In Italy, a university for Slow Food gastronomes focus 06/15/2010

In Italy, a university for Slow Food gastronomes

focus 06/15/2010 BRA — Students from all over the world are flocking to a one-of-a-kind university devoted to the Slow Food movement, founded nearly a quarter century ago to promote “good, clean and fair” food. Nestled in the heart of the Langhe wine-producing region, near the white truffle “capital” Alba, the University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) has a student body of more than 300. Visitors to the six-year-old university, housed in a sprawling 19th-century complex once owned by the House of Savoy, may be surprised to see no pots or pans in the classrooms. “The university was born from (Slow Food founder) Carlo Petrini’s idea of looking at gastronomy like a science, stressing the affective, cultural and humanistic ingredients without which one cannot understand the value of food,” said UNISG director Valter Cantino. The students are not on the way to becoming chefs but rather gastronomes, “new figures” capable of working in all areas of “quality food-processing,” including production, distribution, promotion and communication, the university says in its prospectus..... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100615com3.html

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