Slow food festival in Italy

Turin welcomes all guests from October 26 to October 30, 2010 on one of the most exciting culinary events in Italy - Slow Food Festival, which takes place every two years and gathers hundreds of thousands of visitors.

History of the Slow Food Festival began in 1986 with a protest against the opening of McDonald's in center of Rome and then the movement of Slow Food was organized to oppose fast food. Slow Food promotes 5 basic principles of eating. Firstly, food should be tasty and give pleasure. Secondly, it should be ecological and of local cuisine. Scientists believe that humans have a genetic predisposition to better digestion of local products. Thirdly, we must eat dishes, which have undergone minimal chemical and thermal processing. The fourth and fifth principles are combined: eating must be slow, moderate and with positive emotions.

Currently Slow Food movement includes over 150 thousand people in 132 countries. They organize all sorts of public events in the protection of biodiversity and gastronomic traditions. Festival in Turin is one of such events; this is a truly gastronomic Eden. All major events are held in four huge halls, two of which are devoted to different regions and provinces of Italy, the third - the rest of the world, the fourth - street food (but not fast food) from around the world: from Kenya and Tuscany to Mongolia and Iraqi Kurdistan. The whole atmosphere of the festival contributes to the fact that visitors would be able to learn the spirit and the idea of eating without haste, whether it's soup, garnish, seafood or dessert.

The cost of the ticket to the festival is about 40 euros for one day, or 130 euros for all five days of the holiday. Moreover, despite the fact that price is not cheap, the Festival is visited by lots of people, so last year there were about 150 thousand visitors. But it is quite understandable, where else for that amount of money you can try Parmesan from Modena with Piedmont wine, Spanish chorizo sausage with Catalan cava, fresh oysters with Breton butter and cider, and smoked venison on traditional Saami recipe. Also in the program of Slow Food Festival are the best wines.