Salone del Gusto

I went from Liechtenstein back to Italy, at the invitation of the San Francisco chef. He was meeting friends/colleagues. There were about ten of them, the owner, executive chef, managers, waiters - all from two Portland, Maine restaurants. For any employee who is willing to fly himself over, the chef and owner rent a place for them to stay, provide transportation, and arrange a full itinerary of visits. And when I say rent a place to stay, I mean Villa Bonaparte, Napoleon's hunting lodge. And when I say itinerary of visits, I mean the finest vineyards in one of the finest wine-producing regions in the world, Piemonte.

So I was invited to tag along. Great gig. These guys have two concept restaurants, serving almost exclusively Italian food and wines. They also have their own farm which supplies a number of the fresh veggies and herbs, as well as relationships with local farmers supplying them meat of all sorts. For their employees, this sort of on-the-ground education completes the package and feeds their passion for what they sell.

Concurrently, it was also the weekend of the Alba white truffle market - as it is white truffle season (I learned: they use dogs to hunt them instead of pigs, because after the pigs find them, they want to dig them up and eat them), and the unrelated Salone del Gusto. This is the conference of Slow Food that occurs every two years as a "world meeting of food communities." I had not heard of Slow Food, but theirs is a mission I think everyone buy McDonald's can affirm. The icing on the cake was that these guys would put their heads together in the evenings and make these gorgeous meals with whatever they'd picked up at the market.

It all came to an untimely conclusion when the one who'd invited me had a massive falling out with his people in the middle of the night, leaving me high and dry. I'm putting this nicely. Thankfully the guys from the restaurants took care of me and delivered me safely to Genova. A Servas stop with a sweet macrobiotic-with-prayer-flags couple, then to Florence.

My Soderquist Fellow and good friend, Michael Smith, met me here and it has been so nice to be with a familiar person. He's just arrived to begin a life in Italy which means learning the language first. I leave for Istanbul tomorrow to meet my cousin, Anduin.

Villa Bonaparte
Napoleon's bedroom (I had a couch - no complaints!)
the head chef, Lee
feast
Salone del Gusto
Milan Duomo in sugar
Piemonte countryside
grapes
At Prunotto
Barolo, Barbera, Barbaresco, Moscato, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto