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Sapore di Mare: Eco-Gastronomy
or the Cultural and Educational Pleasures of the Table

Slow Fish, Genoa June 4-7, 2004

By Simone Diament

Though many people may be led to believe in the endless multiplication of fish, and while multinational corporations make a tidy bundle plundering the waters as if there's no tomorrow, the sea is not an inexhaustible source of food. Who ever talks or even thinks about the problems that beset the delicate marine ecosystem?

To arouse interest in marine environment and draw attention to the cultural side of gastronomy, the Ligurian port town of Genoa and the Ligurian Regional Authority are hosting this week ( June 4-7), Slow Fish 2004, the first international Slow Food event dedicated to the world of seafood and the problems it presents.

As sushi bars and restaurants continue to cater to their customers with feasts of seafood recognizable on menus everywhere, numerous species are being overfished and risk extinction, new types of pollution are damaging the sea and coastlines, and excellent (and cheap) species are no longer eaten because they are no longer used in the kitchen.

Solutions to exploitation of seafood resources

To introduce the public to gastronomic traditions in danger of extinction, and to address issues of exploitation of seafood resources, Slow Food aims to propose concrete solutions such as eating less noble fish: species that taste great but are not highly commercialized due to their smaller size or the extra time and care needed to prepare them; traditional small-scale fishing techniques; and ecologically sustainable high quality aquaculture.

"This is the first major project in Italy to address the technologies, flavors and traditions of responsible fishing,"writes Carlo Petrini, Slow Food International President. "We wanted to organize an event focusing on the need to protect endangered species and the high quality of the 'forgotten' ones that get thrown back into the sea, and also highlighting the importance of sustainable fishing practices as opposed to methods which destroy entire shoals of fish with highly sophisticated tracking technology. We aim to promote the small-scale fishing that maintains small-scale economies and inshore ecosystems, together with aquaculture practices which take

account of consumer health and product quality."

The pleasures of the table

But what's education without pleasure? Being in Italy this event also goes by the name Arte d'a Mare, Art of the Sea, and combines serious eco-gastronomy with the even more serious business of pleasure: great food with cultural, educational and informative activities.
As Slow Fish explores the oceans through the lens of gastronomy, music, theater and literature, Genoa's restaurants open their doors to those who want to discover seafood in style.

WHERE TO EAT:

Ristorante Ippogrifo, Club degli Espositori Fiera di Genova. € 35.00
Ligurian seafood cuisine mainly uses humble but tasty ingredients-mollusks, mackerel, anchovies, whitebait, hake and also, of course, stockfish and salt cod-skillfully turning them into outstanding dishes.

Ristorante La Marina, Piazzale Kennedy 1 Edificio Spina Servizi - Piazza del Mare , Fiera di Genova. € 35.00
I Pescatori, the Fishermen, is the name of the osteria recently opened in Orbetello by fishermen from the Pescatori cooperative. Especially for Slow Fish, La Marina, a seaside restaurant inside the Fiera di Genova, will be lending its kitchen to chef Francesco Mengoni who, together with fellow cooperative members, will serve you a traditional menu based on Slow Food Presidium products: from marinated eel to gray mullet roe and the day's catch-all from the Orbetello lagoon. Accompanied with Tuscan wines from Banfi of Montalcino.

La Conchiglia, Via Lungomare 37 - Arma di Taggia. € 60.00
138 km west of Genoa La Conchiglia (The Shell), a restaurant managed with faultless mastery by Giacomo Ruffoni and his wife Anna Parisi, is a place to count on if you're looking for the finest Ligurian seafood cuisine. A tidy, well-organized environment, comfort and intimacy, efficient and helpful service. It's difficult to resist the food, cooked with the highest quality products and fish bought directly from fishing boats or at the fish auction in the port of Oneglia. An experience not to be missed. Accompanied by wines from Fazi Battaglia.

Gran Gotto, Viale Brigata Bisogno 69 - Genova, € 55.00
This great restaurant, a historic name in Genoese cuisine, is situated just a few hundred meters from the Fiera venue. Run by the Bertola brothers, it bases its menu on the freshness and quality of what is available at the market or from trusted suppliers. In a sophisticated and elegant setting, you will be served food that brings out the best in artisan fish produce, respecting seasonality, terroir and traditions. Veneto wines from Leonildo Pieropan, one of the great names in Italian winemaking and undisputed master of Soave, will accompany the dinner

THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT:
Awareness and Enjoyment
By Carole Kotkin

Slow Food is the nonprofit Italian-based organization dedicated to preserving the world's culinary heritage by avoiding mass-manufactured products and promoting food awareness. Slow Food burst into being in 1986 as a protest to McDonald's first Italian outpost in Rome's historic Piazza di Spania. The prospect of the golden arches among the city's baroque facades and splendid fountains was too much for Carlo Petrini, a journalist and gastronome from Piedmont, Italy.

Petrini created Slow Food to safeguard traditional Italian foods, cooking methods and agricultural heritages, and to counter the invasion of American fast food.

Petrini and the poet Folco Portinari sat down and wrote the Slow Food Manifesto committed to a way of life that relishes the slower sensual pleasures of the dinner table. It's no surprise that the organization's symbol is the snail, a creature both slow and edible.

Their mission is hard to argue with: Food should taste good. Wine too. And foods and food preparations that have given culinary pleasure for decades (even centuries) should be treasured and preserved.

The organization is credited with rediscovering many unique foods in Italy, such as San Marzano tomatoes and true Genovese foccacia.

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