Slow Food | Blog | Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto 2014

Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto 2014 – A world of biodiversity. Now on its tenth year’s anniversary, Salone del Gusto (literally “the fair of taste”) is perhaps the biggest food gathering in the world, a gigantic pot welcoming hundreds of food producers from all over the world. And yet, there is much more than just food at Salone del Gusto.

Terra Madre – a community project started by Slow Food and now on its tenth anniversary – is today a huge network of food communities, people whose aim is to bring together those players in the food chain who support sustainable agriculture, fishing, and breeding with the goal of preserving taste and biodiversity.

Terra Madre - a big food network gathering every year in Turin

In 2004, the Terra Madre network was launched during its inaugural meeting in Turin and, almost immediately, it took Slow Food to places it had never been before, including many African, Latin American and Asian countries. In fact, much of the active work that Slow Food carries out today would not have been possible without the network. As of 2012 Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto are one, big thing. A unique gathering, a virtuous gastronomic symposium to meet, talk, taste, inspire and get inspired. With over 1000 exhibitors from 130 countries, chefs, farmers, fishers, academics, artisans, representatives from the worlds of wine and gastronomy, a big youth network and the Terra Madre food communities, this year’s edition is set to be the foodie event of the year.

Many chefs from all around the world will join us in Turin to taste foods from different countries and share their stories and passion, filling the conference rooms and attending inspiring workshops on topic such as food waste, sustainability, meat consumption, organic and natural practices and, in general, all environmental topics related to food. Our Slow Food UK’s Chef Alliance chefs of course, could not miss the occasion to do so, and having just celebrated 125 members in the Alliance, what a better frame than Turin to celebrate? We believe that all chefs in the UK can help us in promoting the consumption of UK Ark of Taste produce as well buying for their restaurants with a local, small scale-scale philosophy in mind. It is about giving back the producers their dignity and promoting a more sustainable food consumption.

Massimo Bottura giving a lecture at Salone del Gusto.

Members such as Tom Hunt, Gareth Johns, Eddy Ambrosi and Alessandro Grano are going to be there with us to enjoy and promote the forgotten foods of the UK. Northern Irish Chef Paula McIntyre will be staging a cooking demo at the Terra Madre Kitchen, preparing a dish with forgotten foods from her home region, on Sunday 26th of October. It is in fact the Ark of Taste, with its forgotten foods, the central theme around this year’s edition, alongside family farming. Last but not least, for all wine lovers, the new Slow Wine 2015 guide - also in English version - will be launched at Terra Madre with an outstanding tasting event, featuring the very best “Slow” producers from all over Italy, taking place on Friday 24th October.

Wine scenes at the Slow Wine presentation

What else can I say, other than I am extremely and utterly excited to participate this year? I hope to see you all in Turin to celebrate a week of fun, great food and social responsibility – your participation is important to carry on promoting good, clean and fair food. P.S. Please do come along at the Slow Food UK pavilion and say hi! Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre 2014 will be held from October 23-27 in Turin’s trade fair Centre Lingotto Fiere. www.salonedelgusto.com – 50% Ticket discount will be given to all Slow Food UK’s members. JOIN TODAY! Got any questions? Feel free to be in touch with me

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