Truffles and tortelli from Piemonte |
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Collection title
Linea Verde
First broadcast date
10/24/2010
Abstract
The documentary focuses on the truffles from Piedmont. Elisa Isoardi interviews people about the characteristics of truffles.
In the woods, we follow dogs looking for truffles. The video shows landscapes of towns and cultivated fields, and external view of the Castello di Gabiano. Elisa Isoardi meets people at table sharing a meal and giving some informations about the Piedmont truffle Fair.
Finally, we follow a recipe with the chef Massimo Mentasti.
Broadcaster
RAI - RAI Uno
Audiovisual form
Documentary
Credits / Cast
- Isoardi Elisa - Journalist
- Rebellini Fabrizio - Participant
- Carbone Mauro - Participant
- Mentasti Massimo - Participant
- Cane Chiara - Participant
Map locations
- Italy - Western North - Alessandria
Original language
Italian
Context
Truffles and tortelli from Piedmont
Mayalen Zubillaga
This documentary looks at the white truffle from Piedmont (Tuber magnatum pico), an extremely expensive and much sought-after underground fungus also known as the "Alba madonna", after the town which holds the oldest mushroom fair (1929). Other local fairs celebrate the "white diamond" from September to January, for example at Murisengo. The white truffle has even spawned a national study centre (Centro Nazionale Studi Tartufo). Pride of Piedmont, it is given a high-profile in local tourist marketing – for this is an area famous for its gastronomy. It is, after all, the cradle of Slow Food, a movement founded in 1986 by Carlo Petrini in "reaction to the lugubrious gangrene of generalised fast-food", "to push for a globalisation which improves our lives (..) without forgetting the defence of biodiversity.") (La pensée de midi, 2004). This movement has its roots in the history of the Italian peasant.
However historically much of the diversity defended by Slow Food in reality comes from an urban tradition. Until the second half of the 20th century Italian peasants were deeply marked by poverty and famine. Of necessity they fed themselves in a way which can only be called frugal and monotonous. On the other hand the conditions for creating a great gastronomy were all in the large towns: some of the ingredients came from the country, certainly, but mostly it was the markets, the power, money, social emulation and the movement of people. It was not until the late 1950's, with the re-launch of industrial activity and the start of the economic miracle, that the Italians as a whole discovered the joy of having enough to eat.
At the same time as the rural exodus and migrations within the country, there was a certain nostalgia for bygone ways of life, regions and foods. Just at the moment the Italians became slightly prosperous they also discovered the increasing scarcity of wild products like the truffle, fresh-water fish and game. In 1957 the public broadcaster RAI made a major 12-episode series called "Looking for Authentic Dishes. A Journey along the Po Valley" with the stated aim of searching for an "authentic" Italian gastronomy. The journalist's hunting-ground? Piedmont of course. A countess gives a recipe for a truffle-based fondu.
A mistrust of culinary habits imported from elsewhere, a love of peasant dishes and nostalgia for the past (despite somewhat altering what that past was), are all founded in the undeniable quality of the region's products. They drew on the recent Italian past: gastronomy reflecting both the country's diversity and unity. They also came to represent the idea of a nation, a concept abandoned by the Italians after Fascism.
This trend continued during the following decades, while the growing industrialisation of food and the emergence of supermarkets prepared us for the arrival of "unidentified edible objects", marked by a sort of "black box between pitch fork and table fork" as the sociologist Claude Fischler said. In the 1980's several strategies to protect and develop the culinary heritage appeared. Today Italians claim gastronomy is a root of their identity, with the myth of peasant cooking inherited from century-old traditions. It is not by chance that the white truffle, prime example of a luxury product, is shown here in terms of the countryside, the earth and tradition.
Bibliography:
CAPATTI Alberto « De la Guida gastronomica d’Italia au slow food : le rôle pionnier de l’Italie en tourisme gastronomique », Téoros [En ligne], 25-1 | 2006, mis en ligne le 01 janvier 2012, Consulté le 30 mai 2012. URL : http://teoros.revues.org/1307
FISCHLER Claude, « L'alimentation, une consommation pas comme les autres », Sciences humaines, Grands Dossiers N° 22 - « Consommer. Comment la consommation a envahi nos vies », mars-avril-mai 2011.
PETRINI Carlo et PITTE André « Comment retrouver l'art de bien manger ? », La pensée de midi n° 13, 2004.