Slow Food's "Salone del Gusto" and "Terra Madre" 08 has arrived!

It's a very exciting time in Torino at the moment that only rolls around every 2 years.
Yes, it's the Slow Food 's Salone del Gusto extravaganza. For those of you not familiar with this movement, it was born here Piedmont in the town of Bra, also famous for it's Cheese festival.
The 62 founding members met in Bra in 1986 to establish the Slow Food organization with the philosophy that sates.

"We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet".........read more

"Terra Madre"
opened it's third edition today with Prince Charles making the opening statements along with many other dignitaries from around the globe.
Terra Madre..

" brings together food producers and workers from around the world, giving them the opportunity to discuss the major themes of food production. Together they share and compare the diverse and complex issues that underlie what “high-quality food” means to them: issues of environmental resources and planetary equilibrium, and aspects of taste, worker dignity, and consumer safety."

Click here, here and here for a couple of posts from the 2006 edition.

The event opened today and always make national news here.
Fabrizio and I will be heading over on Saturday. Fabrizio will be helping out our friends the Bernards with their booth,(Pavillion 2 booth#B246) where you will be able to sample and buy their famous "elixirs", most notably "Genepy des Alpes" and the family's well kept secret recipe, "Barathier". Stop by and say hello and naturally, sample the wares!
While Fabrizio will be working hard at the booth, me? Well, I'll be working the pavilions checking out what's on and what's new or not. Sampling whatever strikes my fancy or what I can get close to. Hopefully, I'll have my timing down this year and to not get squeezed out during the afternoon crush and enjoy a bit more of the evening mildly cruising crowds. I'll be adding some updates later on.

See you there!

Torino Wine Salon

Yesterday was rather gray and not a very inspiring type of day. The good news is that we are getting some much needed moisture after much grayness and little moisture. Hope for spring flowers and mushrooms looms large. On a day like today I can only think that posting about the Torino Wine Salon could brighten my day, especially if I open something other than our very tasty yet very daily Barbera table wine, and go for a heartier find from the small selection of wine in the "cantina". I feel the day brightening up already in anticipation.

Torino Wine Salon is not as long established and as well known as many other Italian wine shows, but certainly worth the effort to sample your way around a few regions of Italy. VinItaly is coming next week in Verona and people will be flocking to it in the droves from all over the world to see how the latest vintages are faring and search for undiscovered unknown treasures. the first year we went, it was a huge event held in the Lingotto conference center. It was rather overwhelming to say the least. After a few years of infancy, the event seems to have found it's footing. Now it seems that the event is held on the alternate year of the Slow Food and right after the Bra Cheese Festival

It was a fascinating display of wines and all sorts of other oddities that seem to tag along for the ride. Like this woman rolling cigars. hand rolled cigars seem to follow the wine drinking crowd.

You could find chocolate, coffee

Dessert serenaded with jazz
Wine to try by the small and the large producers

and even the Women of Wine

Take it all in with a nice glass of wine or tw0 or three.

Wine expos are always fun.