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The first Eataly has opened its doors in Turin, just a few months after Slow Food’s 2006 Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, steps from where they were held.
It’s been three years in the making. Three years of conception, planning and identifying suppliers and the renovation of a historic industrial complex. All with the ambition of opening a new path in the world of large-scale food distribution, inspired by keywords such as sustainability, responsibility and sharing.
Here’s some more information on our first store and the project in general.
EATALY is a private company with share capital, based in Alba, which for two years has been selling quality food and wine through the website - www.eataly.it - and supplying restaurants and retailers around the northwest of Italy. Eataly plans to open a series of large, multifunctional markets dedicated to gastronomy, where the sale of “quality food at sustainable prices”, as the slogan goes, will be closely linked to restaurants and educational activities. The first center opened in the former Carpano vermouth factory in Turin, in January 2007, and will be followed by others, always of considerable size (between 5,000 and 10,000 square meters) and sited in principal cities like Genoa, Milan, Verona, Rome, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Bari and Palermo. These centers will be entirely devoted to foods and beverages, an innovation on the Italian scene, and radically different from other large-scale retail outlets.
Eataly centers will be structured around dedicated sales areas (cured meats and cheeses, fresh meat, fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood, coffee, baked goods, sundries, soft drinks, wine and beer) paired with informal themed restaurants. Traditional tasting rooms and classrooms will be joined by spaces used to develop different themes linked to food, like Eating Seasonally, Piedmontese Excellence, Slow Food Presidia, How Beer is Made and How Wine is Made. Another unique feature will be the in-house production of bread, focaccia, pizza and fresh pasta as well as on-site coffee roaster and a special room for aging cured meats and cheeses.
SLOW FOOD - - is an international non-profit organization, whose aims include the defense of food biodiversity and taste education. The Italian wing of the organization, Slow Food Italia, has accepted the role of strategic consultant to Eataly, seeing the project as a modern and innovative form of food distribution, which can, in big cities, support the short production chain projects which the organization promotes all over the world.
The tasks of Slow Food are:
- to suggest potential suppliers who meet certain selection criteria (product quality, production methods, availability of raw materials, variety of products offered, necessary retail certifications, etc.);
- to plan the educational activities and oversee the content of the teaching material;
Slow Food Italia has accepted the proposal to become a consultant because it shares certain important principles with Eataly, for example:
- Offering quality food in an informal setting at prices accessible to the majority of consumers;
- Striving to establish a direct relationship with producers, giving them the chance to illustrate their work through meetings with the public;
- Creating centers dedicated to quality food that aim to become reference points for the Italian food and wine industry, as well as acting as grand promotional showcases for Italian artisanal production, bringing the general public closer to good, clean and fair products;
- Focusing on education, training and providing information, an important part of Eataly’s service to customers. The connection between Eataly and Slow Food will be highly visible in certain spaces, for example the large area dedicated to the Presidia, where a rotating selection of products will be described and offered for sale.
Slow Food Italia is fully committed to participating in the Eataly project with enthusiasm and a great curiosity. Naturally it hopes that this experience will not only be a success but also open the way to other similar initiatives which will help those who produce quality food, and guarantee good, clean and fair products at reasonable prices to anyone who wants a better daily diet.
Slow Food Italia’s participation in the project is not in any way speculative, which would in any case be in contradiction with its non-profit status. Slow Food Italia has no shares in Eataly, does not receive commissions on sales, does not manage commercial or food-service spaces and does not allow the use of its trademark. The Slow Food trademark can only appear in relation to activities managed directly by the organization, for example educational courses or the Presidia displays.
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