Cheese, Slow Food’s signature event dedicated to ‘il formaggio’, returns to Bra this Friday for four days. Hundreds of artisanal producers from Italy and abroad will set up their stands in the streets of this Piedmont town, the birthplace of Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini, located 50 kilometers south of Turin.
This year’s event will focus on products from the fragile ecosystems of the mountains, threatened by industrial development. The threat extends to traditional cheese-making techniques, which risk getting lost along with centuries-old cultures. Luckily, the mountains are still home to an incredible variety of cheeses, which artisanal producers take pride in protecting and promoting. Cheese will discuss problems and solutions through a program of conferences, debates, meetings, Taste Workshops and more.
Furthermore, at the Cheese Market, cheese aficionados will be able to discover the extraordinary biodiversity of cheese production from around the world. Italy will feature prominently with 27 Italian Presidia, including Heritage Bitto, Tuma Macagn, Upper Elvo Raw Milk Butter, Sole, Rabbi and Pejo Valleys Casolét, and Moena Puzzone, representing many different Italian regions.
The festival will also include Slow Food Presidia related to animal breeds, bread, cereals, honey and jam. As explained by Slow Food, the presidia are “projects that support quality productions at risk of extinction, protect unique regions and ecosystems, recover traditional processing methods, and safeguard native breeds and local plant varieties.”
Cheese is a celebration of those “remaining cheesemakers and herders who, with their passion and commitment, are resisting standardization and the homogenization of taste.”
For more information and to plan your visit, click here.
Follow our Slow Food series, dedicated to traditional, artisanal products of the presidia, here.
