Slow Food hero Carlo Petrini, famous for instigating the eco-gastronomy movement that is sweeping the world, will give a free public lecture at The University of Western Australia during his one-day visit to Perth.
‘The Guardian' newspaper named him as ‘one of the 50 people who could save the planet'. In ‘Time' magazine, he is a ‘European hero' and he was described as the ‘Don Juan of the food world' by internationally acclaimed Michelin star French chef Alain Ducasse.
Petrini founded his Slow Food association in Barolo, a town in Italy's Piedmont wine region, in 1986. Initially a protest against the opening of a McDonald's near Rome's Spanish Steps (at which protestors were armed with bowls of penne), the movement expanded to the protection of traditional foods, agricultural biodiversity and the environment in more than 150 countries.
Petrini studied sociology at the University of Trento, an Italian town founded in the first century BC on the intersection of roads leading to Lake Garda, the Dolomites, Venice, Verona and Innsbruck. He contributed articles about food and wine to major Italian newspapers and magazines from 1977. Petrini's latest book, whose title has been translated into English as Slow Food Nation, was published by Rizzoli USA in 2007.
The lecture will be hosted by Professor William Erskine, Director of UWA's International Centre for Plant Breeding Education and Research.
WHAT: Carlo Petrini lecture - Good, Clean and Fair: Small, Slow Food in a Big Food Nation
WHEN: Wednesday, October 14, from 5.00pm to 6.15pm
WHERE: Molecular and Chemical Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWA (Carpark 14 off Fairway)
All are welcome to this free event. RSVP Chris Hale, (+61 8) 6488 1141.
Media references
www.slowfoodperth.org.au
Chris Hale (Natural and Agricultural Sciences) (+61 8) 6488 1141
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8) 6488 5563 / (+61 4) 32 637 716
