Last weekend, I ended up in Turin, Italy with a couple of friends to visit the Slow Food Festival (Salone De Gusto). Appropriately located in Italy, the birthplace of the slow food movement, the festival represents all of the movement’s values and a showcase of many local (and not so local) ingredients and products.

Turin
The city reminds me a lot of what I remember of Milan. Between all the cross roads, the tall ceilings and just as tall windows, to the small amounts of graffiti. I do remember seeing distinctly less scooters around though that probably has more to do with the phenomenal Fiat presence in town and the fact that Turin simply has less people. Outfitted with plenty of piazzas to sit and lounge around, Turin seemed like a nice place. We didn’t really see many of the attractions that Turin had on offer, other than the outside of several buildings since most of the day we spent at the festival grounds.

Getting into the middle of town was pretty simple with a €5.50 bus ticket getting us into town in about an hour. On the way back, we decided to book a taxi (approximately €40) as it was easier than trying to find the bus in the morning.

The Festival
As far as food festivals go, Salone De Gusto has got to be on the largest that I’ve seen. Hundreds, if not, thousands of stalls and exhibits line a large exhibition ground and even in the two days we didn’t really cover all of it in great detail. The festival is split into different areas all focusing on different ideas. One part, all paid for, additional workshops offer people an extended experience either learning about a particular food, region or cooking technique with a local guide. Another area represents all the foods that the Slow Food movement protects, introducing unique and special regional foods whose unique attributes make it difficult to mass produce, and at the same time make it all that more appealing.

We spent a lot of our time in the maze of stalls where many different regions offered their wares for purchase and sampling, even including international representation from many other countries including England, France, Austria, Sweden and Norway. To give you idea of what sort of things they offered, some of the sections they labelled included Fruit, Vegetable and Spice Lane, Cheese Lane, Cured Meat Lane, Oil and Condiments Lane, Meat Lane, Fish Lane and Sweets and Spirits Lane. Of course, there was a special tent for beer (and wine) where small samples started for about €2 per glass.

Other than finding out about interesting ingredients and even more interesting ways of using them, the best part about this area had to be samples that a lot of the stalls gave out and I can easily say that I’ve probably never eaten so much cheese, meat and bread with olive oil (alongside many other small bites) in one day. We all enjoyed contrasting the sharp, salty harder cheeses with the softer cheeses from different regions, the subtle spices and saltiness of one cured meat to another. Many places also offer a small selection of tables to sit down and have a small meal (for an additional price of course) or small tapas like plates for a few euros.

Running over four days, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had one million people visit over the entire duration of the festival. Combined with the amazing experiences and the rare opportunity to see so experience so many different flavours in such a short time, it’s no wonder there just seemed to be a constant stream of people wherever you went.

The lifestyle
I have to say it’s hard to dislike the Italian way of life – after all it means having decent coffee available at all hours of the day, a cappuccino at breakfast, an espresso after lunch at a bar, or maybe while sitting in a piazza and another one to finish off a meal. It also helps that many cafes front onto a pedestrian square where you can sit, have a chat and watch the world go by. In the evenings, it means having a aperitif at a bar, nibbling on a few bites and a glass (or two) of wine before heading out to a dinner with lots of conversations.

Places I’d recommend
We were lucky that Luca had a friend who’d recommended a number of different places to eat before arriving, and with his handy Italian mobile rang up early to book these more popular restaurants. Of the two that we booked in advance (the others ended up already fully booked), the first had to be my favourite. Named Trattoria Dai Saletta, it’s a bit more of a homely restaurant complete with chequered tablecloth and a casual, bustling dining atmosphere. They even had a course specifically for the Salone de Gusto with wine and Castelmagno cheese sponsored by Asti. We started with a sampling trio of pasta with the best being the ravioli stuffed with truffle and the soft gnocchi in a creamy Castelmagno cheese sauce and followed up with a course that involved meat (I had a very soft veal served with a hazelnut butter sauce). We finished this meal off with a few glasses of their house dessert wine, served from a small glass keg they brought around from table to table. Time flew by so quickly that we ended up as the last people in the restaurant.

Lavazza 10 San Tommaso

Home of the original Lavazza coffee house, this is a must visit for any coffee or foodie aficionado since they offer more than just great coffee and pastries, also offering the unique creation instrumented by Catalan chef Ferran Adria (of Il Bulli fame) named “espesso” (no, that’s not a typo). The espesso range of drinks are mainly foam based creations to provide a very different texture to coffee.

The Details

Trattoria Dai Saletta found at Via Belfior 37, 10125 Torino, and contactable on 011.688.78.67

Lavazza 10 San Tommaso found at San Tommaso, 10, 10122 Torino, and contactable on 011.534201 or see their website: http://www.santommaso10.com/

Check out the photos from the weekend here.