a visit to the Negro Wine Estate

Negro Wine Estate

a day trip to Canale d'Alba

A couple of week-ends ago we accompanied Mara LeGrand to the Roero wine district, here in Piedmont to shoot and take some pictures of the vineyards, the hills and the gardens. We were lucky to enjoy a sunny day with an amazing light; we rode on small state roads to accommodate Mara's requests to slow down and shoot while driving by a cornfield or stop, get off and take a picture of a medieval hamlet on the top of a hill. 

Barbera: the Cindarella of the reds

Barbera is the quintessential wine of the people, this is the Piedmontese vine par excellence! 

Piedmont rice paddies

Whenever we think of rice, we instantly think of Asia however, risotto is a typical Piedmontese specialty. So, how come in carb and gluten obsessed Italy, there's a whole cultural area where people are so fond of rice to invent risotto?

Madernassa Pear: the Roero symbol

Madernassa tree on the Negro wine estate in Canale

In August, we went to Guarene, in the Roero wine district, to meet with our winemaker friend Giuseppino Anfossi who, after intrucing us to his amazing Arneis DOCG, drove us to Osteria La Madernassa where we met the Herbalist chef, Michelangelo Mammoliti and had a peek through his very creative mind.

Bees in Turin's heart

UrBees: "our revolution! We help bees to survive in our cities with us"

Bees, tiny and so precious, yet many people aren't aware they are disappearing from many countries.

Just like New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, Turin has urban bees too as I found it out in May when visiting the Royal Palace of Venaria and stopped at the UrBees stall.

TurinEpi day3 and goodbye apericena

Very quickly we got to our third and last day of Turin Epicurean Capital 2014. 

The round table facilitatator, Paolo Rigiroli decided to keep up the convivial atmosphere with the aid of the table. 

This third set of speakers included: famous Italian author Margherita Oggero - naturally a native of Turin, Elena Chesta Schwarz better known as comidademama foodblog, Italiankiwi author Lisa Watson literally married to Turin even though she now resides in Southern France, TV celebrity chef and foodblogger Nicole Cappa, and bloggers Valerie Quintanilla and Darryl Baldwin who both made of Piedmont their new home!

TurinEpi day 2 and cooking class

For our second day of Turin Epicurean Capital 2014, the facilitator, Paolo Rigiroli requested a table to enhance the round table and food atmosphere. It was definitely a great idea since the interaction among all the speakers was so sparkling; in fact, at some point, even the interpreters were involved in the chat as you can see above.

TurinEpi day 1 with apericena

The first day of Turin Epicurean Capital arrived very quickly and despite the initial mix of enthusiasm and fear, everything went very smoothly, just as planned!

As expected, Antonietta Pastore was the perfect first facilitator and set the bar high for the following days.

All the speakers, Sandra Salerno, Andrea Lee, Diana Zahuranec, Fabio Geda and Elena Kostioukovitch made the chats witty and interesting, sharing their experiences, works, memories and points of view about the food, its meaning and its influence in their lives. Literally, the audience felt a deep connection with each one of them and when you watch the videos and listen to their short interviews, you'll feel it too!

TurinEpi 2014: Thank you!

A week ago, the three days of Turin Epicurean Capital 2014 were taking off so, I would like to take the time to thank all those who made this wonderful edition possible:

turinepi 2014 Thurs 4th

Thursday, September 4th 2014 is the final day of Turin Epicurean Capital 2014!
We'll conclude this first edition with a morning round table and a documentary showing in the afternoon.