Sample text from Autumn in Piemonte ~ The Slow Food University.

In the town of Polenzo is born a remarkable innovation that Piemonte has given to the world -- the Slow Food movement. Polenzo is the home of the Institute of Gastronomic Sciences (commonly known as the Slow Food University), housed in a meticulously restored royal country palace -- bull’s-blood red brick on its exterior, rendered and painted in light colours on its large interior courtyard.

The Slow Food movement is the brainchild of Carlo Petrini, a man with a crusading cast of mind, who reacted in horror years ago to a McDonald’s outlet opening near the Spanish Steps in central Rome. The movement is intended to promote everything fast food is not -- food that is individual, seasonal, craft-based, traditional, wholesome, time-consuming (if necessary) both to produce and to prepare, varied based on local influences.

The aim of the university is not actually to teach the craft skill of, say cheese making or baking, but to make the students aware of them -- to study food much in the same way an environmentalist approaches the natural world. Today I’m visiting Carlo Petrini at his university....