Daniele Cernilli ‘s affectionate remembrance of Carlo Petrini, “Carlin,” the founder of Slow Food and a decisive figure in world food and wine culture: from his beginnings in Bra to the birth of Arci Gola, from the Guida Vini d’Italia to Terra Madre, to a legacy of ethics, pleasure and vision.
So you also passed away Carlin.
I knew you were very sick and hoped you would make it through this time too. I didn’t. You were just 77 years old. I had met you in the summer of 1982, helping you unload cartons of wine from a van in front of Cavour 313 wine shop in Rome. At that time there was no such thing as either Arci Gola, nor Slow Food let alone Terra Madre, which would then be your creatures.
There was already the I Tarocchi cooperative in Bra, who was in charge of organizing school trips to the Langa and distributed the wines of tiny Barolo producers, Elio Altare, Luciano Sandrone and Bartolo Mascarello. You did the deliveries personally with Gigi Piumatti, friend and accomplice, and that was the reason for our meeting. The next evening, in the Via Asiago studios where I was hosting a radio program called “Viva il Vino,” I proposed that you come for an interview, and that was the first of thousands of interviews you would have in the future.
The beginning
A few years later, in 1986, the following was born. Arci Gola and soon afterwards the Gambero Rosso on the Manifesto, where you edited the whole section on food products. At the same time Stefano Bonilli, whom you knew well, was conceiving and directing the insert, Edoardo Raspelli was doing restaurant reviews, and I was starting to write about wine with Sandro Sangiorgi. The following year, in the spring of 1987, we met in the garden of the Arcangelo restaurant in Bra, which you had taken over and was still being renovated, and we came up with the idea of proposing a Guide to the Wines of Italy. To me the one of rating them in glasses, so you avoided the scoring in hundredths that was “too American” for you. There was you, Gigi Piumatti, Stefano Bonilli and me. The rest is common knowledge.
Slow Food and the projects
Slow Food’s manifesto with the “right to pleasure” in 1990. The Pollenzo University of Gastronomic Sciences. I Presidia gastronomic. The ” Good, clean and fair“, major conventions around the world, Terra Madre. The collaboration and friendship that has bound us together for almost a quarter of a century, with mutual esteem and affection. Even with discussions and proud quarrels, as is often done among true friends. You, then, embarked on a path as a visionary and ” maitre à penser” that everyone recognized you. You had famous and important friends, Pope Francis, King Charles III, President Lula of Brazil, just to name a few. I used to jokingly call you “Cardinal Petrini,” and you laughed about it a lot.
We have felt quite a bit but seen very little in the last few years. Now I regret not having met you more. Your passing really leaves a big void and not only to me. You have included ethics and culture in the world of food and wine and global food production. A decisive role, in short, that only an intelligent, honest and sensitive man like you could have.
Goodbye Carlin.
