The Atlas of flavours is part of the broader Terres Monviso project.
The goal is to identify the gastronomic heritage of this area, in order to promote the good things that this corner of Piedmont has to offer, with Monviso as its most distinctive feature: a “big hat” that enhances the value of the plain and the valleys of the nearby Cottian Alps. It is a sort of listing of foods that identify and characterise the six areas of a scattered agrifood park that you can ideally imagine on one hand, where the palm is the Saluzzo plain and the fingers are, from right to left, the Po and Bronda Valleys, the Infernotto Valley, the Varaita Valley, the Maira Valley, the Grana Valley and Stura Valleys.
Beyond the purely geographical and administrative boundaries - we need to look from up above - we can use the fingers of one hand again to count five of the most important products of this factory of biodiversity.
These are the ingredients that, at least after Columbus, historically characterise the Occitan Lands of Monviso, compared to other places: mountain potatoes, the outstanding Bionda Piatlina, the real emblem of these valleys and queen of dumplings; good Piedmontese Alpine milk in all its forms (butter, cheese, cream...); the ancient varieties of chestnuts, the precious fruit of a monumental “breadfruit” tree that still nourishes just like it did in the past; other small and large fruits, as well as the medicinal herbs that the chamois is also fond of, first gathered in the wild and later becoming a flourishing trade (most recently saffron from the Lands of Monviso and genepì from the Occitan Valleys, the “red gold” and “green gold” of these moors), without forgetting the honey made by bees that still live freely in an uncontaminated environment; traditional grains, grown by dynamic farmers and stone-ground in the last remaining watermills, the basic ingredient of fragrant bread baked in a wood-fired oven and of steaming polenta. The Alps have always been a land of itinerancy. After an initial phase of interviews, in which we consulted the administrators of Municipalities and Mountain Unions, we set out on our journey. In the words of Mario Soldati, we like to think of it as a journey “in the valleys” of the Po, in search of genuine foods.
From work in the fields alongside farmers, breeders, artisans and restaurant owners, hundreds of new and historic production entities have emerged. Within the seven product categories used to organise the Atlas, priority was given above all to the products, often with a quality label (PDO, PGI, PAT, PSF), that have history, continuity and distribution and 6 are directly connected to the primary activity. Over sixty profiles effortlessly describe this extraordinary patrimony, providing precise references that allow immediate guidance and information for anyone.
The picture is completed by a selection of 16 recipes and cheese platters, narrated by the lively voices of chefs and innkeepers who make local products prestigious through their art. The list is potentially always being updated. After all, Luigi Veronelli, who knew the fragrance of the flowers with which every single cheese was made in these valleys, reminds us that the map is not the territory. In other words, it does not claim to be a complete list and the choice of destinations is the result of different, sometimes personal, considerations. It is a catalogue that aims to offer a useful guidebook for discovering the flavours of these territories.

Being born in Bra, in the orbit of that centre of extraordinary culinary vigour, namely the Langhe area, I have always been surprised when confronted by the food culture of those Alpine valleys just a few kilometres from the places in which I have spent my life. Although I only became aware of it as the years passed and by frequenting these places, especially the Varaita Valley first and the Maira Valley later - contrary to what one might expect, the plain, which is apparently so favourable for travel, has instead probably represented a “middle world” almost impervious to any contact between the wine hills and the mountains dominated by the Monviso mountain. I often think about the mountains, which, for someone born in Piedmont, are the bastion of the soul as well as the homeland, and how they beautifully represent the stability and security of something that never changes, especially in a world often turned upside down by extraordinary and sometimes terrible events. It seems to me that, like a refuge for so long impenetrable and guarded by a now mysterious code (as is the Occitan language to most people), the valleys around Monviso have harboured great food traditions and now offer a home to brave young people returning to them: they take care of this place, forsaken by their ancestors, cultivating, producing and living here. The flavours are like the outer layer of a large body built by generations and, just like every skin, this one also reveals the DNA it depends upon and bears the signs of time that make it unique. It is therefore wonderful that, in this historical moment, our little University has been able to contribute to portraying the food of these lands, with the hope that, thanks to new initiatives, new farmers and new gourmets, it will soon be in need of an update.

Carlo Petrini