It was the 30 June 2011 when I received an e-mail ...

Hi Cynthia,  pleased to make your knowledge,
my name is Paul, I 29 age, and together with some guys fans of earth and territory, as well as young farmers, We initiated the project “Passion for farmers”, synthesis that encompasses the desire and passion to communicate the excellence of our territory. An integral part of the project, are Marco, 28 age, and Francis, 26, our farmer “computer”. We are located in Ribera, small and renowned agricultural center in the province of Agrigento. Here we produce the Ribera Orange PDO. Si tratta di un’arancia a polpa bionda senza semi, extremely tasty and sweet due to the high sugar content that manages to reach the ripening, variety “Washington Navel”. The orange grove instead, is nestled in the beautiful valley of Vegetables, precisely nel basso Greenery. A veritable oasis arancicola to a handful of miles from the sea in the district of “Cannagrande”. One of the production areas most famous and oldest, in which it is possible to trace the orange groves older Ribera.

Have a good evening, Paul

After a few contacts I arranged with Francis, the most called Kiko, for a chat on Skype.  Technology is of great help, and shortens the distance ...

He told me how he started the adventure in 2003, when Paul and his brother Mark inherited from grandparents an orange grove,it, decided to continue to lead in the first person. It, Francis, called the farmer's computer, later joined. We talked of Sicily, their oranges, of their projects ...

When I told him to write the problems encountered in their path in order to give a practical example to other young people, I said so:  “Cynthia, more than we talk about the problems of the agricultural sector, we would like to talk about solutions that we believe may be more useful”.

Well, loro lo fanno. Scrivono e raccontano la Terra di Sicilia nel loro aranceto “virtuale”: contadiniperpassione.it

• Hello guys! For a breath we have not seen at the Salone del Gusto in Turin. Paolo I aveva telefonato, but unfortunately my arrival coincided with your departure. Therefore, you were the speakers ... now you're famous, and who stops more! 😉 Mi raccontate com’ è andata?

It’ Cynthia went very well, really another experience that enriches our history. At the Salone del Gusto we simply told the story of our journey, only this time the main focus was to our use of new technologies, certainly an innovation in the field of agricultural holdings.

We have seen how the entry of young people into agriculture can really change this field, and to change for the better. But it is not only about the truth of a youth. It’ a general problem of ideas, new ideas, desire to bet on this sector flanking it with skills usually kept away from this world. We did it and we probably also convinced the Salone del Gusto, that ours is the best direction for the young, for small business owners, and for those who want to improve constantly researching the quality in terms of production and communication. We try to maintain direct contact with anyone who comes to our history and to our project, and we place ourselves in terms of transparency. Our tones are not aziendalistici, are rather informal. The slogans we do not like, we like the pure and simple dialogues. Social media and blogs allow us all this.

• You are an example for many young. The love and respect for the land allows you to make a good farming. Let us know the excellence of the territory using the web communication, the new way to communicate. As I said a few days ago, I write about my Earth, and Italian as you, makes me happy and proud. But now tell me, To what extent are you with your project?

The project continues, the project rather undergoes continuous thrust forward thanks to the affection of our virtual friends in the last year have been transformed, in large part, in amici reali. This without making a distinction between partners, customers and suppliers. We have the idea that we are all one big family,  e con Slow Food tocchiamo con mano questa sensazione.

Farmers for Passion does not stop,  e grazie alla saggia guida di Paolo non rischia di sedersi sugli allori. These tokens of esteem because they make us enjoy our work and honor to the entire agricultural sector. Provoke in us the right energy to pursue our goals remain the same: "Allowing the company to be self-sustaining, communicate our ideas, our desire for territory and important relationships with those who choose to give us confidence, continue to produce according to the trappings of sustainability, the environmental friendliness and genuineness ".

We are working on a redesign of the site to provide a better experience for those who decide to visit our "virtual orangery",  mantenendo però la costante presenza online per dialogare con i nostri preziosi amici.

     I Contadini per Passione… non si fermano più!

Bedda Ribera, bedda a tutti l’uri, farini un paradisu ognunu spera, or land oru, o terra di l’amuri, sì bedda sì, sì bedda:  O mia Ribera… Giuseppe Nicola Ciliberto

Oggi vi voglio presentare Paolo Leone, my Master Taster cheese!

He graduated in Animal Science and researcher and expert popularizer of culture of food, leads sensory pathways knowledge to spread the culture of cheeses. Real sensory experiences that allow us to conscious consumption of this dairy product, apprendendone the history and characteristics.

I met Paul through my group "Le Vigne-tte". A group dedicated to those who love food and wine, but especially to those who love the land and the people who meet and work. Comments that says one evening we decided to organize a rally to meet everyone in person!  Era momentaneamente senza auto, and then after we agreed, I went to take him to Milan. On the way over to tell us of our lives, viaggiammo accompagnati dal sottofondo musicale che aveva portato con sé. Musica di gran classe di cui è appassionato. I'll give you a taste ...

You are not to te souviendras
My face, my name.
The earthly puppets
Are three small towers and then go ...

“Tu ne te souviendras pas” – Barbara 1962

Have you heard how wonderful ... real poetry to the ears and soul!

But now stop the music, è tempo di farvi conoscere Paolo Leone, or better Paolino, as I call it! 😉

• Paul, Do you remember that morning on the way, I asked him how he did your passion for the world of cheese. Let's go back in time,  tell me ...

The passion for cheese food is far, goes back to childhood when my sister and I had a 'nanny',  Maria (Mariute as it was called by its), Origin of the low Friulian; when he came back from holiday we always wore a beautiful piece of Dairy, that, even if well wrapped, This gave off a scent of milk, burro e… cheese not resist!  Me lo ricordo ancora adesso!

Even a passion for the stories of the cheese comes from there ... And 'then increasing more and more to study and work when I started attending farmers and dairymen. Beyond what I could (and I can) I see, There were facts and stories that only they knew, but who willingly shared, e così pian piano mi sono appassionato e ho deciso di fare da portavoce di una piccola parte di quel mondo.

• Posologia e modalità d’uso del… formaggio! 
  

Il formaggio è un alimento quasi completo, al punto che basterebbe aggiungere soltanto un piatto di verdure, magari a foglia verde, per soddisfare le esigenze in nutrienti di un pasto. Ma su questi aspetti lascio la parola agli esperti del settore… (unless they think that Quartirolo is a low-fat cheese!).

As for the 'how',  the first concept you must keep in mind when you want to eat cheese, (one or more) with sensory satisfaction, is that it must be removed from the refrigerator in advance of the time of tasting, the time it takes to reach an adequate temperature, or at least 16 ° C- 18°C.  Then it must be prepared, cleaned if necessary, well cut (I'll explain later…),  put in the right flavor sequence.  In short, you can't mess with cheese!

•  “Don't let the farmer know how good the cheese is with pears". What do you think of combinations with cheeses. Better enjoyed alone or ... combined with ... ?
  

Here in this I am a bit fundamentalist ... Since I suppose the cheese is good, why combine it with something? If anything I can use pears or other fruit or other products, as 'separators' of flavors.

In case (toh… A case, and what a case!)  I wanted to taste some tasty cheeses, for example of goats, and if the season allows it, I find that fresh and ripe raspberries, are a great food to alternate. Likewise are excellent thin slices of green apple, which can also cleanse the mouth from the flavors of fatty and aged cow's milk cheeses. However, you can find an almost infinite amount of combinations, just taste and experiment. But ... avoid offering me the combination with "compote of Tropea red onions caramelized with balsamic vinegar, ginger e…" I got it !?

• I recently discovered Fontina DOP by visiting a Valdostana reality that produces it in the Alpine pastures. In these valleys at an altitude of 2000 meters animals are fed in pastures rich in a particular vegetation that gives the milk characteristics far more peculiar farming in the valley. Despite this, you can not distinguish between a label and a fontina Alpine valley floor, seen that the marking is the same, and is not allowed by the specification to add anything beyond the specification for the PDO. What do you think, and how do you evaluate the descriptive part of the labels for the consumer's knowledge?

This is the subject of a battle that I have been fighting for some time. Just in these days I was communicating these concepts to students. Consumers need to understand where quality lies, and labels, they would allow it. Also the use of trademarks on the forms (in France it has been happening for some time) they can indicate the provenance of a cheese. However, if the producers agreed and did joint action, maybe… they could get something. I know it's not easy.  But… the battle continues!

• “Cheeses and craft beers”. A fashion or ... ?  

Everything is fashion, nothing is fashion…

Beer, indeed beers (cit.) present a variety of scents, aromi, flavors and alcoholic strengths, that can be perfectly combined with any food; in particular the combination with cheeses, which for variety and complexity are no less than beers,  represents one of the most exciting 'challenges'. Whenever the opportunity arises to organize a tasting of 'beers and cheeses', especially with Schigi or Kuaska, two Italian beer gurus, I can not help ! Even if I always come out pretty tipsy ...

• By now you know me ... Tell me which cheese would you offer me ?

The buffalo blue, blue because it has blue-green molds like those used to make Gorgonzola. I associated it with you because it is flavorful and persistent! If eaten during the meal I would say that it is perfect to combine it with a Buttafuoco! If, on the other hand, you eat at the end of the meal ... let's accompany it with a passito made from brachetto grapes (so the wine experts have a reason to blame me!)

• You made me want to cut a piece of it!  But wait a bit, I used to read that you teach how to "cut" cheese ... This is beautiful,  you want to explain me?
  

Starting from the assumption that everyone must eat all the representative parts of a cheese, this fact occurs only if we cut it correctly. Since the maturation of the forms occurs for almost all cheeses (the exception is the blue cheese),  from the periphery (the crust) in the center of the shape, it would be an incomplete sensory experience "eating only the central part, or only the outermost one ”of a cheese. Because if I don't know him, and I don't know how to cut it, I can decide that the scabs are not important.

I'll tell you an anecdote to make the concept better; I shudder to remember having even read it on a very popular Italian cooking blog. There are those who remove the crust of cheeses with a flowery rind,  to make them more presentable (sic!). I specified 'Italian' , why try to imagine writing a similar sentence on a French blog ? At the very least, they wait for you outside the office and take Camembert cakes in the face!

Per concludere, if they are cut well they can be presented well and preserved better. I'm waiting for you for a practical demonstration!

• In these years of experience you have had the opportunity to taste many cheeses. Difficult answer, but courage!  Tell me if anyone particularly impressed you?

They threw me many, but no one has ever hit me ... Ahahahaha Seriously, without a doubt, what struck me most was the Tchoukou, the Tuareg cheese. It is an unsalted and 'dry' cheese. This type is almost unique compared to our usual ones, both in size and appearance, remembers a pastry.

Curiously I find that, also one of the other cheeses that struck me, it is not salty. It deals with, as you may have guessed, of Pannerone (from Lodi), famous above all for its bitter-sweet taste and for the notes of butter that are perceived first on the nose, and then in the mouth.

Then ... I could tell you one for each letter of the alphabet,  but I will stop at the letter B. B come Bitto: "I will never forget that piece of mountain cheese that tasted of exotic fruit on the nose, pineapple in particular! Amazing!”

Roberto Giuliani, Editorial Director of Lavinium, wine magazine and online culture in which 2007 ha ricevuto il Premio Veronelli come “Miglior sito di enogastronomia” con la seguente motivazione: “Why in the sea of ​​carelessness in which reels surfing the net, stands for the reliability of information and the deepening of the news while in the large joint of his interests”.

 It, loves writing, photography, and of course ... wine!

I know him through his comments ... through his positions with respect to which I say, considering his experience. I call it a passionate connoisseur of the Earth.

Vivo d'purpose, my life is based on feelings. I happen to be wrong but mostly c'azzecco. The experience and the pain makes us acquire a sixth sense about people ... I feel Roberto in the sensitivity of a gentle man and nature lover. A man serious and ironic in equal measure. One, because as he said Soren Kierkegaard, Danish poet considered the father of existentialism, the irony is the eye sure know how to get it wrong, the assurdo, compartment of the existence ...

Having said that as I say, point and the hood. Roberto is your turn! It's up to you to respond, and then, pronti your!

• Roberto, I briefly introduced according to my intuitions. Anything to add or reply?

Not, if anything, to be subtracted, you're all too generous.

• You are the son of a musician, how did you come to in love with the world of wine?

In fact, the music is always my great love, I can not stand without, not surprisingly I enjoy playing the piano and drums.

The wine arrived as a professional interest in Mature, about 15 years ago. I always drank but not that much to deepen their knowledge. I used to buy from young wines of Lazio that belonged to the period when there was still producing quantitative, it was difficult to "fall in love" of wine at that time, at least for me. My first love, one of the wines that made me open my eyes to a world of infinite possibilities of expression, was a bottle of Nebbiolo d'Alba at the end of the 80s.

Then I made three trips around France, and there I had confirmation of what there was to know and appreciate.

I graduated from AIS sommelier in Rome and began to deepen our territory starting from Tuscany to get up to Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta, Friuli and gradually all the other Italian regions. Also starting to write for local magazines until, in 2000 I had the opportunity to collaborate in the newly revised Lavinium.

• Web o meglio World wide web, I think one of the most powerful inventions in the world. The freedom to communicate, to have their own space in which to share their passions, in which to tell their own beliefs ... And’ so that now Journalists, blogger, more or less experienced web writer, have their say. Caos o… ?

As often happens, when you have available a free tool to use in almost absolute freedom, some chaos it creates, because we are now millions of people using, but it still represents a largely positive phenomenon, the important thing is to learn to use it wisely. The fact that everyone can have a space to express themselves, but also to deepen the knowledge without territorial boundaries, music, the history, all’arte, culture in general, is something fantastic. Unfortunately, not all make use of this, and this fact generates a certain chaos, moreover, there is no regulatory.

Another limit, at least today, lies in its gratuitousness always, which prevents professionals to get the right gain from their work on the web, except in rare cases.

• "The consumer (very vague term and coarse), be educated to understand that what you eat and drink strongly influences your health,  le sue energie, le sue capacità in generale”. Parole tue Roberto, I fully agree that. But I believe that, if the current state albeit with the media present information, is still very apparent lack of culture of food and wine, there is a communication problem. What do you think?

The communication problem exists, certainly, but mostly it is the miscommunication to do damage, from misleading advertising directly and indirectly with which every day we hammered from childhood. Then there are the so-called "bad habits", those who grew up with Coca-Cola, le more your, packaged foods, not only has cultural problems but the "vices" that is not easy remove. I could see firsthand how many people have resistance to any argument that calls into question their habits. This does not mean that it is useless to try to make people understand that eating healthy is essential, inform you about the damage it can do to a certain type of health foods, but in my opinion it is not enough, also because, come ben saprai, there are those who "works against", downplaying the importance of avoiding too refined products like sugar, sale, flour etc.. and trying to prove that there is no difference between industrial and organic products. But the topic is complex and we can not develop it here.

• I love listening to the stories of people, is my passion! I love to go to the root of everything. About this I am reminded of a comment regarding seeds. Cito testualmente: "It 's ESSENTIAL purchase them from those who cultivate them always, beware if you do not know the origin. Many nurseries actually buy them from the industries that produce them in the laboratory. Thanks to this we lost the tomatoes of Pachino, whose seeds are no longer the original ones but they come from Israel. That seed is a huge problem, also because many are hybridized, or are not reproducible, or are GMO. It is laughable to think if there is a biological control over seeds…” A questo punto mi chiedo, but how can people trust the definition of "organic" when he reads these things?

We live in a world ruled by God's money, This requires us to be wary and suspicious. There are no labels to ensure the quality and authenticity of a product, unfortunately, for the reasons just said, I therefore believe that organic is not an absolute guarantee. Also because, having occupied a market share of more and more interesting, bio was also dragged into the industry. You can imagine how unlikely it is to have a truly organic produce hundreds, sometimes thousands of acres. Here, is definitely a way to contact the small producer, magari a km zero, the farmer or at least to those merchants that cater to local small farms.

• Other topic pressing, want to talk about sugar? You place the question recently under my notice. I would like to respond here?

As I mentioned before, sugar is a serious problem: impossible to quantify the use, just think that in a can of Coca-Cola is the equivalent of several bags of refined sugar, or in any confectionery product is used in considerable quantities. It is no coincidence that diabetes has become an increasingly common disease, which is even more striking at a very young age, ie at the stage where you take more refined sugars in absolute, beverages through, Snacks, candy and anything like the majority of children of this age of consumerism.

Some people even put three teaspoons of sugar cappuccino, although milk has already its own sweetness that offsets the bitterness of the coffee. "Bad habits", Use at least ... just full of sugar cane (not the raw, which undergoes virtually the same refining processes of the white produced from sugar beet), when we add it to the food, can reduce a little 'damage, in addition to providing more good doses of minerals and B vitamins. And then, if we had the healthy habit to always use the sense of smell, would notice such as refined sugar has a sweetish smell strongly but fake, while the integral is much less sweet and fragrant.

• Se ti dico che… “perhaps we need to go back to go forward ",  cosa mi rispondi?

On this subject I can tell you now that I am a firm believer in the theory of the decline of Serge Latouche, we have reached a tipping point, rather, mostly we crossed. We are draining the planet uninhabitable and making the lives of animals, plants and men. Our company is based on the rise uninterrupted consumption and maximizing profits. It is no coincidence that, still, we hear from all the political currents that to revive the country must return to produce and increase consumption, this is madness. You have to aim for a new economy and a new society, I have other bases on which to base their own welfare, the real one, not that induced by false desires and needs with which the system requires us to live.

• Friends, I'd end up with a toast!  Ormai un pochino mi conosci, I love the red wines of character and structure. What I offer?  E… a proposito, from which you are music lover, just put a background, but I recommend, tell me the title and artist ... I am curious I! 😉

I think I can add "extremely fine", I am sure that a person like you, who loves the pleasure of life and appreciate its nuances, also seek elegance in a wine. The mine proposta, strictly Italic, pushes me with his eyes closed toward the Valtellina Superiore Sassella Red Rocks Reserve Ar.Pe.Pe., a dazzling wine, 100% Nebbiolo (locally known chiavennasca) that comes from terraced vineyards and rugged at the base of the Rhaetian Alps, Subarea Sassella.

The background music? In this case rather than the background will be a companion of emotions: Waltz For Debby, one of the most beautiful compositions as a fine jazz pianist Bill Evans.

Today I want to give space to vent to a friend grower that is echoed in many other voices. Bureaucracy, bureaucracy and red tape still! That 's what I hear constantly from the producers. We need to make administrative or farmers tell me… mah, I say!

I wonder if any of these bureaucrats enforcers of so much paper to fill you realize what it means to produce? Of how much effort, time, and commitment involves working the land? But not only because leisure must occupy it for promotion at trade shows and events to get to know, it is essential to know their products.  I remember years ago reading that a company in Japan has imposed its executives to have direct experience in production among the workers ... it would also be here with us, and I would say in many areas!

I support always with great conviction that in order to judge the work of others, to understand the difficulties, problems and solutions, we simply do! Instead of occupying the comfortable offices, outputs, and spoken with the producers!  You must live the reality! You have to listen to them! You are our representatives, and now and then to move, to pull on the fate of this Italy wound and brought to its knees! The earth is what we are left, those who work it is our only hope to save us from this crisis! Let us help you work!

Forgive my outburst, but the Italian, the real ones, those who struggle do in every way, even so, a cry for help! And that's why I now give the floor to one of them… friend Marco Bernava.

• Framework, what would you ask the institutions at both national and European level in the immediate to help manufacturers?

“Let us make and sell!"Why do wine is an art ... it's poetry and technical at the same time, and artists have to have space to do well, They must have freedom of movement.

We are stuck in a system that does not work Cinzia, and not only in winemaking but I dare say all over the agrarian sector. Concentrating on the development of viticulture and wine, I believe that as in the rest of the primary sector is one of the major faults of the EU and by the policies of the member countries: "Guidelines that result in regulations and controls that bluntly define as useless as harmful, a scheme of the implant / explant inconsistent, a customs officer that should not exist and instead binds all negotiations intra-, heavy labeling rules, qualification systems of the products a bit 'random … and much more I could add ... "

My experience as a technician and now as a producer makes me realize more and more growers with their crying for low prices, for their impotence on the market because the supply frazionatissima (and without collective voice, make no mistake), in front of giants that dictate purchase prices of the grapes, taking into account only their logic of profit (the result of an incorrect system globally), not least considering the cost of production of the wine grower.

I understand more and more what in the past has been distorted and spoiled the sector. It hurts to think about how wine is perceived by certain sectors of society, due to wrong policy choices in substance. It makes me sad to see how you have to make do with the administration of certain paperwork taking over the features of a voodoo ritual rather than an administrative. My experience leads me to conclude that I want to live well as a technical part of agriculture fascinating and dynamic and that I will live as a struggling producer of commercial and himself, in the hope (o illusione) that the system simplifies.

I'm not saying that it should be an anarchist sector, but even that I should spend half of my time working for the public administration. What is certain is that the industry needs to have a proper and coherent legislative system constraints that which is harmful to health (it is a food product) and what is actual fraud, but leaving that producers can create originality and that may offer and sell with agility.

I let go of only two examples in Europe: the labeling and the qualification system of the wines on the one hand, and other authorized oenological practices. There are paradoxes of how you should NOT operate at the supra-national sector. Basically the market because we are confronted with the "new world" wine, where the rules are more lax and where they can see that the bottom of the equivalent of every wall that the EU builds us and that we have to jump does nothing but increase the cost of production, therefore decrease the competitiveness on international markets, and to be cherished wines sometimes even on the domestic market. Results: on the one hand and on the other we import cheap wines limit the consumption of domestic product, essentially confusing the consumer and away from the gaudire a product that is part of our culture for centuries immemorial.

Then do not forget that the viticulture and enology are the basis for the management of many areas of our countries: landscape management, environmental management, socio-economic fabric (think in addition to producers also all'indotto enoturistico). This social role should be further rewarded and not beaten by both Community and national policies. Should be allowed to work and foster the development of the wine industry and what gravitates around him, especially in growing areas, where every economic alternative would be either a crash or an aberration and a destruction of the territory. I am referring specifically to the topic wind farm in Spain and as far as I know in Italy: interests of multinational painted with the colors of ecology and sustainability, sold to the territory as helpless as is agriculture, destroying their vocation and turning it into a pseudo-industrial landscape and mass-raped by speculation (in the country had not yet arrived).

But this is a 'different story Cinzia: if you want we'll talk! 

Today I present Adriano Liloni, a "Subversive Taste”!

I remember the first time I knew ... I had reported to his local Moniga, “The Subversive Taste”. Più che un locale, a showcase for the promotion of the territory. L’idea mi piaceva, and when this happens, make no mistake that sooner or later I have to check with my own eyes ...

The occasion happened early and were immediately sparks!  Peperino lui, peperina io, non poteva essere altrimenti. Dopo i vari combenevoli mi invitò la sera a cena nel suo ristorante, The Pegasus Gavardo (BS). Of course that was ... I had no idea of ​​the evening waiting for me! 😉

On my arrival I found waiting for Franco Liloni, the brother of Adrian and painter, sculptor, archaeologist and reporter Telecolor, a local television. We spent dinner chatting ... Cynthia Franco discovered a listener at times, sometimes talkative, and sometimes edgy.  All went well until the nephew of Hadrian, room attendant, I asked: “To start I bring the bubbles?"Mmmm that nerves!! I replied: “Ah bè… partiamo bene, I do not drink carbonated beverages!"A bit 'dazed looked at me and went. Five minutes later, all the people in the room was interrupted by an announcement of Hadrian: “We have a guest room in which disputes the term bubbles, is called Cynthia Tosini. I urge you to stand up and explain to everyone the reason of the complaint”. At that moment I would have strangled!!

Anyone who knows me knows how much I'm really shy ... Despite this I got up explaining that I did not like the term bubbles because I do not make good wine culture. Mi fermai li, but I decided that I would write a short piece,  and so I did ... The room slowly emptied while the three of us recounted our lives, i nostri sogni e i nostri progetti. Posso dirvi solo che bacchetto spesso a gran voce Adriano per le sue prese di posizione a volte eccessive nei termini. But who knows him knows that he is a man who believes in the land, the producers and the people who work well.

Adriano, said that now it's up to you to answer me…

• Adriano Liloni a Subversive Taste, you want to present to those who still do not know?

I am a passionate unmanageable; I created this association tout court, starting from my area, the Vallesabbia and the Garda.

• Adriano, Who are subversive of Taste?

They are a small group of villagers cheese producers, of honey and wine. It all started quietly with evening gatherings. Then, the 2 July 2006 in my moment of madness I rented the island of Garda and created the first event with a lot of boat.

• What is the purpose you aim to achieve?
  

The aim was to bring together local producers. Following infiltration reports have led to a domino effect that not even imagined ... As the presentation of the first volume of the Subversive in Milan at the program RAI Radio 2 Vergassola. The events continue, annually and are repeated in different locations.

• What are the main difficulties you encountered?

The difficulties we have been and still are. Not being connected to large movements and being absolutely self-, in galaxies communication culinary is not so easy. Despite this, the second volume of the Subversive Taste reached Paris, and for a lucky chance, won the Cookbook Awards for the photography industry, a major international prize.

• As you can see Italy for small to medium manufacturers at this time? And what do you think will make immediate competent Institutions?

The competent institutions? Which? Those state? Waiting for Godot… L’Italia non è paese da piccoli artigiani e piccoli imprenditori. Per quanto riguarda gli aiuti si preferiscono fare progetti faraonici per grandi aziende…

• Women are passionate about wine, but especially of his world, tell me how you live the wine?

How to live the wine and good food?  Secondo te?   😉

• Tell me about your local, The Pegasus. Com’è nato ?

E 'she born in December 1987. After various work experiences in the field, we landed me and my brother in this hidden local management after twelve bankruptcy was closing its doors… Such voluntary, little money and a lot of ideas. A dangerous mix that has lasted nearly a quarter of a century ... We have focused on a kitchen alternative to mountain and sea with recipes of our own creation. Years of uphill struggle and dedication and we are still here despite the great crisis in the sector. Historical customers who return, we are practically aged together ... Some of them have done here their ceremonies or even confirmation of baptism, I have seen them grow year after year. A loyalty that gratifies us and that gives us the strength to go on ...

I met Mario Maffi – Winemaker and Technical Director of the Agricultural Montelio – thanks to his invitation for a visit to the cellar. I listened and listened to me for hours. A simple man like few – gaze frank and sincere – linked to the territory, its history and its traditions. A real Italian.

The Farm Montelio, whose name derives from the greek Helios Upstream of the sun, It is located in Codevilla, in the province of Pavia. Fu l’Ing. Angelo Domenico Mazza, big fan of viticulture, to start business with the acquired land in the first 1848. From 1982, The Technical Director is the winemaker Mario Maffi. Then a Varzi, He is a great expert and connoisseur of Oltrepò Pavese.

A few weeks ago I went back to find it. A person who I respect very much, one of the best men I've known in recent years.

• Our origins ... it all starts with them. How did your adventure in the world of wine?

I was born in the vineyards because my father was a winegrower. But the my favorite hobby was to design homes. When I went to sign up for Tortona Surveyor, fate has it that I forgot a document at home. Along the way I met my Italian teacher of Retorbido, that, felt my choice, I strongly advised against. Urged me instead to enroll at the Institute agrarian despite my best grades were in construction and topography. After school Eng. Shoulder offered me a partnership in his studio. Literally burst into tears when I had to give up ... I had just received a call; I had to leave for the military. It was not his destiny, and I surrendered to fate. Once back I specialized in Oenology.

• I often ask this question and I would also like your opinion. In Italy there are many small producers. I often hear industry experts argue that these small businesses, failing mostly to pay the expenses for new technologies, can not make quality wines. What do you think?

This speech may make sense only with white wines. For red wines, no. The red wine is born in the vineyard. I have a dear friend who is going through a difficult time due to health problems, a music teacher involved in social. It, Giuseppe Colombo, along with three friends decided to produce wine good, and he turned to me. A day in the context of the important ones Piedmont,  in a tasting of eleven wines tasted blindfold, It was very successful despite the small dimension of reality. Red wine, starting from a good grape, can be produced safely with excellent results.

• What do you think will make the institution immediately to help manufacturers in a concrete way?

Need less bureaucracy, need a strong investment in young people, focused and not scattered, to create entrepreneurship.

After the war the Friuli Venezia Giulia gave money to the peasant families. But they had to invest a minimum of eight acres, and thirty-year mortgages with subsidized. If you decided to quit before the company, had to return the money ...

• And 'now widespread tendency to classify wines in biological, biodynamics, organic ... Do not you think that we can further confuse the consumer?

To say organic is almost a fashion seen that the average Italian is not polite to an end. As long as I shall see an organic vineyard sign near highly polluted areas, I can not believe in biological. The biological might have a logic if there was a strict regulation that would ensure its implementation.

Should be done with a mapping of land free from major sources of pollution, and a little rainy mapping of areas. They can not tell me you in the valley of the Adige with 1300 mm of rain per year can do with the biological parameters of Brussels.

Our Wine Company Montelio,  falls into a category I call "towards the environment”. We try to make integrated agriculture. We left the woods around the vineyards, and we have allowed a group of natural building, next to the plants, artificial nests to facilitate the return of great tits and redstarts.

Recreate a natural environment, This is what's really important…

I had the pleasure to know him and to listen to the latest edition of Oil Workshop, the Food Festival which he directed and designed to deepen and spread through holistic paths, the culture of the oils. Clarify any doubt it is always useful ... so,  pronti your!

Luigi Uploaded by profession ... Oleologo. Writer and journalist, has published several books on olive oil, in addition to a novel, The oil of the conversion. Collaborates with several Italian and foreign newspapers.

• From 2003 directs the weekly online "Teatro Naturale"Periodical specialized in agriculture, Power and Environment.
• Since February 2009 directs the monthly on-line in English "Teatro Naturale International”.
• From 18 November 2010 edits the blog “Oil Workshop“.

• Uploaded Louis, oleologo-adviser tells 360 ° olive oil. How did this your adventure in the world of olive oil?
  

It 'an adventure born from a deep-rooted family tradition. I am the son and descendant of growers and millers. So I come from those who are the real creators of the oil. I was born in Salento, among other things, a few kilometers from Lecce, Upholstered in a land of olive trees and in the past has experienced an intense traffic of oil to every corner of Europe. Thanks to the oil trade in the seventeenth century it was possible to realize the great Baroque architecture, by virtue of the substantial gains derived from the sale of.

However, apart from this membership, I have writer Joseph Pontiggia my total commitment to the world's oil. It 'was he who encouraged me to take care. I called the "Pope of oil", Also because of my theological studies. And so over the years I have written many books, and I started to take a long series of virtuous paths that definitely left an important mark.

• I love the olive trees, rough-looking old trees, sentinels of years of history. Some would find it hard to believe since I am known for my talk ... but I assure you that at their sight a respectful silence is imposed on me. The olive tree gives me peace and harmony. Say olive in the singular, however, is not quite correct. The reality is that there are many varieties split-level sensory olfactory and gustatory. Can you give me a holistic map updated?

That 's right. It 's the same feeling I get too, especially when they are in contact with ancient olive trees. It is no coincidence that so many poets have written verses that are great elegies. And it is also correct that we should not only think of the olive tree in the singular. The varieties of olives are lots of, thousand.

Italy has the absolute primacy: 538 are cultivars that Ivalsa, the Institute of propagation woody, ha censito. It is not only an important aspect for the high value of biodiversity itself. It also means to have a real chance of winning from the pressing of the many, differenti olive, oils peculiar and unique. A sensory map I have drawn in my latest book, “Oil: raw and cooked”, published by New Techniques, but the next edition of Olio Officina Food Festival there will be surprises in this regard.

• As it considers the culture of the oils in Italy?

I am unabashedly optimistic. Because I am convinced that, in fondo, with the strength of will and commitment you can still get great results. I have them obtained, e li vedo. Compared to the past are satisfied. We have to deal with the rest of the past decades and wait for the future, working hard. Today we are not happy, objectively because if the consumer chooses a function of the cheaper it will mean that there is no real product culture, in the full sense of the term. But it is different, Today there is a greater sense of responsibility. Manufacturers have gotten better.

Now it's up to the chef, and especially caterers, gain a greater awareness, and study, study time: experiment with new food formulations especially with the extra virgin olive oil leading player. L’olio,  but also all the other condiments, must together take on the role of important ingredient, and not be confined within the food on which the marginal gloss over as has happened so far.

• Listening to your speech,  I remember a concept that you often underlined: "The Olive Oils regarded as true principals of preventive medicine".  At this point the question spontaneously arises: "Dosage and method of use?”

Yes, are "principals of preventive medicine", because no food can heal, but it can certainly make contributions to improve our state of health.

– Dosage: always, everyday, without skipping one. The oil from olives dale helps to improve the perception of other raw materials, and it is also a vehicle of healthy flavors.

– The how to use: moderation, always, because even the best fats are still fats, and can not exceed. For this, with high quality oils you get a high impact and condente, accordingly, also it leads to the need to utilizzarne every time a little, the right amount, designed to add flavor and make it more edible and tasty food.

• Spremitura the broth, a freddo, the first pressing ... We make it clear these concepts?

There is only one pressing, today, with new technologies; and despite an EU regulation to carry forward the label the words "cold pressing" (oils obtained from mills and presses) and "cold extracted" (oils derived from modern mining technologies, by centrifugal) in reality there is no longer a hot extraction. Terminologies are resisting the imagination, but not close to reality.

• Since the average Italian obtains his supplies directly from the supermarket shelf, what advice would you give to a conscious choice?

The best advice is to go directly from the manufacturers. At least when we're on vacation and we can meet you directly at the companies would be a nice gesture of solidarity. If you are not guarantees survival to growers, the whole system collapses. In the case of the families, it would be appropriate to bring children, so as to place them in direct contact with reality.

Then, Another tip, given that the majority of consumers are buying largely in supermarkets, better not to pander to the worst instincts relying on below cost: as well as immoral, below cost can hide the deceptions. This does not mean that some low prices are not justified, if you are from abroad, where the production costs are lower, but it must be said that the best choice is preferably positioned on the products so-called "premium", medium-high. At the bottom is a little utilizzarne, and the little bit of fat must be necessarily the best.

• How do you rate the communication specialist oils in Italy?

The communication specialist in the field of oil could also evaluate well, but in fact does not exist. We are sadly lacking in communication, and often do not notice the true communicators, Professionals, but those who believe improvised need only put a series of words in a row and invest money in order to communicate. It must be said that the general press stops only at the surface and is confined to post press releases, news then built in the image and likeness of those who can not communicate. We are so far behind in the field of oil and communication of that which revolves around. It 'a serious deficiency that should be remedied cultural.

• The oil improves with age?

Not, oil life is short. The higher the quality, and best preserved oils, more if it extends the life. Think of oils Aging is a mistake.

• Unlike wine taster courses, those oils are not yet as popular as they should.  In your opinion what is the cause?

In fact they are common. More than anything else taking place patchy and not you realize the impact of those tasting courses are conducted in Italian. Missing definitely an attitude similar to the sommeliers, inclined to educate the sensory analysis of oils even the common people, lovers. The problem is rather that there are associations of producers financed by the European Union and to the activity of organization of courses, thus penalizing the true taste of schools. This causes an imbalance and the consequences are can be seen in the few courses for enthusiasts.

• What is the role of oil in the kitchen?

Accompany all, quasi, the other ingredients, amalgamandoli. Fats are also carriers for flavors and nutrients and calories. The oil also has a function of plasticizer and attenuator salty taste, but also a function of non-stick and lubricant together, in addition to the function of brown and exert an anti hardening in bakery products.

• I love to dip bread in oil… What is the proper way to taste it to assess the quality?

Through the taste of the oil directly into the glass. The oil with the bread we taste, but in the glass it has been tasted to evaluate all the goodness.

• And now to finish what do you say to recommend a recipe "oily"?

The recipes are so many, and each has its heart recipe. Now, if I had only one thing, go back to the absolute simplicity. From Salento which are, even though I live now in 1984 a Milano, I say the frisella, or this bread toasted in the oven wet for a few tens of seconds in water, then covered with tomatoes cut into chunks, on which you pour salt, oregano and olive oil. You could add around: rucola, onion, capers ... I think we should start from the simple to derive maximum benefit.

I met Justin Catalan commenting on one of his writings weeds, topic very dear to me.  Some questions and answers, and down on the phone talking ... Cute and passionate, but especially love the earth!  His stories have brought me to him ...,,it,political ideas and social status,,it,The world,,it,"A chat with ... Giustino Catalano,,it

Educator of Taste, Tea Tester professional, Trustee and Teacher and Trainer Slow Food Gardens and MIUR. Responsible Presidio Sausage Red Castelpoto. Professional Sommelier FISAR and official taster of various products. Consultant Eno-gastronomic catering. Ambassador of the Academy of Gastronomy Historical.

“Descended on the paternal side from a family of producers and mediators of wines and oils that provided the Moet Chandon liquer de expedition until the '30s of the last century. And from the maternal side are the great-grandson of a baker Modica and grandson of an expert pastry. Growing up in the shadow of these people try to pursue the passions that are in my DNA study, seriousness and constancy. If you have equal interests you are most welcome, regardless of skin color, political ideas and social status. The world, such as pleasure, is of all…”

• Justin Catalano, a blessing for me to meet you ... your presentation speaks for itself. But in the end who you are?

I am a food and wine consultant. Word that means everything and nothing does not mean anything. I'm just a fan of my land and gastronomy seeks to 360 °.

• Write stories of products. Tell me about ...
  

I believe that a product that tells the hard work and ingenuity (what I call human affectivity) behind, is not a product.

• Do you like your job?

One thing I can say with certainty. I wake up in the morning and are happy with the work I have to do my job because I love it. My heart beats for the new things that I discover every day.

• Do you have dreams that you would like to achieve?

I have no dreams. I live life for what he sent me and what I can accomplish every day.  A 50 years, there have neither dreams nor regrets. You live in joy.

Fausto Delegà, my "mielologo" ... The passionate love of the land, for the traditions, for oils, for the wild herbs but above all for the honeys he made us meet. Mantuan like me, lives in Vienna with a commuter plane between Austria and Italy. He is an Italian Doc, I want you to know ...

• Splendor, imagine that we just met. How do you introduce yourself?

How I would submit ...? If the honey and oils could suddenly be understood by everyone in their dialects thin, delicate and harmonic, the world will change. Here I thought I would submit this guide for a while’ years in the challenges, ideas and provocations that launch here and there to move, as I say, the point of view prevalent today in large part to consumers on the honey and oils.

Because only by moving the point of view, changing the beliefs that dominate us, species in the food, we hope to subvert the current dramatic situation which sees the creator of foods, the farmer agri guardian increasingly proposed as anonymous, sparente, in society who believe in large part that the food miraculously appear on the shelves and in the fridges of ipertutto, perhaps for a spell in which the face and hands and the genius of those who make food disappear to make room for that big Brand, the va bene, It took only the final and least difficult path for those who can do the caiman: the god market today largely globalized everything. Here I would submit as a creator of new points of view.

• How did your adventure of gastro-popularizer?

The adventure was born many years ago, Sometimes when I count mathematician I am surprised a bit ', but not for long, given my idea that time is a stupid belief, I would therefore suggest that my ideas of twenty years, with a path that went gradually improved over time. Process required, I would say, increase of knowledge in recent years have really changed the horizons in the cellars, in mills, hives myeloma and in all the productions good and just in general.

I could say that more than twenty years ago it was a conviction to affirm that wine and oil were the words that the sun wrote on the earth and that the soil was a living organism of which we are part. Today, often, you are taken for mad unless you start from there at least to take a step forward. I was born as a popularizer and journalist 25 years ago, when Slow Food took its first steps through ARCI, when the oil was less good and less verbose than today, when blogs didn't exist and one had to write to say something, perhaps for the Unity, as I did a few times for the first few years, or with my other experience… founding a free radio.  The advent of the web with today's social media and blogs, food adoptions, the creation of Po Valley honeys, plant neurobiology,  they favored the start of a new cultural path.

• We are both from Mantua. Tell me about your memories of this land?

Gave me birth wrote Virgil. And Dante noted in the Comedy the courtesy of the Mantuan people. People of land and water, a city born in the middle of a swamp of the Mincio that surrounds it with its lakes. City with a unique skyline in the world, recently disfigured by the earthquake, but already in the process of recovery.

Mantova it is also the city of the cuisine of Princes and people, where in the 1500s great chefs began to codify the techniques. Land of qualitatively excellent productions, just think of its salami, cotechini, shoulders, melons igp, onion, and in recent years also the land of extreme Lambrusco, elegant, unpublished and amazing, see Ruberti.

Unique land in Italy, where they are produced together, one to the north and the other to the south, Padano and Reggiano, two cornerstones of our cuisine in the world.  It, from my point of view, land of honey, with a melliferous history that begins in Roman times, a town now in the province of Rovigo, but then linked to Ostiglia and Mantua, which still bears the name of Melara, Ara dei Mieli. Virgilio, son of beekeepers and himself a lover of bees and honey, dedicates the fourth book of the Georgics to bees and honey. In a land like this, one can only be born mixed with good and beautiful.

• Yes myelologist passionate, how do you think the honey culture in Italy?

Let's put our finger in the wound. I start from a provocation: if I asked your readers in a dry question how many honeys can be produced in Italy, I mean honey types between monoflora and honeydew, and at the same time, as bees do to make honey, how many correct answers would I have? I don't think more than one in every ten respondents. This gives the meaning and the measure of the question. But we could partially ask the same question for olive oil: how many varieties of olive trees exist in Italy? We will have very few correct answers. Because few know that Italy could give to the world, and to all of us, quasi 60 different types of honey. And at the same time few would say that our olive cultivars are closer to 600 variety that alle 500. Then no one would probably answer the question of how the bee gives us honey. Not, I do not leave you with the suspended question, or rather we leave it only halfway suspended. The bee makes honeys with an absolutely extraordinary technique, an immense exchange of kisses between bee and bee, create honeys. Know it and that's it… At the moment.

• Live in Vienna, what is the reality on the promotion of the territory with respect to Italy?

AUSTRIA AND VIENNA.
I must say that the attention and the desire to understand, with respect to our material culture and our products that move with people here in Vienna and Austria, they are generally notable, sincere, and deep. We are much loved, benevolently envied, sought after and often… disappointing, because much of the immense and powerful reality of our terroirs remains stuck in the shackles of a state that has massacred foreign trade, which closes the promotion offices here, and that when he tried to promote he did it with the usual suspects and strangers, friends of ... cousins ​​of ... financiers of ... useless parties and banquets, losing words and slogans.  Perhaps the contagious creativity of a crazy and lucid genius like Oscar Farinetti will make history in the coming years. However, in Vienna we are moving and equipping ourselves to change direction, methods and purposes.

• To conclude, I naturally ask you a request ... Tell me a recipe based on honey?

First of all some considerations ...

When I read or hear recipes in which, sometimes, honey is often mentioned among the ingredients, no maybe it is better to say mi inca… Why…? Why 99 times out of a hundred the word honey is used in such a generic and imprecise way that it almost seems like using chestnut in that recipe, acacia, strawberry tree or lavender both the same thing. This is healthy, beautiful and narrow ignorance.  The same one that makes you write and say too: “a drop of olive oil…” as if there were a single honey, and a single olive oil available. It's time to say ENOUGH to these stupid indications.  One should refuse to proceed with all the recipes that address these two points, oil and honey, they propose this unacceptable superficiality.

Then a fundamental rule. Honeys always go well with fatty substances, from cheeses to butter, from cream to lard and finally also with oils, especially those from olives. Another important thing is that they can be present throughout the kitchen, from appetizers to first courses, from second courses to side dishes and of course… in desserts as the great teacher and friend Corrado Assenza teaches us.

Only one thing I could recommend, not a real recipe but an exaltation of taste. When in the summer, not having the good fortune of having their own vegetable garden or not being able to live in terrestrial paradises such as our islands or the southern regions, often we are satisfied with tomatoes that remain light years away from their true "tomato" taste.  Here, in these cases an appropriate and very calibrated dose of honey from white fir honey from Tuscan terroir, gli mette quella marcia in più che la serra non gli avrebbe potuto mai regalare. Seeing is believing, ah ah ah ah…

As pointed out by Prof. Nicola Sorrentino, specialist in food science, Obesity is a major public health problems of the millennium. The Italian obese adults are around 4 million, those who are overweight 16 millions.One in three children is overweight, one in ten is obese. This excess fat not only spoils your silhouette, but opens the door to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, al diabetes, difficulty in breathing, all’osteoartrosi, and other well-known pathologies.

The Story of Peter Parisi, chef and owner of "Era Ora",,it,I had the power to decide and finally tell just by opting for an intervention is even with the difficulties of before and after,,it,The History Chef Pietro Parisi.,,it,products and territories.,,it,  his restaurant in Palma Campania

• Hello Peter, tell me about you.

I am a former obese kid in Naples, pesavo 192 kg, currently my weight is 74 kg.  Needless to say that in the past I have tried diets, drugs, gastric tube, admissions to lose weight ... all with poor results, and for a short time. The turning point came after the use of minimally invasive surgery.

• How did you experience the problem of obesity?

I lived for many years, say for at least a fortnight. As a kid there gave weight, but growing has begun to create me real problems, both living with my peers, that mental. I was mocked for my physical, and this led me to become estranged from companies.  I found myself in an existential loneliness that was pouring with great feasts of food.  It was hard to get a girl, I smiled certain, but they walked away. Everything was complicated, from dressing to relate with people. My adolescence was not easy…

One night I even risked their lives because of a sudden sleepiness due to obesity, that led me to go out and hit the road with the car. Someone pointed accusing me of using drugs ... anything!  But it is easier to judge than to understand ...

I recall the memory of a friend who accompanied me during my long night gastronomic itineraries, between croissants, peppered mussels, fried pizzas and cannoli ... The resulting weight gain brought me many problems like sores under belly, always swollen feet, excessive perspiration, difficulty in movement.

Cynthia, it was difficult to get up in the morning. A lot of listlessness, headache, Back pain ... I almost want to smile when I think now I can not stay in bed for more than 7 hours. I am a cricket in the work, turn around and casually tossed it is a wonder. Pleasures discounted for many ... but not for me.

• How did you live your everyday relationship with people?

I see on television and in newspapers that many people having difficulty in weight loss fall into despair. Nello stesso tempo vedo persone non obese che ci considerano degli incapaci, of the weak, for our difficulty in sustaining a dietary regimen. The consequence is the marginalization.

I happened to go to a restaurant and being told by the waiter if I needed the support of two chairs.  You have no idea how I lived discomfort every time. The reality is that obesity creates huge barriers,  port and those who live, almost to hide.

• Your willpower, valid and necessary medical supports, the passion for your work ... elements that have led you to make a decisive impact on your life. 

One, now my life has totally changed. It 'been a difficult path.  Ho avuto la forza di decidere e dire finalmente basta optando per un intervento sia pur con le difficoltà del prima e del dopo. I have regained that confidence in me that I had lost, and now, with my experience, are more than ever determined to give hope to those who want to like me going down this path. One thing is certain, my passion for food, for the traditions, for the area that I send in my job as a cook, is constant and unchanged.

• Peter, now you're the chef and owner of your restaurant "was now" in Palma Campana. Despite your young age, becoz you are immersed in this world as a child. What are your plans for the future?

I started 7 age, in the pastry kitchen of his maternal uncle almost playing. Then, as is often the spark is struck, and it was love at first sight. But we think, spettatore della preparazione della sfogliatella riccia ripiena di ricotta di bufala con salsa allo Strega… bè, bewitched seriously!

The studies and experiences then did the rest. My plans now are geared towards proposals for a good table, with healthy,  favoring km 0, and buying from small producers. With the service of Market Gourmet Shop of Era Ora, propose them to the consumers, a new way of shopping.

I chatted at length with Peter. He 's young but determined, passion for the traditions, to the territories and for the rediscovery of the good flavors of the past unites us. Our origins are different, ma eats physician always, I feel at home everywhere, fortunate to live in a country full of typical unique in the world.