Andrea Bertucci

Owner of the Slow Food osteria Il Vecchio Mulino in Castelnuovo, Andrea has done more than anyone else to put the traditional food of the Garfagnana on the gastronomic map of Italy. He was born on Lago Pontecosi just up the Serchio River from Castelnuovo. 'I came out of the lake mud', he says, making it sound like the primordial soup. His mother was an excellent cook and his family had a smallholding with chickens, rabbits and pigs. His face lights up at the memory of the great day each year when his grandfather slaughtered the pig that had been fattened on kitchen leftovers—lucky porker. The women made biroldo, while the men tended to the prosciuttos, sausages and lardo.

In his early 20s he strayed to Lombardy to manufacture explosives for those magnificent Italian autostradas that emulate the straightness of Roman roads by boring straight through mountains. But by 1986 he was homesick and came back to the Garfagnana and started Il Vecchio Mulino, for which he selects the best wines of Tuscany and the best food of the Garfagnana (making an exception for the gigantic mortadella from Bologna). On most visits he brings a new discovery to the table for us to taste — a leek preserve or a cheese he's matured himself. As the founder of the Garfagnana Slow Food convivium and with a finger in most gastronomic pies, he has probably done as much for the cause of biodiversity and the rural economy as the regional government and the EU put together. For myself, I'm especially proud of his tribute to me: 'For me, Erica [my name in Italian] is the Number 1 gourmet girl in the Garfagnana. She's really serious about finding out about the origins of our food and how it's made.'