Artisanal food movement – Italian Style

Like all serious eaters, we all love the idea of the Slow Food movement and what it stands for, namely supporting sustainable, artisanal food.

During a trip to Sicily this summer, friend and fellow foodie Anita Iaconangelo of Italian Connection Walking and Culinary Tours put me onto the Eataly Project – whose goal is to dispel the misnomer that artisanal products are rare and expensive, products that can be impossible to find outside a handful of gourmet shops – the privilege of the foodie elite. Eataly brings together the best of Italy’s small-scale producer’s niche products at affordable prices. How do they do it? Simply by minimizing the distribution chain to the bare minimum and offer their products directly to the consumer. Check them out. You’ll be glad you did.

Anita also mentioned that she dined at the Wine Bar & Grill in the Rosa Alpina Hotel & Spa, a Relais & Châteaux hotel in the Dolomites. Its menus are said to celebrate local specialties, such as grilled meat and vegetables it also offers home made pasta dishes, rich salads. There, she ordered a veal chop and when it was served, it was accompanied by Calf Identity Card detailing the breed, place/farm where it was raised, what it was fed (mostly mother’s milk & forage), name of slaughterhouse, etc. Finding out the true source of what you eat can be difficult, so to all you slow foodies out there, this is a wonderful food tradition to celebrate a delicious meal.