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CIVILTÀ DELLA TAVOLA N. 278 G JANUARY 2016 C A C C I A V D E I A M L A C

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N. 278, JANUARY 2016

STOAMBMLAER IOO F CONTENTS

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L’ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA FOUNDED IN 1953 BY ORIO VERGANI AND LUIGI BERTETT , DINO BUZZATI TRAVERSO , CESARE CHIODI , GIANNINO CITTERIO , ERNESTO DONÀ DALLE ROSE , MICHELE GUIDO FRANCI , GIANNI MAZZOCCHI BASTONI , ARNOLDO MONDADORI , ATTILIO NAVA , ARTURO ORVIETO , SEVERINO PAGANI , ALDO PASSANTE , GIANLUIGI PONTI , GIÒ PONTI , DINO VILLANI , EDOARDO VISCONTI DI MODRONE , WHIT MASSIMO ALBERINI AND VINCENZO BUONASSISI . FOCUS 7 The rule of doing without CIVI LT ÀDELL ATAVOLA 2 The duty of the Academician (Elisabetta Cocito) ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA to safeguard quality INTERNATIONAL EDITION (Paolo Petroni) 9 Cuccagna: the mythical Land of Plenty JANUARY 2016 / N. 278 (Helen Costantino Fioratti) CULTURE AND RESEARCH EDITOR IN CHIEF PAOLO PETRONI 3 Bread and water COPY EDITOR (Maria Giuseppina SILVIA DE LORENZO Muzzarelli) LAYOUT SIMONA MONGIU 5 From the wine cellar TRANSLATOR to the table NICOLA LEA FURLAN (Nicola Barbera)

THIS ISSUE INCLUDES ARTICLES BY Nicola Barbera, Elisabetta Cocito, Helen Costantino Fioratti, Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Paolo Petroni.

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PUBLISHER ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA VIA NAPO TORRIANI 31 - 20124 M ILANO TEL . 02 66987018 - F AX 02 66987008 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.accademia1953.it

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MONTHLY MAGAZINE REG . N. 4049 - 29-5-1956 TRIBUNALE DI MILANO

On the cover: Graphic reproduction of a detail from the painting “Still Life” (1910) by Henri Rousseau. From a private collection in Switzerland.

Rivista associata all’Unione Stampa Periodica Italiana

PAGE 1 F SOCMUMS ARIO The duty of the Academician to safeguard quality food

Each one of us can intervene to orient consumption according to the norms of good taste and correct production, thanks to the great influence of the Academy, which is highly qualified and spread across many countries of the world.

BY PAOLO PETRONI President of the Academy

ot a day goes by that newspapers do not report elect to buy tuna in olive oil and not in seed oil. Pay atten - dramatic news about frauds in the alimentary tion to the price of extra virgin olive oil when it seems too Nfield, primarily concerning oil and cheese. Many low. Choose your mozzarella by reading the label carefully. tears are shed about the huge quantity of false Italian pro - Avoid salami dusted with flour to simulate natural mold. ducts (Italian sounding) sold overseas. True, there are ma - Favor rice produced in Italy. In a restaurant, do not accept ny problems which have large impacts both of an economic ingredients forbidden by law (sea dates, small birds and nature and that are detrimental to the image of our coun - protected game). This gets a bit complicated in other coun - try’s products. Many agencies exist, or should exist, devoted tries but at times you run into frauds that are so evident to eliminating this negative phenomenon; something inde - that only a fool can ignore them. In sum, the hard truth is ed is accomplished. Very often, however, in an absurd turn, that in many cases our production is definitely insufficient further and greater damage is caused to our products that to satisfy the demand of the global market. It also happens are viewed, particularly in foreign countries, with growing that sometimes the actual national products may not be of suspicion. To be sure, the Italian Academy of Cuisine is not acceptable quality. Beyond clear falsifications, our sly pro - one of the agencies charged with overseeing and elimina - ducers send their worst products overseas in the belief that ting fraud and mischief. On the other hand, we must ackno - those consumers know nothing about quality. We can ac - wledge the fact that we are a great and highly qualified for - complish a lot if we become aware of the strength of the ce, spread around many countries of the world. All Acade - Academy. In a recent newsletter, we brought to light the of - micians, with their families and friends, should get invol - fer of an incredible “Italian” hamburger by McDonald’s in ved, each one for his own part and as much as possible, to the Arab Emirates. The Delegation of Dubai came into play orient consumption according to the norms of good taste with wisdom and tact and the local owners understood the and correct production, based problem and stopped that upon the contents of our Co - promotion. Some time ago, de of Ethics. There are plenty following the suggestion of of examples: let us start with an Academician, a well eggs! Always reject those pro - known restaurant chain re - duced from chicken farming placed preserved milk with (code 3 on the label), buy on - fresh pasteurized milk and a ly those coming from natural supermarket chain took eggs settings, or better still from produced in stock farming off cage free or organic farms. the shelves. Academicians Not only that, but the Acade - must take an active and inte - mician, with the Academy’s gral part in the selection of card in hand, should suggest products, not just for their that the shop owner or super - own consumption and that of market manager offer the lat - family and friends, but also, ter types of eggs whenever within the limits of correct - possible. One should also ness, in dealing with food di - avoid the needless consum - stributors and the restaurant ption of suckling calf; always business.

PAGE 2 SCOUMLMTAURRIO E & RESEARCH Bread and water A dish that is poor and penitential, made nobler today by famous chefs under the name of “pancotto” (cooked bread).

BY MARIA GIUSEPPINA MUZZARELLI “Franco Marenghi” Study Center

meal made with bread and wa - After many centuries this type of penance ter had its baptism in the Chri - was revived and the fight against the A stian alimentary culture for consumption of meat and the search dealing with sin. When the penance for delicacies became part of a process became repetitive, a great conquest at toward the shaping of a western men - the end of the 6 th century, any time a tality that instituted different customs sin was committed the sinner could ask for lay and religious people as for men for pardon and reconciliation from the and women. The potent and vigorous priest who would mete out the most layman was carnivorous and big eater. opportune penance commensurate with Both men and women however were the sin committed. Such penance would beholden to a restrictive diet when they involve days, weeks, months or even fell into sin. Bread and water were also years of consuming only bread and looked upon as a basic alimentary regi - water (not continuously). Which leads me, just a shade beyond survival, as us to believe that the Christian religion applied in the prisons of yesteryear. embraced a body of faithful of less than These are elements, however, of not solid virtue, ready to confess their sins just high symbolic significance but also and to pay a price for them, consisting of extraordinary flexibility in the kitchen. of alimentary deprivation: in fact, Several present in the culinary though, the sinners ate something dif - cultures and practices of the West and ferent from bread and water. the East are also composed of bread

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and water. In particular, I would onions, potatoes, broccoletti , celery like to expand on panada - that is rabe, eggs and cacio cheese is of - bread and water - not just to relate fered by a well known chef from it to penance but to the attempt , Niko Romito, in his book that lasted centuries to transform Scarpe in Tavola (Shoes on the Ta - the essential, truly the little avai - ble), where the recipes are asso - lable, into something that was tasty ciated with extravagant shoes as and desirable, and certainly not a part of a solidarity project supported penance at all. It was not a very by the popular shoe producer Stuart easy task, yet it was not impossible. Weitzman. Romito’s recipe for pan - The , otherwise known cotto contains quite a few ingre - as pancotto or acquacotta , was just dients; this dish holds its own the food prescribed to sick and against other ones created by the convalescent people, to women who tions of pancotto , both Italian and re - chef from Rivisondoli. This elaborate had recently given birth, to toothless gional. In his book on the cuisine of pancotto has become quite fashionable. old men, and to babies who had no Romagna, Graziano Pozzetto mentions In brief, it consists of the separation teeth. It was appropriate during Lent a few of them: the pancotto of the Savio between bread and broth with other (at the end of which the pot where it valley, the one of Fusignano and the elements that are meant to enrich it: was cooked was broken into pieces on soup of Savignano on the Rubicon river. vegetables, sweetbreads and other pro - Holy Saturday as a gesture of liberation), Starting with the Sixties, the years of ducts. At the bottom, however, you al - during holy eves and in case of a “ fio - the economic boom, there was no more ways have bread and water, no longer retto ” or vow; it was always linked with talk about this food. And then suddenly associated with penance but rather as the concept of giving something up. it became an item on the menus of re - a way to return value to essential ele - Notwithstanding that, some variations nowned restaurants. ments and foods, and also as a token of were allowed to overcome the regime In the great book of recipes by Gualtiero research and innovation and even of a of penance. With a meat broth and gra - Marchesi one finds suggestions as to weird complication that in certain cases ted parmesan, or with oil and tomato, how to prepare pancotto with cinnamon can produce a paradoxical outcome: to it became a good dish indeed. With ro - and 320 grams of stale bread, meat transform a food that was born poor semary, basil, scallion, garlic and a bit broth, extra virgin olive oil, cinnamon into an elaborate and sophisticated dish, of lard it became quite tasty. Another and grana cheese, as well as pancotto a sleight of hand that can be looked variation was bread dunked into wine with garlic, with olive oil and eggs. upon as a sin to be punished with bread or coffee. An interesting recipe for an elaborate and water. There are quite a few territorial varia - pancotto based, obviously, on stale bread, MARIA GIUSEPPINA MUZZARELLI

ECUMENICAL DINNER 2016

The Ecumenical Convivial Dinner that finds all Academicians in Italy and around the world gathe- red around the same virtual table will be held on October 20, 2016 at 8:30 pm, with the theme “The cuisine of Reuse. Against Waste, the Family Tradition Offers Leftovers with Gusto and Imagination”. This theme was chosen by the “Franco Marenghi” Study Center and approved by the President’s Council, with the purpose of retrieving, within the traditional cuisine, those preparations that while originating from partially used food- stuff go on to create new recipes and diverse tastes. The Delegates will take great care that the Ecumenical Dinner will be accompanied by an appropriate report of cultural character to illustrate the important theme of the convi- vial whose menu will offer and honor the chosen food.

PAGE 4 SCOUMLMTAURRIO E & RESEARCH From the wine cellar to the table Knowing how to drink: the fundamentals of wine tasting and the correct pairings with food.

BY NICOLA BARBERA Academician, Duomo Delegation

order to try to perceive the “taste sen - be allowed to “breathe” in order to oxy - sations”. A wine can be: semi-dry (slightly genate them, by being uncorked and sweet), dry (with no sugars, evidence decanted several hours before the meal. of a complete fermentation), astringent An old wine should have a “shirt” - the (bitter owing to a high characteristic veil clinging to the inside tannin level), warm (high of the bottle. Sometimes old bottles alcohol and glycerol con - that have been forgotten in the cellar tent), with an aftertaste may develop a Marsala or Madeira-like (base flavor that has dif - flavor. In that case they should be di - ferent overtones, for scarded. example berries), cool It is obvious that competence in under - (high acidity) soft, mel - standing wine must be achieved through low, round, savory, etc. study (specific reading or sommelier In general, a wine (reds classes) and personal experience. Both more so than whites) require passion, time and dedication should slightly set your considering the fact that there are more teeth on edge; the tip than 700 important Italian wines (about and sides of the tongue, 450 varieties of indigenous species of whose function is to taste grape) and about 120,000 “labels” (of e must start by noting that salt, should not perceive any taste; the bottled wine). In ancient times, the re - wine, more than merely a palate and the back of the tongue should putation of our wines was such that Wbeverage, is a food to be sa - detect the full flavor of the wine, espe - the Greeks also called Magna Grecia vored in little sips. In order to evaluate cially the aftertaste. At this point we “Enotria ” - the land of wine. a good wine, one must understand the are in a position to evaluate the quali - The most important information that typology of the land where the grape tative level of the wine, but two addi - should be contained in the bottle’s label was produced, the methods used in the tional pieces of information are impor - are: the name of the producer, which if vineyard and how well maintained was tant: the temperature at which the wine well known can already be a sign of re - the cellar where the bottles were kept. is served and the correct pairing with liability and quality; the name of the Given that this information is not always the food served. Normally white wine wine; the species of grape used, which readily at hand, we must examine that should be consumed cool, at cellar tem - does not always coincide with the wine’s which is almost always available to eve - perature, 10-12 degrees C (50-54 de - name; year of harvest and that of bot - ryone. We can begin with the color, grees F); an ice-cold wine is a heresy tling; area of production, from which which is characteristic of every wine, that perhaps has been perpetrated by we can deduce the type of terrain. Limy then the odor of the grape employed the diffusion of enormous closet-like soil - as important as other factors - (there are pleasant odors but also un - refrigerators and uninformed hosts. gives wines a higher alcohol content. pleasant ones owing to mold or dege - Sparkling wines are the exception, to Volcanic soil produces full-bodied wines neration of the cork), and third the per - be served at 6-8 degrees C (43-46 de - while siliceous soil produces delicate fume, or scent ( bouquet ) that develops grees F) after having been chilled in an ones. On average, white wines have an during wine making and ageing. After ice bucket. Red wines should be drunk alcohol content of between 11 and 13.5 this preliminary visual-olfactory analysis at room temperature, or “ chambrer ” i.e. percent. Red wines between 12 and we can go on to taste the wine, keeping 18-22 degrees C (6 4 -72 degrees F). 14.5 percent. Sweet wines made from a small quantity of it in the mouth in Highly aged and valuable wines should raisins ( passiti ) can be 16 percent and

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sparkling wines between 6 and 8 percent. white meats. Rosés can be paired with produced an “ice wine” by letting the Sometimes the label may indicate the antipasti, fried dishes and hearty soups. grapes mature on the vine through Oc - number of bottles produced and re - Sweet wines ( amabili, passiti and muffati tober, protected only by netting. When commend food pairings. or Botrytis ) are recommended with all the temperature drops below -10 degrees Italian legislation regulates superior wi - kinds of desserts. C (14 degrees F) in December and Ja - nes by the following categories Doc And now for some details and curiosities. nuary the frozen bunches of grapes are (Denominazione di origine controllata , In many places with a hot climate such picked by hand. This very small harvest or Designation of Origin) and Docg as Apulia, Sardinia and Sicily in Italy, - less than 10 percent of the normal (Denominazione di origine controllata e and southern France and Greece, the harvest - produces a unique dessert garantita , or Guaranteed Designation vines are kept bushy and grow low to wine that is naturally sweet and intense. of Origin) that establish the conditions the ground, or albero basso , without During the period when the grapes wilt that must be respected during produc - supports so that their shadow protects they develop Botrytis cinerea that pro - tion in order to guarantee the anticipated the ground from excessive evaporation. duces a kind of “noble mold” that grows level of quality. Marsala was the first The return is low: just a few kilos per inside the grape, not outside like other to achieve Doc status in plant, but with a high sugar content. In molds. The northernmost produced 1931. Today there are more than 260 more moderate and humid regions the wine in the world is made in Olkiluoto Doc wines and the number is increasing. vines are left to develop naturally, sup - in central Finland and it is made possible Forty-three wines have received the ported by frameworks made of poles because the vines are sprayed with tepid Docg designation, reserved for wines and wires or even leaning against row water. A word about vino novello , or that are aged for at least five years and of trees like elms, maples and mulberry “early wine”, not to be confused with are recognized as particularly important. so that they are easily harvested. In ad - vino nuovo or “new wine”. Technically In Italy 60 percent of wines consumed dition to constant care, the vines require novello is not a true wine; it was laun - are reds, 28 percent white and less than pruning: a “dry” pruning in winter and ched by the French in 1934 for com - 10 percent are rosés. Fifty percent of a “green” one during their growth pe - mercial reasons, and is sold beginning the population prefers dry wines, 25 riod. Wine became commonly consumed on November 6 each year (Beaujolais percent sparkling wines and 24 percent during the 18th century. Although it nouveau). It is a beverage with a short sweet wines. Wine can truly be consi - was fairly inexpensive the quality was shelf life (just a few months) that is ob - dered the intellectual part of a meal often low; this was when the first inns tained through a vinification process since, as mentioned above, one must outside the city walls began to be esta - known as “carbonic steeping”. It has a not only have knowledge of the wine blished, because the wines did not pay fruity bouquet , low tannin level and is but must also know how to select the excise taxes because they did not enter blended with other new or young wines. appropriate wine to be paired with each the city. Until the Second World War, Novello wines were recently launched dish. This can even extend to a recipe, Prosecco (originally from Prosecco near in Italy as well, and are distributed two evaluating its individual or predominant Trieste) was not a sparkling wine, but a weeks early than their French counter - ingredients and selecting wines that still wine. But for a variety of reasons part. If excessive consumption of wine complement their characteristics. In the “ barbatelle ” or small one-year-old can lead to addiction (alcoholism) and other words, when pairing food and plants that had already been grafted have damaging effects on the liver, its wine neither of the two components were transplanted to the Treviso region, moderate consumption (two glasses a should overshadow the other, but rather more precisely in the areas of Conegliano day with meals) can have very beneficial both should complement each other and Valdobbiadene where they began health properties, particularly red wine. harmoniously. Pairings can be establi - to be converted into sparkling wines When consumed on a full stomach it shed: by tradition , that is, a regional with the charmat or Martinotti methods. promotes digestion, is a cardio tonic, dish served with a wine from the same This included a second fermentation in vascular dilator that aids in blood cir - region, or by contrast - say, an “oily” large autoclaves. Today that area is the culation, improves kidney function and dish with a wine with high alcohol con - classic producer of Prosecco. produces a rapidly absorbed caloric tent; a “fatty” dish with a wine of high The ancient Romans sometimes would charge. Red wines also contain a certain acidity that produces a sensation of fre - ferment their wines in buried amphorae. amount of iron. I will end with the shness (“washes the mouth”). This technique was successfully repli - words of Mario Soldati who affirmed As a general rule, red wines are usually cated by an important producer from in his 1969 book Vino al vino (Let Wine paired with meats, sharp cheeses, hard Oslavia near Gorizia. He would steep be Wine): “Any old wine drunk in the , with mushrooms, Ribolla Gialla grapes for 6 to 7 months company of friends is better than a fine dishes with meat sauces and even fish in buried terracotta amphorae before wine drunk alone. Let’s call a spade a dishes that have a tomato base. White bottling the wine. Another “original” spade: wine without friends is worth wines pair well with simple fish dishes idea came from a Canadian vintner nothing”. with little seasoning, crustaceans and from an area near Niagara Falls. He NICOLA BARBERA

PAGE 6 SCOUMLMTAURRIO E & RESEARCH The rule of doing without Today we can say that the human collective is regulated and subdivided according to what it eats or better yet, to what it does without.

BY ELISABETTA COCITO Academician, Turin Delegation “Franco Marenghi” Study Center”

omplex societies have always that inform individual life towards been regulated by laws and reaching spiritual perfection. If any Cestablished upon the obser - religious order has its rule, be it Be - vance of codified rules. In this brief nedictine, Franciscan, Augustinian and essay I would like to discuss what I so forth, differing from the other ones defined in the headline “the rule of in terms of purposes and behaviors, doing without”, that - I will explain - we could state that the collective is seems to guide or at least profoundly regulated and subdivided according influence present social behavior. I to what it eats or better yet, according am referring to the university of diets, to what it can do without. The rule of to the alimentary regimes that not “doing without”, of course. only shape our nutritional choices but In a society obsessed with image, where tend to place us into a lifestyle, to ca - the presence and the physical appea - talogue us and to differentiate us in rance are fundamental, the body has accordance with the chosen rule. become the mirror of the soul, or per - In the Christian tradition, a rule is haps the substitute for the very soul that ensemble of norms and behaviors to which one must devote the utmost

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attention to prolong life and above curious fact is that many peo - all, to nurture wellbeing by maintaining ple embrace gluten and lac - an attractive look. To choose the ideal, tose free diets in the belief virtuous nutritional format becomes that a “healthier” alimentation peremptory. Choosing a diet becomes that will make them “purer”: a philosophy, a religion, an ideology a sort of modern asceticism. that is tantamount to identification. This outlook leads to the choi - The important thing is doing without: ce of excluding products based without gluten, milk, meat, carbohy - on corn and replacing them drates, sugars. In embracing an ali - with foods prepared with so- mentary style, one enters a community called “ancient grains”. These where all profess the same faith and are grains utilized in the past exclude those who do not belong. and then abandoned in favor Some of the choices are based not just of species that are more resi - on motives that are esthetical but also stant and productive. Such ethical: a diet without meat, vegetarian, old grains were rediscovered or vegan even more so, rests upon an with great success with the approach to life that respects animals claim that they maintained that are looked upon as similar to us their “purity” with the passing instead of potential food, just like Py - of time. Such success is mostly thagoras stressed in his writings. The due to the social push toward exclusion of certain foods may be cau - all that is natural and “origi - sed also by allergies or claimed cases nal” food, uncontaminated by of intolerance. In such cases it is im - human intervention, a possi - perative to do without certain com - bly unconscious interpretation of the in reassuring us. It is as if self control ponents of alimentation and to replace term “intervention” as adulteration. enables us to overcome fear of what is them with other more appropriate Self discipline, health addiction, control “outside” of us and thus out of our ones. This happens in the case of al - of one’s body through the elimination dominion, a reality that is unquestio - lergies associated with gluten or lactose of potentially dangerous and conta - nably a source of insecurity of the that can be quite harmful to health if minant foods and discipline over the kind that we have at the present time. they are not discovered in time. The demands of the stomach are helpful ELISABETTA COCITO

THE FOUNDING IN PARIS OF THE EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF GASTRONOMY ITALY IS A FOUNDING MEMBER

The Charter of the new European Academy of Gastronomy (AEG), an autonomous Division of the Inter - national Academy of Gastronomy (AIG), was signed in Paris. A resolution of the European Parliament dated March 12, 2014 recognizes in Article 28 the important contribution of AIG for the protection of European gastronomy. However, the European Commission found it necessary to establish an entity for - med exclusively by Associations belonging to the European Community. In short, it was deemed necessa - ry to establish a new structure in order to obtain financing for future national projects. With the presence of the President of the Académie Internationale de la Gastronomie Jacques Mallard, representatives of Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and Poland signed the founding Charter. Italy was repre - sented by the President of the Italian Academy of Cuisine Paolo Petroni, who was named a member of the Board of Directors of AEG. The Spanish representative, Rafael Anson, President of the Real Academia de Gastronomía, was elected President of AEG by unanimous vote, on the strength of his contacts and expe - rience.

PAGE 8 SCOUMLMTAURRIO E & RESEARCH Cuccagna: the mythical Land of Plenty A place that has always represented abundance in the collective imagination.

BY HELEN COSTANTINO FIORATTI Academician, New York Delegation

of the Decameron Boccaccio home of the delights of taste and of the the Elder th ne”, Pieter Bruegel mentions cuccagna (the stomach. In the 18 century Il Trionfo he Land of Cockaig “T land of abundance) as the della Cuccagna (The Triumph of Coc - place “where vines are tied kaigne) by Martino Boiteux of Lucca with sausages, where eve - once again included the themes of abun - ryone owns a fattened goo - dance and the delights of the palate. se as well as a duck; there In Das Märchen vom Schlaraffenland , are mountains of grated the Brothers Grimm recount their ver - Parmigiano cheese, upon sion of the land of Cuccagna. And Ego which sat people who do Sum Abbas Cucaniensis (I Am the Abbot nothing other than make of Cockaigne ) is a ballad found in a 13 th maccheroni and ravioli century manuscript that was included and cook them in capon in Carl Orff’s (1895-1982) Carmina Bu - broth”. rana . In Medieval mythology, In San Quirino, in the province of Por - cuccagna , or the Land of denone, “ la cuccagna ” is also a popular Plenty was a popular fantasy about an festival. It takes place during the month imaginary place where food was abun - of October in celebration of the Madonna dant and cheese fell from the sky like of Good Health. During some popular n the past food represented some - snow, offering relief to a population festivals in Naples, a greased pole was thing very important for the vast that suffered from overwork and a scar - set up. At the top were all kinds of deli - majority of the population: for the city of food. cacies and those who were unable to I th poor, because they usually went hungry; In the 15 century Alessandro da Siena climb to the top to retrieve them slid for the rich as a way to show off at described this country as a place rich back down the pole to the laughter of sumptuous banquets. A fantasyland, a in marvels of the palate and other plea - the crowd. rural festival and a game have all shared sures. Another description published in A famous game created by Giuseppe the name “ cuccagna ”. The term came Siena in 1581 defines Cuccagna as the Maria Mitelli of Bologna was also known from the Provençal word cocanha, or place where everything is pleasant and as cuccagna or cockaigne . It had illu - cocagne in old French. From this we life is spent eating and sleeping as one strations of the gastronomic specialties also derive the Gothic word koka and likes, with no work or bosses. A burlesque of various Italian cities: number 9 was the German Kuche , and in English, poem entitled Of the Lineage and Nobility the cantucci cookies of Prato, usually “cake”. of Macaroni refers to the muses in the dunked in wine; number 11 was a sweet A 13 th century poem (published by Ge - mountains of Cockaigne as they prepare cheese from Genoa; number 15 was orge Ellis in 1790) speaks of the “Land tasty foods for the gluttonous populace. the bread of Padua; number 17 was of Cockaigne”, where the houses are In 1569 Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted the torrone candy of Cremona (the win - made of sugar, the streets are paved The Land of Cockaigne depicting men ner was allowed to taste it without with sweets and the stores give away asleep after hearty and lavish feasting. biting into it). Naples had broccoli, Pia - their wares for free. Also from the 13 th The painting is housed in the National cenza had cheese and Bologna had mor - century, both the French Dit de Cocagne Picture Gallery of Monaco. tadella . A triple 4 won the buffalo moz - and Li Fabliou de Coquigne describe the During the second half of the 17 th cen - zarella that at that time came from fabulous country of Cockaigne. tury, in the mock heroic poem Power Rome. The final prize, achievable only In the Third novella of the eighth day Sanmiato , Cuccagna is portrayed as the after a triple 6, was Milanese tripe.

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