The bus stopped on the side of the road where two cars sat waiting for us. In broken English we are told we will now be taken to eat and then to where we will sleep. We have been traveling for over 24 hours at this point. From Atlanta to Milan, and then the waiting around for other delegates to arrive at the airport, the bus ride to Turin, to the Palazzo del Lavoro and then more waiting around for another bus ride to take us to our accommodations. All the waiting had caused some impatience (not surprisingly) among some Americans around me. In response to the invitation for a meal, an American woman announced that none of us want to eat, that we just want to sleep. I watched the expressions of our Italian hosts go from confusion, to hurt–a sad sort of hurt. My friend and I spoke up and said we would eat, that we would be honored. The rest of the group got into the waiting cars and were taken to their accommodations. We remained standing on the side of the road with our two new Italian friends. The four of us proceeded to walk down the road No one spoke; the only sound was the crunch of gravel under our feet. It was dark, and a fog hung in the air. We walked into a seemingly abandoned courtyard and approached a stone building.

Upon entering this building, our senses were brought to life. We were welcomed by long tables laden with pitchers of wine, sparkling water, bread, smiling faces, and warmth. Chef Lucca and his family greeted us and brought out the first course (of many to follow) of cured meat. It became evident with the first taste, that the meat was cured by Chef Lucca himself, that the wine was from his grapes, that he was an artist, and we were sitting in his studio.

What brought me to this extraordinary place–partaking in a meal I will always remember–simple, yet rich with complex intonations of flavor and tradition? It was the vision of one man, Carlo Petrini, whose reaction in 1986 to the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Rome’s famous Piazza di Spagna sparked a now worldwide movement known as Slow Food. This movement seeks to link “pleasure and food with awareness and responsibility.” Slow’s Manifesto declares, “A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.”

While focusing on maintaining the right to slow down to the pleasures of a good meal, in the mid-1990s, Slow Food’s eco-gastronomy took a prominent and intrinsic place in the forefront of this movement. From the Slow Food website, this movement, “opposes the standardization of taste, defends the need for consumer information, protects cultural identities tied to food and gastronomic traditions, safeguards foods and cultivation and processing techniques inherited from tradition, and defends domestic and wild animal and vegetable species.”

In 2003, Petrini sought to honor the small-scale food producer–the small farmer, the cheese maker, bread baker, wine, meat…those of us who have devoted our lives to such endeavors. In October 2004, 5000 of us from 130 countries were brought to Turin for the first ever Terra Madre, a world meeting of food communities. The event was organized by Slow Food in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Piedmont Regional Authority, and the City of Turin. Speakers included Prince Charles of Wales, Vendana Shiva, Winona La Duke, and of course Carlo Petrini, to name a few. One need only to stand in the center of the Palazzo del Lavoro, which housed this event, and look around at all the diverse faces to grasp this incredible endeavor Slow Food has undertaken and to understand Carlo Petrini’s vision of a “virtuous globalization.”

Slow Food’s reach is vast. From New York City foodies to saving corn varieties in Central America, from inner city school gardens to the understanding that the consumer is always right, but that the consumer has the right to be educated about what he or she consumes. Slow Foods is about a different approach to living on this planet.

The Slow Food Manifesto declares that, "We are enslaved by speed and all have succumbed to the same corrupting virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods…. In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of living and threatens our environment and landscape." Led by their mascot, the snail, Slow Food strives to overcome such forces.

Jennifer Lapidus is the owner, operator and sole baker of Natural Bridge Bakery, a wood-fired brick oven bakery producing naturally-leavened Flemish breads known as desem. She also sits on the board of the Asheville Slow Food convivium (chapter). There is a convivium in Atlanta as well. For more information on the Slow Food Movement go to www.slowfood.com.

Farinata
This is an Italian pizza-like dish made from chickpea flour. Although this is considered somewhat of a street food in Italy, it is also considered Slow, as it is a regional specialty, the origin being Liguria.

2 1/3 cups chickpea flour
3 3/4 cups water
1 tsp. salt
a good pinch of pepper
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion
sage leaves

1. In a large bowl pour the water and then add slowly the chickpea flour, mixing it in with a wire whisk.
2. Add salt to the mixture and let it stand at room temperature for 3 hours or even better overnight.
3. Meanwhile slice the onion thinly and sauté in olive oil.
4. Remove foam from the top of the batter.
5. Preheat the oven to 400°.
6. Grease a baking pan, about 16” x 12”, with olive oil, once greased add another 2 Tbsp. olive oil and put entire pan in oven till oil is hot. Working quickly, pour hot oil from pan into chickpea batter, stir and pour entire mixture onto pan- this should sizzle. The batter will spread out very thinly onto the pan. Sprinkle generously with pepper, onions and sage.
7. Top the farinata with the onion slices and sage leaves. Bake for
20-25 minutes- until edges brown.
8. Remove from the oven and let it cool off for about 10 minutes
before cutting.

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