experience the food- gastronomic tours
A world of gastronomic delights
Piemonte with it’s varying landscape from the harsh high mounatins to the fertile alluvial plains of the Po produces some amazing gastronomic delights. The area was for a long time a royal area with the ruling Savoy family and the local dishes reflect this with less of “cucina povera” seen in other parts of Italy. For lovers of food the Langhe region and surrounding piemonte area are well known for the famous delicacy the white truffle , amazing cheeses such as the world famous Gorganzola and Fontina, salami, and Piemontese specialities such as Bagna Cauda and Tajarin.
We’ll take you to some of the regions best restaurants and trattorias to experience a range of these typical Piemontese dishes. But not only that we’ll organise picnics in the vines eating and drinking the gastronomic products of local producers who will talk to you abut the production and the history of their products and their links to their culture and heritage. We’ll visit cheese shops where it is possible to choose from a selection of hundreds of cheeses, visit local markets where you can hand pick the freshest of local fruit and vegetables and visit the local panetteria as they hand stretch the grisini ( bread sticks) originally invented for the Kings son who had an intolerance to bread.
Mad about cheese long weekend 16-18th September 2011
Held every two years in Bra the home of Slow Food, Cheese is the Slow Food event that should be etched into every cheese buff’s calendar. For those who have not visited before prepare to be gob smacked by the amount of exhibitors and the array of cheese not only to look at but to taste! The great hall alone has over 150 exhibitors including many presidia producers. If at some stage the tastings
become too difficult you can get involved in workshops and events organised by Slow Food, check out the street food or head to the huge enoteca to find some wine to wash down the cheese!
We’re offering long weekend packages that enable participants to make the most of the event and the area. We’ll spend 1 ½ days at the event as well as one day in which we head to the mountains and visit the producers in their mountain alpeggio and view first hand the ladies that make the milk and their humans that make it into the cheese! We’ll organise accommodation, transfers, entry to Cheese, book workshops (subject to availability), transportation to producers visits and meals in some of the best restaurants in the area. We’ll make sure you get the most out of Cheese as well as your visit to the amazing Piemonte region.
Packages start at 750 euro p/p based on couple share
Tour dates for 2012
4th-11th June 2012: Celebrating Spring/Summer gastronomic tour
8th-15th October 2012: Celebrating the Autumn Feast gastronomic tour incl white truffle fair
Tour start from 1,750 euros per person including accommodation, transportation, producer visits, lunches and some dinners
We offer two tours a year taking advantage of the seasonaility of the produce and the area. In summer we can head high into the mountains to visit the “alpeggio” the mountain pastures and huts and become involved in the daily milking and cheese production of some cheeses including Sara del Fen, a ricotta made high in the mountains and wrapped in grass to preserve it on the journey down to the lowlands for sale. We’ll visit “real ” gelato makers who milk the cows in front of us, gather the fruit from the farm and combine these ingredients to make the freshest and most flavoursome gelato you will ever taste.
Autumn is really the optimal season to really appreciate the culinary treasures that this area has to offer. With the wine harvest or “vendemmia”in full swing, olive’s being harvested, dogs out hunting for the elusive white truffle, giant porcini mushrooms being collected and the amazingly flavoursome cheeses are coming down from the mountain pastures it really is the optimal time for anyone with a passion for food and wine to visit.
The trip includes:
visits to producers and Slow Food presidio members including cheese, honey, salami, wine, olives and gelato
cooking lessons with “the nonnas” to make and understand the origins of authentic piemontese dishes
visits to villages and cities of great importance and beauty such as Torino, FinalBorgo to experience great restaurants and places of interest
visits to University of Gastronomic Sciences and Slow Food headquarters in Bra
Examples of some of our activities:
A visit to sheep’s cheese producer Silvio Pistone
High up in the hills of Borgomale is the very special place belonging to Silvio Pistone. Here with his 30 sheep he produces not only amazingly delicious sheeps cheese, “Tuma”, but also grows grain to ground to make flour to make his own bread. Silvio is incredibly passionate about his cheese production adhering to practices that ensure high quality but also exceptional taste. The sheep are well tended spending much time roaming free in the grassy pastures. They are milked by hand and the wonderful unpastuerised milk goes to make his “Tuma” cheese. We’ll see the cheese in each stage of ageing process and then settle down in his gorgeous wooden hut with views over the hills to taste his cheese, “cugna’ and bread and wash it all down with a wine and a great chat with Silvio. A truly incredible experience!
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