It’s now November, and the summer festival season in Italy is coming to a close. However, as always, it goes out with a bang – Cioccolandia, a day long festival of fabulous chocolate! Willy Wonka could learn a lot from this festival! Every year the town of Castel San Giovanni turns into a chocolate lover’s delight.…
I am a fan of “nose to tail” eating, which means that you use as much of an animal as possible, so that nothing goes to waste. The amount of food that is wasted in restaurants and homes around the world is estimated at a third of all the food bought, and the majority…
I live in a beautiful town called Piacenza and I love its local food and wine. It is often overlooked by people visiting the Emilia Romagna region. They either they think that were in Lombardia (we’re right on the border), or they bypass us for the more famous tourist places like Bologna, Parma, Modena or…
It’s that time of the year in Italy when they seem to have a wine festival every week. However, this is a very good thing in my book. Last week myself, my wife and a work colleague visited the food and wine festival in Fiorenzuola. This is a village which is a village about 15…
One of the best things that I’ve discovered about Italy is the “aperitivo.” It’s such a civilised way to spend some time with your friends, and experience some of the Italian ‘la dolce vita.’
Coffee is so ingrained in Italian culture that the idea of not drinking it is as foreign as the idea of having a spaghetti bolognese. Every Italian has their own favourite brand of coffee. Mine is Musetti, which coincidentally was founded in my home town of Piacenza by Luigi Musetti in 1934. As with everything food and drink…
As you will have read in my last post, Italians treat food as a religion, and there are very definite ways how dishes should be prepared. Another thing that annoys Italians is when a dish is claimed as “Italian” by someone, even by “Italian restaurants” abroad, with dishes that have never graced an Italian dining table.…
If you ask what the world’s favourite Italian dish is, a large amount will say spaghetti bolognese. The problem is that it doesn’t exist in Italy!
Why do I love Eataly? Everyone who knows me is aware of my hatred and loathing of supermarkets, and their row upon row of perfectly packaged meat and vegetables. However, if every one was like Eataly, then I would change my views in an instant!
Chocolate, tomatoes, pizza, gelato. Whatever they choose, one of the many things I love about Italy is that there seems to a food festival almost every week. So, when I spotted a festival celebrating chocolate just down the road from me, I all but packed my tent so I could be first in the queue.
My crusade for the new year is get everyone growing their own fruit and veg. I know that everyone is not lucky enough to have an allotment, a garden or even a patio. Now that I have moved to Italy, I only have a balcony where I will use every available space to grow things!
This year is the 55th birthday of the introduction of ‘Chorleywood Bread Process’ which completely changed how the majority of bread is made in this country, and left us with the tasteless pap that the majority of people buy in the UK today. It is certainly not a birthday I will be celebrating, and here…