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Carlo Petrini

Gastronome and writer from Bra (1949–2026), founder of Slow Food and Terra Madre, who tied his name to Turin through the Salone del Gusto.

Image from the ANSA Piemonte publication
From the publication of ANSA Piemonte, 2026-09-16

Carlo Petrini, known as «Carlin» (Bra 1949 – Bra, 21 May 2026), was a Piedmontese gastronome, journalist and writer, founder of Slow Food and creator of events such as Cheese, the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre[1]. From a small town in the province of Cuneo he built an international movement that turned "good, clean and fair" food into a political and cultural cause[2], and tied his name to Turin through the Salone del Gusto[3].

From Bra to the city council

Born in Bra, during his university years he became involved in local politics and was elected to his town's council on the list of the Party of Proletarian Unity[1]; he took his council seat in 1975, as recalled at the open session the Bra city council dedicated to him on 30 June 2026[4]. He never gave up his ties to his home town: even after becoming an international figure, he continued to live and work in Bra[4].

Before Slow Food, he wrote about food and restaurants for newspapers and magazines, including l'Unità, la Repubblica and La Stampa, and contributed to the birth of Gambero Rosso, originally a supplement of the newspaper il manifesto[1][3]. He also founded the "Libera e Benemerita Associazione degli Amici del Barolo" ("Free and Deserving Association of the Friends of Barolo"), named after the wine of the Langhe: it was the first nucleus of Arcigola, the food-and-wine league of the ARCI association[1].

Arcigola and the birth of Slow Food

Arcigola was founded in Piedmont in 1986 on Petrini's initiative[5]. Its later name, Slow Food, declared from the outset its opposition to the fast-food model[3]. In 1989 the association became an international movement with a manifesto defining it as a "Movement for the protection of and right to pleasure," in response to what the text called the "universal folly of the Fast Life"[5].

In the following years the movement built up its own tools: in 1990 Slow Food Editore was founded and published the guide Osterie d'Italia; in 1992 and 1993 offices opened in Berlin and Zurich; in 1994 the Taste Workshops (Laboratori del Gusto) began, in 1997 the Cheese event started in Bra, while the Ark of Taste and, from 2000, the Presidia began cataloguing and protecting traditional products at risk of disappearing[5]. The programme combined the defence of biodiversity and natural farming techniques with firm opposition to GMOs[3].

Turin: the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre

His relationship with Turin runs through its great events. The first Salone Internazionale del Gusto was held in 1996[5]. In 2004 Petrini founded Terra Madre, the international network of food communities[2]: the first gathering, in Turin, brought together 5,000 delegates from 130 countries[5]. The same year saw the opening, in Pollenzo, a hamlet of Bra, of the University of Gastronomic Sciences, founded with Petrini's contribution[2][5].

The two Turin events later merged into Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, organised by Slow Food together with the City of Turin and the Piedmont Region. The sixteenth edition, held from 24 to 27 September 2026, takes place in the city centre's grand squares and is dedicated to biodiversity[6]; the event's website features, as a contribution on the theme, a text by Petrini taken from Terrafutura (2020), his book of dialogues with Pope Francis on integral ecology[7]. "Cultural biodiversity must be preserved," Petrini writes there, proposing it be adopted as a political paradigm for everyone's future[7].

Books, activism and criticism

Petrini wrote or edited numerous books, including Slow Food – le ragioni del gusto (2001), Che cos'è il gusto (2010), Cibo e libertà (2013), Terrafutura (2020) and Il gusto di cambiare (2023); in 2013 the documentary Slow Food Story premiered at the Berlin Film Festival[1]. In 2017 he was among the founders of the Laudato si' Communities, inspired by Pope Francis's encyclical[2].

The movement also had its critics. In 2010 the essayist Luca Simonetti, in the book Mangi chi può. L'ideologia di Slow Food, and the writer Antonio Pascale, in the magazine Limes, challenged the idea of a "natural" agriculture and the portrayal of traditional products as unchanging, reopening a debate that was also picked up by the press[8].

The final years

In July 2022, at Slow Food's eighth international congress in Pollenzo, Petrini handed the association's presidency to the Ugandan agronomist Edward Mukiibi, already vice-president since 2014, announcing that he would continue working with the organisation[9]. He remained president of the University of Pollenzo: as late as February 2026, opening a conference on the history of post-war Italian food, he observed that "If we do not know the history our food culture comes from, we will hardly be able to be the protagonists of change"[10].

He died at his home in Bra late in the evening of Thursday, 21 May 2026, at the age of 76[2][11]. The final farewell was held on Sunday 24 May in the quadrangle of the Agenzia di Pollenzo[12]. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella wrote that his death "leaves a great void not only in the world of food and wine science, but in society as a whole, and not only in Italy"[12]; the President of the Region, Alberto Cirio, remembered him as the man who had transformed the farming culture of Italy and the world[11].

Timeline

  • — The 2026 edition of Terra Madre, the Slow Food event dedicated to biodiversity and tied to the figure of Carlo Petrini, opened in Bra, with a programme that also included a focus on olive oil and geographical indications. → ANSA Piemonte La Stampa

Related articles: Alberto Cirio, Slow Food

Pages linking here

Sources

  1. Treccani
  2. Gazzetta d'Alba — 22 May 2026
  3. Il Post — 22 May 2026
  4. Gazzetta d'Alba — 1 July 2026
  5. Slow Food Italia
  6. Terra Madre Salone del Gusto
  7. Terra Madre Salone del Gusto — 6 July 2026
  8. Il Post — 28 April 2010
  9. Il Post — 17 July 2022
  10. Università di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo — 25 February 2026
  11. Gazzetta d'Alba — 22 May 2026
  12. Gazzetta d'Alba — 22 May 2026

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