Artisan Foods And The Slow Food Movement

“I am convinced that he who sows Utopia will reap reality" - Carlo Petrini, founder, Slow Food

“I am a gastronome. No, not the glutton with no sense of restraint whose enjoyment of food is greater the more plentiful and forbidden it is. No, not the fool who is given to the pleasures of the table and indifferent to how the food got there. I like to know the history of a food and of the place that it comes from, I like to imagine the hands of the people who grew it, transported it, processed it, and cooked it before it was served to me. I do not want the food I consume to deprive others in the world of food. I like traditional farmers, the relationship they have with the earth, and the way they appreciate what is good. The good belongs to everyone; pleasure belongs to everyone, for it is human nature.” - Carlo Petrini, Founder, Slow Food International (photo w/Clair, Lonnie, Torrey, and Valerie at Salone Del Gusto 2006, Turino Italy)

excerpted from Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should be Good, Clean, and Fair by Carlo Petrini (Originally published in Italian as Bueno, Polito, et Justo.)

Slow Food is an ecogastronomic organization - here is a more complete Slow Food Definition

Lonnie and Claire's contact info

"Americans import Danish sugar cookies and Danes import American sugar cookies. Exchanging recipes would surely be more efficient" - Herman Daly, economist

Course Textbook

Slow Food Nation:Why our Food Should Be Good, Clean and Fair by Carlo Petrini. This book is available used on Amazon for $13.63, and new for $15.30 plus shipping.

"The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure." - Michel de Montaigne

Course Objectives

“The world keeps ending, but new people who don’t know that keep showing up as if the fun has just started.” -John Updike

Course Assignments and Grading

"Real work is never a disagreeable chore. It contributes to life rather than taking from it; it gives us the chance to discover and hone our skills, to see how we fit into life, and to lose our sense of isolation by sharing a common goal with our fellow human beings." -Page 82, "The Compassionate Universe" Eknath Easwaran -

Course Schedule

Course Blogs - Artisan Food

Course Reader

(supplemental readings, audio, and video on the major topics covered in the course)

Case Studies, Interviews

Group Projects

Course presenter and field trip contacts

Student list and contacts

Local Food Contacts and Sources?