John Kelly attends Slow Food Conference as ambassador for Skye and Lochalsh
John recently won a place with only 30 other UK chefs to travel to Turin to attend the biennial Terra Madre Conference organised by the Slow Food movement.
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic association founded to counteract fast food and fast life, supporting and preserving local food traditions and production methods and promoting the use of local ingredients. They have helped tiny producers from all over the world, helping to preserve traditions and cultures that would otherwise have failed.
The conference was held in Lingotta, an old Fiat car factory converted into a hotel, conference and shopping centre and opened by a procession of 150 flags carried by representatives from all over the world. There were then speeches by dignitaries including the President of Italy, highlighting the aims and achievements of the Slow Food Group. John told me there were over 6000 people there of which there were 950 chefs, 400 academics, the rest being producers, farmers and observers from around the world.
The main hall was set out with an amazingly diverse selection of stalls selling produce from all over the world. John said he saw yak cheese, horse salami, Noli anchovies and even Romagnola Cow! All the sellers wore national dress and had been assisted by the Slow Food group and when you sampled their wares it was easy to see why.
John met and talked to many chefs there, most notably, lecturers from the University of California who told him that they had the same problems on Skye sending animals’ long distances for slaughter and having to work through an incredible amount of red tape to try and build slaughterhouses closer to their farming areas.
On the last night, all 950 cooks were invited to a banquet which was cooked by chefs from the Piedmont region. The meal with regional wines to match was served as little tasting courses - about 9 courses in total – although John lost count on the second dessert course. The food was delicious and such a good variety of ingredients and flavours of Italy. The only regret John had was not to have had time to travel to Alba, a little town outside Turin where you can apparently buy the best white truffles in the world at a reasonable price—but maybe next time.
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