A Report from the International Slow Food "Salone da Gusto" food exposition in Turin.

What Is Slow Food?

Carlo Petrini, an Italian journalist, established Slow Food as an antidote to the fast food culture which he felt was threatening to engulf not only his native Italy, but every other civilised country and culture as well. If we have to have fast food - and it seems that we have no choice but to have to - then we need something which allows us to reflect on the true culture of eating, and that is what Slow Food is all about.

He's not didactic about things. "Slow Food doesn't want to stop people eating McDonalds", he says, simply. "It simply wants to make sure there is a choice". He is a passionate, articulate man: ask him a question and the answer can spin out for ten or more minutes as he improvises and speculates and conjectures.

In the context of this year's splendiferous Salone de Gusto, the huge exhibition of artisan food producers who arrived in Turin from all over the world, Petrini is at his best, thrilled by all the young people taking part, revelling in his work which has brought hundreds of thousands of people to this magnificent exhibition.

The Salone makes real the movement's desire for "an international exchange of experiences, knowledge, projects". People came to Turin from all over the world, united by a desire to ensure that good food, real food, is protected and preserved, that it should show its solidarity and its strength. Ireland was there, exhibiting in the hall, and giving expositions of the best Irish artisan foods. Find out more about the Irish Presentations.

And here is a modest little proposal from us: let us recapture the true language of food, and recognise that fast food is not about real food or real restaurants. So, if McDonalds can call their places "Fast Food Restaurants", and are allowed to join associations such as the Restaurants Association of Ireland, we think we need to do something which shows people just what they are.

Do they serve real food? No.
Are they real restaurants, offering creativity and culture? No.
Okay, so let's call them what they really are: Fast Fuel Pitstops.
That's what they really are.

Click here for the Official Slow Food Manifesto endorsed and approved in 1989 by delegates from 20 countries

Turin Photos: Fingal Ferguson

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text © John & Sally McKenna
illustrations © Ken Buggy