My summer vacation took me to Turin, and Bra, in Piemonte, Italy.
They drink and eat well, there. They have few tourists.
Turin is the heart of the Slow Food movement advocating Good, Clean & Fair food for all.
The movement was born as a local protest over the opening of a fast-food restaurant in Rome, at the Spanish Steps. The public was outraged at the audacity to open the eatery at one of the most iconic places in the Eternal City. People gathered to protest the disappearance of local food traditions, and the protest ballooned into a global movement fighting to ensure that everyone has access to good, clean, and fair food.
Bra is at the heart of the slow food movement, it hosts Cheese, a biennial fair dedicated to raw milk cheeses, dairy products, and all the biodiversity this represents.
Raw cheese, the milk used to make them is fresh milk, not pasteurized, which is what makes it special, and artisanal. In the US, un-pasteurized products are illegal for fear of harmful pathogens, that are not safe to eat or drink. In Italy, the making of raw cheeses is an art form.
Bra also hosts TERRA MADRE, a huge international event, in September, for small scale producers giving a voice to those whose approach to food production protects the environment and communities.
The Slow Food movement also runs a university, the University of Gastronomic Sciences, with interesting fully accredited courses such as New Food Thinking, a one-year master program, in English; Culinary Arts for Innovation, a one-year program, in English and an undergraduate degree in Food Sciences and Culture, a 3 year program, in English and Italian. The campus is gorgeous, I recommend.
The university also houses the wine bank, safeguarding a few cases of every single wine produced in the area.
We visited a great number of Slow Food restaurants, they serve small portions of fresh, just made food, and the bill at the end of the meal is easy on the pocket.
When Slow Food says fair, it means that when you kill an animal for food, you use it, in its entirety, not just the filet mignon and sirloin part. I saw a banner hanging over a small-town advertising the upcoming Tripe Festival, mondongo. I hear it is popular.
The truck load leftovers from the pressing of grapes for wine, is delivered to the Grappa distillery, and is used to the last drop.
Piemonte is especially proud of its local grape varieties mainly Nebbviolo, Barbera and Dolcetto, with DOC and DOCG quality wine designations.
The Italians in that gorgeous corner of the world are not as wasteful as we are.
From the website of Slow Food: We all have our part to play shaping food systems that work, for everyone, and we owe it to each other to secure the change we need. Whoever you are, however, much time you have, become part of that change by joining Slow Food.
