Giancarlo Russo

Giancarlo Russo

Giancarlo designed and leads our Courses with Artisans Advanced Salumi Course. He was Marketing Director for Mars-Nivea and American Express until he bailed out to adopt a slower, more personally rewarding way of life. Since then he has gained a wide range of qualifications and experience in the field of artisanal food:

• Co-author of Slow Food Guide Salumi d'Italia
• October 2009 — Designed and taught Master of Food Salumi for Slow Food Versilia, a 4-part course covering meaning of terms, history, diffusion of pig, how to taste, cuts of pork, classification of products, pig breeds, influence of system of rearing on quality, the skins (natural and synthetic), how pig is prepared, how cuts are made into final products, function of salt and spices, techniques of ageing and conserving, techniques for dealing with less used animals (goose, horse, etc.), description of the principal cured pork products, purchase and conserving salumi at home, how to slice various types of salumi, salumi and wine, salumi in cooking, tasting of quality Italian salumi.
• Lecturer at Universita' Gastronomica di Pollenzo (Slow Food)
• Master Cheese Taster (ONAF-National Organization of Cheese Tasters)
• Levoni Salumi – 25 focused training sessions for groceries related to tasting techniques for cured meat and identification of defects
• Since 2000 Stagionatori d'Arno (Reggello, FI) – Partner and President of the Board. Start-up activity for selection, ageing, refining and selling of high-quality Tuscan artisanal salumi and cheeses
• Leader of Slow Food Casentino

Massimo Bacci

Massimo and his father work together curing pork and running their butcher shop. They make only a few products (sausages, soppressata, three types of mortadella nostrale — not the mortadella you know, but a type of salami — coppa, lingua salmistrata and lardo). No preservatives, colorants or lactose come within miles of their products; their soppressata is beige. They mature their mortadella and coppa in a temperature and humidity controlled room instead of a cellar, but they stay as near as possible to cellar conditions to encourage the mould necessary to proper maturation. Their lardo is cured in marble conche like those used at Colonnata. The Accademia delle 5T (Territory, Tradition, Typical, Traceability, Transparency) nominated their mortadella nostrale for inclusion in the last all-Italy salami competition.

Fabio & Paolo Nutini

Paolo is the latest of 50 generations of Nutini to carry on the butcher's craft. His father Fabio still works with him. They personally select their meat which comes from the Garfagnana immediately to the north of them. They are active in preserving local breeds. They use a drying cupboard and their cellar for maturation. The motto outside their door is: 'Love your butcher because he is the person who chooses for you'.

Ismaele Turri

Ismaele learned his butchering and salumi skills from his father. He still ages his prosciutto and salami in a cellar rather than in a modern purpose-built cabinet. On his farm he rears free-range cross-breed pigs and cultivates the primitive grains farro (Triticum dicoccum) and formenton otto file (eight-row maize). He gets immense pleasure from teaching, which was evident when I went to watch him make salami and ended up with a hands-on lesson.

Heather Jarman

Following her careers as archaeologist, orchestra and artist manager and chef, Heather came to Lucca to pursue her passion for traditional artisan food. Her tours, inspired by her infectious curiosity, open captivating new worlds to her guests.