Salone
del Gusto and Terra Madre 2004
Turin,
Italy October 21-25, 2004 Imagine the whole world (or nearly)
coming together to break bread, share food, wine and culture (metaphorically
and literally) all under the vast single roof of Lingotto Fiere in Turin,
Italy. This is the Salone del Gusto, a biennial event staged for the
fifth time in 2004 from October 21-25. The aim is to bring together
artisan producers and so provide a showcase for traditional foods from
Italy and further afield. As such, it gives us all — trade, press,
and consumers alike — the opportunity literally to taste the world.
On one level,
the Salone del Gusto is a vast exhibition with pavilions where exhibitors
set up their wares rather like an immense village market or food festival,
with lanes dedicated to specific themes, grains, oils, cheeses, whatever.
Not surprisingly given the Italo-centric view of not just the world
but of gastronomy, the Buon Paese market featuring Italian
products is by far the most important. However, there is also an increasingly
significant international presence here, too, gathered together under
the banner of Mercato del Mondo or World Market. I was pleased,
for example, to see from our own home region, South West England, exhibitions
for Plymouth Gin, Cornish pilchards, and Quicke’s farmhouse cheddar
alongside stands for Japanese sushi, jamón Iberico from
Spain, Polish pasta (talk about taking coals to Newcastle!), aged Gouda
cheese from the Netherlands, smoked wild Irish salmon, and much more.
The
Trentino Alto-Adige regional pavilion offered tutored food and wine
tastings at regular intervals throughout the show
This is a food show, of course, and selling and commerce takes place,
but the Salone del Gusto is in spirit and ethos far more than simply
either a trade or consumer exhibition. Since it aims to promote and
encourage above all traditional and artisan foods, an equally important
and fundamental focus of the event is to inform and educate, both by
providing information as well as actual opportunities to taste. Indeed,
because many of the people taking part are involved in artisan and traditional
food production, in many cases making products or cultivating produce
that without such recognition might be at risk of dying out, they are
eager and enthusiastic to share with you what they do, rather than simply
to try and sell you their wares.
There is
furthermore an ambitious programme of Taste Workshops and Seminars that
take place on any number of subjects throughout the days and evenings
of the Salone, while there are also demonstrations from top chefs in
the Theatre of Taste, Regional Pavilions, and Dinner Date events in
scores of restaurants throughout the surrounding Piedmont countryside.
Slow
Food Presidia
The nominated Slow Food Presidia are among the most fascinating and
interesting elements of the Salone. Each Presidium represents a project
that aims to protect and promote a noteworthy specific food product
with exceptional taste qualities that might otherwise be under risk,
and which furthermore represents something of the culture of an entire
community. In 2004 there were around 190 such designated Presidia and
the producers were encouraged to take part in the Salone with financial
support to enable them to attend.
Italian
Presidia are the most prevalent and represent a vast variety of foods
and produce: (from Sicily) Ciaculli mandarins, grown in the fertile
Palermo citrus groves and gardens; (from Calabria) an outstanding traditional
Moscato wine vinified in Saracena by allowing grapes to vine dry then
mixing with cooked grape must; (from Campania) the famously fragrant
Amalfi lemon and the prized San Marzano tomato; (from Emilia-Romagna)
the rare and prized culatello di Zibello, sweetest and most
fragrant of all cured hams as well as the traditional mortadella
classica di Bologna, each mortadella an enormous, handcrafted
work of art, to be cut by hand, beautifully fragrant and delicious.
It
is fascinating to stop at the various stalls and learn about and taste
these produce and products, each with their own story. Take for example
the cardi gobbo of Nizza Monferrato. Cardoons, a type of edible
thistle, may not generally seem anything to write home or books about,
but this variety is particulary prized and delicious, and is the result
not just of nature but of man’s ingenuity. For the cardi
are first cultivated and, once grown, they are then ingeniously tied
together in a bunch, bent over and buried to enable growth to continue
underground (‘gobbo’ means hunchback since the
thistles are bent back on themselves). This results in a white vegetable
that is particularly tender and not bitter, excellent either raw to
dip into bagna caôda (the favourite pungent anchovy dip
of the region), or else cooked. This procedure is apparently carried
out only in around the Monferrato hills of Nizza, south of Turin, and
nowhere else. As it is incredibly labour intensive, the granting of
Presidia status recognises and gives value and encouragement to the
growers of the zone.
Cardi gobbo
di Nizza Monferrato — protected and recognised by
Slow Food Presidium status
In addition to Italian, there are also international Presidia from all
over the world, granted to any number of unique products or produce
that are at once noteworthy and deserving of both greater recognition
as well as protection. From Britain, there are Presidia for traditional
artisan made farmhouse cheddar cheese; farmhouse perry (an alcoholic
beverage made from pears) from Hereford; and salted Cornish pilchards
which have long found a market in Northern Italy as part of the everyday
diet of working people, salacche e polenta. Grains from all
over the world are protected and promoted with Presidium status, including
Mexican armaranth, Andean maize, Canadian Red Fife wheat, and red rice
from Madagascar. Cheese made from raw milk by traditional methods is
another important theme that is recognised, with Presidia for yak cheeses
made at 4500m altitude on the high Tibetian plateau, as well as raw
milk cheeses from the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France
and elsewhere. The husbandry of native breeds, meanwhile, is also recognised:
meat and cheese made from Gloucester cattle; the indigenous Basque Euskal
Txerria breed of pig; reindeer from Sweden.
Cornish
pilchards — salacche di Cornovaglia
The stands that represent the Presidia of Slow Food aren’t only
here for people to come and make purchases (in some cases it is not
even possible to purchase); above all they are representatives of the
Slow Food philosphy that seeks to champion biodiversity and the protection
of not just foods, but of a local culture and entire ways of life.
Terra
Madre
This year’s theme for the Salone del Gusto was Food Communities,
and in conjunction with the simultaneous Terra Madre project taking
place in the nearby Palazzo di Lavoro, the events were indeed a joint
celebration and reaffirmation of the food producers and communities
of producers. Indeed Terra Madre brought together individuals from all
over the world involved in every phase of food production including
farmers, cheesemakers, butchers, fishermen, beekeepers, winemakers,
bakers, chefs, cooperative agronomists, nomadic herdsmen and women,
and many more, all coming together share problems and solutions, food
and friendship.
The
sheer logistics of this vast and ambitious undertaking were mind-boggling
for Terra Madre gathered together over 4000 delegates from some 130
countries grouped together in 1200 food communities from five continents.
Delegates were put up in private homes, monasteries, agriturismo
guesthouses and bed & breakfasts throughout the region, and
a strong element of the event was about creating bonds and common links
between differing cultures. Each day an extensive programme of talks
and seminars and workshops took place in the Palazzo di Lavoro over
the most fascinating ranges of topics, from the transhumance to common
problems in the raising of livestock to making cheeses from raw milk
to the economics of female cooperatives and associations in the developing
world.
A
Terra Madre delegate from the highlands of Ladakh
Meanwhile, the Palazzo di Lavoro itself was transformed into a true
global village as delegates sprawled out on the floor, many in their
national dress, spoke to visitors and new aquaintances in whatever common
language we could find, while sometimes offering foods and handicrafts
for sale. I met some people from Ladakh who were eager to explain to
me about the dried pellets of spinach-like vegetable they eat along
with mountain herbs from the high arid Himalyan plateau. I encountered
a campesino from Peru and learned about arracacha,
an indigenous tuber cultivated organically in the Andes. I tasted sun-dried
mangoes prepared and sold by a women’s cooperative in Burkina
Faso. And over lunch I enjoyed a lively and fascinating discussion with
a proud and handsome native Canadian from Vancouver Island who supplements
traditional salmon fishing with the sustainable gathering of herring
spawn on kelp, a product that finds a ready market in Japan.
Wandering
through this vast collection of humanity, bound together with the common
interest in learning more about how we all live and eat and survive
and prosper, sharing and interweaving the stories of our cultures and
civilisations, was indeed a humbling and inspiring experience.
Food
and wine writer and author Carla Capalbo wearing a most splendid hat
she acquired from a pescivendola
— fishwife — from Equatorial Guinea
Slow
Wine at the Salone del Gusto
Slow Food as a movement has long been a champion of ‘slow wine’,
that is, wines made from indigenous grape varieties using traditional
methods, wines that are hand crafted artisan works of art, not mass
or industrially produced. At the Salone this year, there was certainly
plenty of opportunity to taste wines as well as foods. For example a
vast Enoteca offered visitors the chance to taste wines from throughout
the world and every region of Italy, while the Sala di Nebbiolo had
on show Nebbiolo wines made anywhere in Italy or the world that this
rare and prestigious grape variety is cultivated.
The
Salone Enoteca offered visitors the chance to taste wines from throughout
Italy and the world
Numerous Taste Workshops explored wines (horizontal tastings of Chateauneuf-du-Pape,
Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino; vertical tastings of Chateau Rauzan-Ségla
and Dom Perignon; an introduction to the wines of New Zealand; organic
wines from the United States) as well as investigated relationships
between wines and foods (parmigiano reggiano and great Tuscan
reds; Comté and Chateauneuf-du-Pape; mortadella and
sparkling wines).
The
Tre Bicchieri Gambero Rosso tasting of wines takes place on the famous
Fiat ramps of Lingotto that lead to the test racetrack on the roof
The most important wine event at the Salone is the Tre Bicchiere Gambero
Rosso/Slow Food guide awards, and afterwards the remarkable tasting
set up on the four-story Fiat ramps that lead to the amazing test racetrack
on the roof of Lingotto. The annual guidebook ‘I Vini d’Italia’
co-published by Gambero Rosso in conjunction with Slow Food is considered
by producer and public alike to be the most important eagerly awaited
annual Italian wine publication. Wines that are awarded the highest
accolade, elite ‘Tre Bicchieri’ (three glasses) status are
virtually guaranteed the fast-track to commercial and popular success.
So the Tre
Bicchiere tasting itself is something of a celebration for the entire
Italian wine industry as well as for the individual producers whose
wines have been so awarded. Every single wine on display - some 260
- is either a legend or a newly born legend (for this select status
is like winning the Oscars of the Italian wine world): the great Barbareschi
and Baroli of Angelo Gaja, Ceretto, Conterno and other maestri from
the Langhe; such usually untouchable and near unobtainable legendary
wines as Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Guado al Tasso, Massetto and Redigaffe
from Bolgheri and the Tuscan seaboard; the best, most prestigious sparkling
wines from Franciacorta and elsewhere; super-Tuscans galore, sleekly
modern with their polish of new French barrique; great, concentrated
white wines from Friuli and Trentino-Alto Adige; astonishingly brilliant
new wines from ancient grape varieties grown in Italy’s deep south,
Campania, Basilicata and Puglia; and traditional as well as new-wave
wines from Sicily.
Where to
begin? On arrival at the hall, I was given a very large tasting glass
and a glass holder to wear around my neck. I went up to the top floor,
reasoning that it would be far easier to make may way down the ramps
than to struggle up them after a glass or two too many. And I began
to taste, starting first with those mythical wines from Bolgheri...and
wandering serendiptously on an extended and most happy journey through
Italy in a wine glass.
For lovers
of Italian wines, the Tre Bicchieri event presents an unrivalled opportunity
to encounter and sample such incredible vinous riches in a single tasting.
As such, it is wholly conceived in keeping with the essential Slow Food
ethos and philosophy.
This is
a philosophy that above all celebrates the excellent, the individual,
the artisan; it celebrates biodiveristy and glorious variety in a world
that elsewhere seems to be becoming ever more homogenous; it is a philosophy
that recognises and extols our common humanity, not our differences,
and which encourages us all to take time out simply to enjoy...slowly.
Salone
del Gusto
What?
A unique exhibition with a host of Italian and international exhibitors
offering a vast range of outstanding products that are virtual
symbols of local, regional and national cultures. In addition
to exhibitors, there is an extensive programme of Taste Workshops,
plus the Theatre of Taste and Dinner Dates across the region.
Who? Organised and inspired by the Slow Food
movement with assistance from the Regione di Piemonte authorities,
as well as commercial sponsors. Producers come from all over Italy
and the world and there are top chefs and VIPs who are increasingly
involved.
When? Takes place every two years. Next Salone
del Gusto will be October 2006.
Where? Lingotto Fiere, Turin, Italy
What is Slow Food? An international movement
that started in Italy, born out of desire to protect and maintain
traditional and artisan foods and ways of eating and living.
Find out more: www.salonedelgusto.com
and www.slowfood.com |
Copyright
© Marc Millon 2004
Photographs copyright © Marc Millon 2004 All rights reserved
Contact
Marc Millon
