In keeping with our Flavours and Fragrances theme for February, we went in search of how Italy is progressing its love of food and culture, and found Turin.
This former first capital of Italy is the thriving global centre of the slow food movement, it plays host to festivals and events celebrating cuisine excellence, and a local leading light is behind an astonishing 80,000 square metre theme park dedicated to preserving and celebrating traditional Italian agriculture and food production.
Turin, like pockets of places around the world, has recognized that the centre of gravity is moving. Environmental degradation climate, shifting demographics and how we work have set the world on a wave of change, that is not always welcome.
Seemingly the big picture is breaking down, increasingly attention is turning to places and communities that are living the ethos of “a life well lived.”
Seemingly the big picture is breaking down, increasingly attention is turning to places and communities that are living the ethos of “a life well lived.”
Turin has been slow in getting recognition it deserves as the slow food capital of the world, but is now having its day in the sun thanks to its stylish and savvy Mayor, Chiara Appendino.
Ms Appendino and her team are on a mission to transport the taste of Turin from field, to fork and onwards to the global palate.
Turin’s historical narrative is one of empire, industry, food and culture. Capital of Italy’s Piedmont region, its geo-political location in the European Alps attracted the armies of Rome, Constantinople, Austria, France, Russia and Germany. Influences from those times are found in the sweep of the spires and stature of this city’s offices, opera houses, and cafes.
Picturesque as it is, Turin has been seen as Italy’s forgotten city, cast as a northern, dark, industrial motor town, which has has earned it a backwater status, with tourist traffic making for Florence or Venice and bypassing the greater region of Piedmont.
However, increasing recognition of its status as Italy’s truffle capital, and with the town of Bra to the northwest now the undisputed home of the Slow Food Movement, Turin’s fortunes and reputation are changing.
But it’s not all menu magnificence that is shining a new light on Turin and Piedmont. Move outdoors and discover the Grand Paradiso National Park and sub alpine lakes, that easily rank with their Como neighbours. A fact celebrated in Robert Browning’s poem “By the Fireside,” written during a stay at Lake Orta.
But it’s not all menu magnificence that is shining a new light on Turin and Piedmont. Move outdoors and discover the Grand Paradiso National Park and sub alpine lakes, that easily rank with their Como neighbours. A fact celebrated in Robert Browning’s poem “By the Fireside,” written during a stay at Lake Orta.
Described by German Philosopher Frederic Nietzsche as the capital of discovery, Turin is a global city that has never been closed for repairs.
It is a centre of perpetual motion for creative invention. No surprises then, that shortly after the election Mayor Appendino moved to make good on her plans to turn Turin into Italy’s vegetarian city.
Not content to be just a repository of culture and innovation; it is home after all to the Shroud of Turin, the Museo Egizio boasting more 30,000 Egyptian artefacts and Fiat, and the Fiat 124 Sport Spider. Turin and its surrounding Piedmont are the centre of a global and expanding slow food movement. Its Sprezzatura on a plate – European, savvy and very chic!
The glorious 1980’s. A time of changing fortunes as Piedmont born Carlo Petrini, a former activist within the communist movement launched a new revolution from the city of Bra, 50kms south of Turin; theSlow Food Movement, 100,000 members and 2,000 food communities. This area of Piedmont is now host to the University of Gastronomic Sciences, and “Cheese,” the Slow Food biennial festival featuring international artisanal cheeses. The region is further blessed with the sparkling Asti spumante and Barolo and Barbaresco reds.
Turin, positioned as Italy’s vegetarian city is a smart move. It combines the attractiveness of the Slow Food Movement and the savoir-faire of Turin based global foodie Eataly with 30 franchises worldwide and the 20 acre (80,000 sq metre) FICO Eataly World gourmet theme park.
Framed within a region that is garden like, industrial-design smart and stylish to boot, Ms. Appendino’s vision for Turin resonates with lifestyle and creativity.
This Month’s Competition
To enjoy a flavoursome treat, just enter your details for our Flavours and Fragrances delicious coffee break competition. Enter here. Bon Appetit or as the Italians say Buon appetito!
Nicola.
