubtedly just a hair further up the hill than what you were hoping for, it is a welcome sight. And you trudge on knowing there is a reward at the top, a small mountain festival is going on. There will be libations and sustenance.

 And there was.

And the water flowing straight from the source will and does, taste soooooooo incredibly good.

There will be happy hikers.

And there was.

And I highly recommend doing it again.

Especially if there is a chance to guess the weight of the pig and take him home with you. 

You just never know what kind of opportunity awaits you, hiking in the alps.

Gofri and Il Mercatino delle Pulci

Everyone loves a bargain and Italians are no different. Towards the end of the Italian holidays in August, our neighbors in Perosa Argentina host an annual flea market every year. It's quite a large collection of vendors that meander through the town park and the town's side streets.

Everybody has something to sell of value or not, but certainly plenty to keep you interested and entertained for the day.

Something for all members of the family.

and budgets.

In a beautiful mountain setting it's hard to go wrong. They set up a large area for the kids to finger paint. If you wanted you could even work on your tan as well, just in case you didn't quite make it to the seaside, you don't have to be deprived while you are on your mountain holiday, especially this summer. It's been quite a scorcher a good portion of the summer. For those of you not in the know getting bronze is one of the favorite Italian past times of the summer and your Italian-ness and worth is totally measure by your bronze-ness factor. Woe is me, of the fair Irish coloring variety. I stick out like a...., yes you can fill in the rest of the saying.

And like any type of town celebration, it wouldn't be complete with out some type of festival fare, with the men folk showing off their cooking prowess like this good looking bunch shown here. (They asked me what television channel they were going to be on that night, little did they realize that they would go round the world, not merely the local nightly news!)
Our Chisone valley specialty is called Gofri (pronounced go-free). It's a crispy thin style waffle that is served hot off the irons, savory or sweet. The savory varieties usually include ham of the cooked or cured persuasion or local Toma cheeses and the sweet ones are slathered with marmalade or the perennial hands down favorite, Nutella. It is a delight not to be missed.
Recipe to follow shortly with a few more photos.

Found: "La Dolce Vita" London Part 1

We went, we conquered, we came home!

The swirl of London and the activities of the "La Dolce Vita" expo has already started to fade, but left behind are some sweet remembrances of a few days spent sharing our valley's well known and loved "digestivi" of our friend, Enrico Bernard.

The gathering of over 200 food, wine and property sales people took place in Olympia Exhibition hall over four days. The first couple of days were rather quiet, although on the Press day I did meet a few interesting food and wine bloggers as well as some people looking to do a bit of importing and check out what all was available here. It certainly was an interesting mixture of offerings, from culinary demonstrations and wine tastings, to all sorts of olive oils and specialty foods not to be found in the main stream of London I don't think. I was surprised with one quick spin around a giant Tesco store close by to where we stayed in Earl's Court that there was quite a selection of Italian products along with quite a few other nationalities being represented under one roof. Nothing, of course, that could compare to to the quality and range of the cured meats and cheeses from Tuscany represented by I Toscani, that was on one side of us. On the other side we had tiny red aubergines and round white beans from the Parco di Pollino situated in the deep south between Calabria and Basilicata. The aubergines were most unusual. When I first looked at the pictures I thought they were tomatoes. There are pictures of them here. To be honest I didn't get many pictures, because I was either running around London dropping off samples of our Genepy and Barathier for potential customers or we were busy in the stand education the London crowds on what our mountain flower and herbal infusions were exactly. Unfortunately for many of the vendors, their English was limited or non existent, making it hard to explain their products properly to make that much needed sale.

There was a lot of sampling and a fair measure of baffled looks. Most people thought the digestivi were Grappa or some type of amaretto or something familiar to them. When they are indeed something quite different to what most people have tried unless they have spent some time in the Alps or other countries where infusions of liquor are quite the norm. I first came across similar herbal fire water when I worked in Slovenia and Austria, the warming drinks of the mountains. Hence we did a lot of talking and everyone else did a fair amount of drinking. There seemed to be a spilt in tastes of those who like Barathier, Enrico's great grandfather's recipe of 7 mountain herbs and flowers, and those that like the other offerings of Genepy Blanc, Genepy des Alpes, and Serpoul.

Along with our market stall we also had Torino Province well represented in the Provincia booth around the corner from us with several Paniere producers selling their wares.
Wine from Val Susa was represented byFranco and Carlotta of Vini Carlotta
Toma Cheese from Lanzo Valley represented by Anna Zedde (011 1950 4154)
All things Peppermint from Menta Pancalieri brought by Mirella Chiottone
Grissini by Panificio Collia went very nicely with the Toma cheese
and the typical wouldn't be complete with out a chocolate representative and that was taken care of by Stroppiana Chocolate of Torino

It was a good show, although from the viewpoint of the vendors it could have been better organized. Most disappointing for Enrico Bernard was that his web site was misspelled beyond recognition, in the printed brochure making for a very expensive mistake that the organizers only response was, sorry. Not very professional nor responsive to making their mistake right. I personally felt the hall also lacked music and the vivacity of an Italian festival. I think the most telling point is that most of the vendors were there for the first time this year. This is the 5 annual event and most of the people that we met and interacted with would probably not return next year. I think it is a great event that could be even better if the organizers were more open to suggestions from the vendors.

London is already becoming a bit of a fuzzy dream as we listen to the steady downpour of rain here. The good news is that the steady drip of rain is finishing off the last big piles of this winters white stuff. My bulbs are making a valiant effort to push up in the cold, so there is promise of spring green and flowers up here. The photo below was from the plane window as we flew over the alps and very little of theses majestic spires were showing. There was a blanket of clouds covering most except the biggest peaks poking up through the cotton blanket. The range in the background just to the left of the plane wing is the massif of Monte Bianco or the more recognizable name of Mont Blanc. There are clustered many other of the big names in European alps. It didn't take us too long to touch down after this as we are not so far away from this range of peaks.

Part 2 will be about where we stayed and places we ate.