One day I was wondering through the pretty but not very distinguished Calabrian town of Cittanova when I fell into conversation with a chap who turned to be a professor of political history at the university in Rome. What was he doing here? I asked. Cittanova was a long way from Rome. Ah, he said, he was a native of Cittanova. He was born here. Rome was an admirable city, he said, but it wasn’t Cittanova, and so he liked to return to see his family and to ‘refresh my roots’, as he put it. He needed to taste his mother’s food, he added. How often did he come back? I asked. As often as he could, he said; about...
The finest coffee cups I ever sipped from were handed to me in the offices of the foreign department of a bank in Milan, Cariplo - Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde.
There I was, standing in the sun outside a café in Naples - it might have been Scaturchio, but I can’t be sure - when a young, white-jacketed waiter came and joined me and began vigorously beating a jug of cream with a spoon.
Ah, the intoxication of coffee first thing in the morning - the glossy beans, some dark as night, some the colour of milk chocolate; the rumble of the grinder; the perfume rising up to fill the kitchen, earthy, primal, infinitely seductive; the hiss of the superheated water; the sharp, intense, tantalising aroma; the cascade of black magic into the cup; and then - it’s worth getting up and facing the world for just that moment.
PianoCoffee.com is delighted to announce that Matthew Fort has agreed to act as ‘conduttore’ as we embark on an exploration of the nature of Italian Coffee and its place in society. Matthew, a prize-winning writer, was Food & Drink editor of The Guardian for more than ten years. He is now reaching an even wider audience on the BBC's ‘Great British Menu’, appearing as a judge since the show began in 2006. His broad knowledge and ardent love of Italian food and culture, (on which he has written several successful books), make him the perfect guide as we lift the lid on the Italian Coffee Experience. This year, Matthew will indulge us in many gastronomic memories from his travels around Italy and gives his take on various coffee traditions. ...
