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Massive ‘Slow Food’ Festival kicks off in Italy

One of the world's biggest gourmet food and wine fairs opens Thursday in Turin, with this year's edition taking its tasting sessions, workshops and street food parties to the streets for the first time.

Massive 'Slow Food' Festival kicks off in Italy
The Salone del Gusto in a previous year. Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP

Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the north Italian city will be able to explore offerings from across the world at food trucks, on themed tours or at the Via del Gelato, while others work up an appetite at cinema screenings or debates.

The Salone del Gusto fair, which runs until September 26th, is organized by the Slow Food movement and Terra Madre network of food communities, and brings together some 7,000 delegates from 143 countries across five continents.

Slow Food, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, was founded in 1986 in the Turin region by food critic and sociologist Carlo Petrini in reaction to the opening of the first fast-food restaurants in Italy.

Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP

The association aims to educate the public on different tastes, defend biodiversity and promote a food production model that is respectful of the environment and cultural identities.

Today the movement has 100,000 members in 160 countries.

As well as cooking lessons and dinner dates, this year's fair offers dozens of taste workshops, where international dishes are paired with world class vintages, and an enormous market where visitors can meet farmers and artisans.

Horticulturalists will be on hand to offer would-be gardeners tips on starting their own vegetable patches as part of the Slow Food movement's drive to encourage as many people as possible to start growing their own food again.

The founder of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini. Photo: AFP

Russian identical twins Sergey and Ivan Berezutskiy, chefs who have taken Moscow by storm, will show off their modern take on pre-Soviet cuisine, while Xavier Pellicer from Barcelona transforms meat and fish into side dishes alongside a rich main of vegetables.

More than 900 exhibitors of gourmet specialities will also be present, along with 310 producers of traditional or endangered products protected by the Slow Food label, from Mexico's Serrano peppers to Peru's Amaranth flake.

“The most important battle for the future is the right to food for all, on the mitigation of climate change, protection of biodiversity, and man's relationship with food production and with the earth,” Petrini said before the fair opened.

“All together, with our everyday choices, we have an extraordinary potential”.

He said the movement aims to “mobilize the greatest number of people, to tell them what we do and involve them in what we do, because it's time for concrete action.”

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FOOD AND DRINK

Do Italians really eat pasta every day?

Pasta is the foundation of Italian cuisine and Italians have a reputation for eating it nearly every day. But is this reality or myth?

Do Italians really eat pasta every day?

Pasta is the cornerstone of Italian cuisine and an essential staple of Italians’ diet, hence the popularity of the adage Toglietemi tutto ma non la pasta! (‘Take everything away from me except pasta’).

But there is a widespread belief among foreign nationals that people in the bel paese eat it every single day of the week. 

Is this reality or myth?

According to a survey from research platform YouGov Italia, ‘only’ 17 percent of Italians eat pasta every day or at least six days a week. 

The majority of Italians (37 percent) consume pasta two to three times a week, while 30 percent say they eat it four to five times a week. 

Finally, 8 percent eat pasta just once a week.

While the survey seems to disprove the claim that Italians generally eat pasta every day (only a minority does), does that mean that they are not as big pasta eaters as we may have originally thought?

Not really. 

Italians are still the leading pasta consumers in the world as the average person in the country eats some 23.1 kilograms of it every year (that’s nearly two kilograms a month).

READ ALSO: Ask an Italian: How do you sauce pasta properly?

For context, people in neighbouring France and Germany only consume 8.3 and 7.9 kg per capita a year, whereas the average American eats about 9 kg every year.

Further, yearly per capita consumption in the UK stands at an average of just 3.5 kg, according to a report from pasta maker Barilla.

So, while they may not have it every day, Italians do eat quite a lot of pasta over the course of a year. 

But how do they never get tired of it? 

One of the main reasons behind Italians’ unbreakable bond with the high-carb food is variety. 

Italians are extremely creative when it comes to pasta and they rarely eat the same dish twice in a row as they like to experiment with a wide range of recipes and sauces.

READ ALSO: Ten golden rules for cooking pasta like an Italian

Further, there are over 350 types of pasta in Italy, which means that you could potentially eat a different pasta shape almost every day of the year.

Another reason why most Italians have pasta multiple times a week is that they tend to eat it in moderation, steering well clear of potential carb overloads. 

While they may have a large, high-calorie pasta dish (for instance, lasagne or pasta al ragù) on weekends or on special occasions, people in the country generally go for lighter recipes and sauces on normal days, with portions generally going from 80 to 120 grams per person.

Also, Italians very rarely eat pasta twice a day, with the majority of people having it for lunch and then opting for a non-carb-based dish in the evening.

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