May
12
2010
By Jack Dancy
Of the various ways a trip in Tuscany can be engaging, vying for the top spot are definitely the high-octane sports of Eating and Drinking. And amid the many cooking schools and village restaurants on offer, we like to dig up the places that take you just a little closer to the action.
When people make the mistake of phoning us up and telling us they’re ‘big foodies’ and keen on Tuscany, the first person we’ll get in touch with is Susan Grant, owner and chef at La Petraia, an agristurismo in Chianti. We’ve had a crush on La Petraia since we first came here a few years ago. Until this Spring, Petraia functioned as a farm, restaurant, cooking school, hotel, forest and retreat. This year they’re focusing on what they do best: foraging classes.
The fantasy of any city-chef is gathering his own food for lunch somewhere more interesting than a supermarket. Like, say, a huge chesnut forest in Chianti. This is the Petraia cooking class – part hike, part fungus identification, part slicing and dicing, and (thankfully) a large part eating. Petraia grows a lot of food and raises live-stock, but it’s the wild side that’s really most interesting, and hardest to fake, and most central to their project of a sustained balance between eater and eaten.
Susan in turn put us on to the nearby goat’s cheese producers at Corzano & Paterno, a weird and wonderful family that seems to combine the best of the England, Switzerland and Italy that fizz in their family bloodline, a multi-cousined menagerie of cheese-makers and jet-setters. Outside the village of San Pancrazio is their new cheese production – no longer the ramshackle family castello it was last year, but an up-to-date stainless steel Bond-bad-guy lair of pecorino. Even if you hanker for everything to be made of crumbling dry-stone walls and roman tiles, if you’re interested in food, you should visit lots of farms. And if you can find another one that makes as many good cheeses as this one, please give me the address.
Another person who loves Corzano cheese is the indomitable Judy Witts – La Divina Cucina. Judy really knows her stuff, it’s that simple. She does market walks in Florence, and cooking classes out in the countryside. But these are really just an excuse to spend time with her; because her enthusiasm is as pervasive as a truffle in a fridge, and her knowledge of the food and cooking of Tuscany is as valuable. If I may labour an analogy to make a point. I was pleased to read someone agree with me on that recently.
It was Judy who told me that the famous Dario, pictured, has now opened Mac Dario. The man is a marketing genius. Marketing genius, and butcher – a rare combination. His collection of restaurants and butchery in Panzano is like a Disney World for meat lovers – it’s got all the rides, but the prices are more family-friendly. Dario’s 3 mile grin conceals a serious-minded approach to food – I don’t know if I’d call it democratic, or communist – that great food should be cheap. It’s hard to argue with him when you’re in his cold room surrounded by hanging carcasses and he’s making his point with a meat cleaver.
Tuscany’s so tasty, I could go on. These are the things that make Trip-Planning fun, and that, we hope, make trips interesting. Of course, if you’re not into food, there’s lots of art in Tuscany. And biking. But that’s for another post.
Jack Dancy is always willing to face the wilderness if it means he can relish his rewards in the kitchen. But he's also willing to brave the complications of Trip-Planning too. Get in touch, or check out more of tales his bravery here.