Corby Kummer - The Pleasures of Slow Food: Celebrating Authentic Traditions, Flavors, and Recipes

FOR JA
Who made this,
and everything else,
possible

The Slow Food movement shines a light on the passion and commitment of people throughout the world who continue bringing the traditions of the land and their cultures forward as they have for generations. Bless you all for the privilege and invaluable opportunity to learn and to see into the heart of the unique places you continue to cultivate. I wish to acknowledge these inspired, dedicated people who graciously opened their homes and their lives to us: Roberto Rubino and his farmers; Tom, Giana, and Fingal Ferguson; Elena and Raffaele Rovera; Laura and Franco Bera; the Garibaldis; Franca and her beautiful mother; the wonderfully warm Marino family; Jean-Pierre Grange; the Descoubet family; Jean Lamothe and Marie Lamothe in France; Lothar and Heike in Lbeck; Paul Bertolli; Alice Waters, her assistant Christina, and the amazing chefs Alan, Russell, Gordon, Brian, and their staffs; to Judy Rodgers; June Taylor; Chad and Liz of Bay Village Bakery; Deborah Madison; Inniskillins Karl Kaiser and Debra Platt; Michael OLeary and Robert Hicks in Longboat Key; Ana Sortun in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Cindy and David Major in Vermont; the Dietrich family in Pennsylvania Dutch country; and Daniel Boulud from Daniel.

I would also like to express sincere gratitude for hard work, dedication, support, and perseverance from Judy, Teri, and Anna at my studio, and for perfect assistance from Roderick, Jon K., and David. For Jacquelines generosity, and always to Jenna and Kayla for consistent encouragement, tolerance, and unconditional love during the past eight months.

This has been a magical project in every way, provided by my cherished Chronicle Books family, which, for this project was under the guidance and magnificent design of Pamela Geismar, and the editorial vision of Leslie Jonath. And to Corby Kummer for access to a wealth of treasures. Thank you.

Susie Cushner

Text copyright 2002 by Corby Kummer. Portions of the text in a different form first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and Gourmet.
Photographs copyright 2002 by Susie Cushner.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-4521-3380-5

The Library of Congress has previously cataloged
this title under ISBN 0-8118-3379-8

Designed by Pamela Geismar
Typesetting by Kristen Wurz

Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107

This book is the result of two phone calls. The first came across a scratchy transatlantic wire from Patrick Martins, inviting me to the second Salone del Gusto, in Turin. A young man of relentless charm, Patrick managed to pull me away from the fascinating frenzy of food and artisans and push me into a low-ceilinged, overcrowded press room. An hour spent listening to Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, turned into five years of study, travel, and dedication to the ideals that I immediately realized I shared that day in Turin.

The second call was from the buoyant Leslie Jonath, at Chronicle Books, who thought that the article I wrote on the Salone for The Atlantic might make a book. She convinced me and her colleagues (a much harder task) that there was a book to be written, one inspired by but independent of the Slow Food movement. Against formidable obstacles, most notably a procrastinating author, Leslie pulled together her team to produce a book every member could be proud ofa tribute to her perseverance and unflagging enthusiasm.

Always inspiring, too, was my soul mate at Slow Food, Cinzia Scaffidi. Her role in this book, as at Slow Food headquarters, is incalculable. Mavi Negro cleared the way for the book to be written and was always its dea ex machina. Also at Slow Food, Laura Bonino, Roby Burdese, Barbara Carrara, Gigi Piumatti, and the Sardo men were unhesitatingly helpful. In New York, Patrick Martins, Serena Di Liberto, and Erika Lesser answered all questions with imagination and incredible speed, and with the help of Dick Bessey persuaded innocent interns to gather the information for the Source Guide.

Eric Schlosser wrote a stirring and eloquent foreword at a particularly busy moment, and gave astute editing suggestions in addition to encouragement and friendship.

Something like the movement itself, the book attracted a group of unlikely collaborators who were exactly right and brought out the best in one another. The first two were no accident. Pamela Geismar, art director of Chronicle, honored us all when she decided to design the book. She asked Susie Cushner to take the picturesa momentous request. Susie quickly grasped the essence. Im in awe of the belief, energy, and joy she brought to the book, and of the beautiful design Pamela crafted for it.

Friends told me that there was no better recipe tester in the Bay Area than Tasha Prysi, a former cook at Chez Panisse, but that she would doubtless be unavailable. Upon entering a kitchen to help prepare Chez Panisses twenty-fifth anniversary party, I asked the first person I saw how to find the supervising chef. Hi, Im Tasha, she replied. She was indeed the best choice imaginable, with a great sense of how food should taste and how to put it within range of the home cook. Megan Anthony coordinated the far-flung chefs who so generously donated the books recipes.

Sharon Silva offered text-editing guidance both conceptual and line by line. I and the book benefited from her clarity and skill. Carolyn Miller took charge of the precise task of recipe-editing. When I most needed fact-checking and typesetting assistance, two helpmeets miraculously appeared: Jennifer Villeneuve and Caitlin Riley. Each put her all into doing too much work in too little time, and doing it well. Lisa Campbell, at Chronicle, made sure all the pieces fit together.

I could not have dreamed of writing this book without the indulgence and support of the ideal family that is The Atlantic Monthly. They are wonderful friends and colleagues who make life and work a pleasure day by day. My editors at Boston Magazine kindly extended deadlines in the busy last months of book production. Rafe Sagalyn is the model of an agentwise, encouraging, measured, active when it counts.

Im deeply grateful to have family and friends who keep me afloat, who bear the interruptions in precious friendship that books mandate. In Italy, north to south: Nicola Turcato, Soly Benveniste, Faith Willinger, Ginevra Bruti-Liberati, the Tondo and Guerra-Watkins clans, Claudio and Benedetta Cavalieri, the bewitching Patience Gray. In the United States, west to east: Pam Hunter and Carl Doumani, Carol Field, Flo Braker, Peggy Pierrepont, the Hershes, Kate Jakobsen, Keith Alexander, the Kummers and the Lavitts, Fred Plotkin, Tony May, Maggie Simmons, Charles Mann, Erika Pilver, Nesli Basgoz, Margo Howard, Sheryl Julian, Ellen Kennelly, Kenneth Mayer, Rux Martin, the families Rosenbloom and Sedgwick, Dorothy Zinberg. Barbara Kafka ever prods me toward emotional and intellectual growth.