Mountains of Cheese, Rivers of Wine

The program

Il Paese di Cuccagna and other gastronomic utopias

Italian popular tradition has a name for the land of endless food: the Paese di Cuccagna, the country of plenty where roasted birds fly into open mouths and rivers run with wine. The idea is comic, subversive and deeply revealing, since a fantasy of abundance only makes sense where abundance is not guaranteed.

The evening began with an illustrated lecture on that tradition, given by the Institute's director, and continued with a talk on the Slow Food movement and its work of advocacy on the local front. The program closed with tastings of Californian artisanal wines and cheeses.

Food as history

Food is one of the clearest ways a community remembers where it came from. Recipes carry geography, migration and faith, and the Institute treats them as seriously as any other document. This program was one of several in which the Institute examined Italian foodways through fieldwork and public conversation.