Just back from SLOW FOOD's SALONE DEL GUSTO AND TERRA MADRE IN TURIN, Italy

Just returned from a mouth-watering experience at SLOW FOOD's Salone del  Gusto in Turin, Italy.  Myself and one other 'hungry for SLOW FOOD experience' Italian speaker  tossed out sleeping and opted for a 2 hour train ride from Milan to Turin's Lingotto Fiere.  The eighth biennial food and wine festival is like no other in the world. Coupled with TERRA MADRE,  this year they had over 200,000 visitors,  many from outside of Italia, and from what I gather, a group even from our area Charlottesville division of Slow Food!


To give you an idea of the scope of this incredible , SLOW FOOD  began 20 years ago to battle the fast food beginning to  show it's ugly head in Italy.  Since then, from what I understand, it has grown to be quite a movement.  Now in many other countries, we in the Piedmont of Virginia even have our own brand new group, with my good friend, Christina Ball as one of the directors. I am very excited to become involved in this, since I am also working on an innovative dining project with local produce in our art group; primarily as a sharing of good slow food and artistic recipes!

My take on this 'hurried' 10 hours, was that I couldn't get enough of the tastes, friendships, interest in beautiful slow food, most likely paired with delicious artisan wines and beers. I cannot wait to slow down enough (!) to go back and enjoy the next one for days!! We accomplished only the 20 (twenty!) regions of Italy - each region had over a dozen different offerings, from cheese to pork to chocolate!  After over an hour in our first, Campagnia, we had to regroup and step up the pace, or we NEVER would have even done that.  The Slow WINE had to wait for the next show, and so many different lectures, cooking demos, next time.  We did squeeze in a cooking dem from my favorite region, Puglia, with my new friend Michele Bruno, president of Slow Food Puglia, that brought back dreams of Santa Maria del Sole, and their own slow food.


I've uploaded  a few of the shots I have taken, just on my way out to San Francisco, for the FOODBUZZ blog fest.  More info to follow.

But I will say this in closing:  in 2012 I am  planning on a group to make our way to Italy, enjoying Slow Food as one of the 3 'events' in the jetsetWISDOM trip.  Promise more to come! Meanwhile, savor the feel of this incredible exposition! Divertiti!!