On September 10 Dal Zotto Wines and The Meat Room will host the inaugural King Valley Salami Festa, an Italian-themed celebratory event that is now calling for home producers of northern and southern salamis to enter a challenge to compete for title of Il Salame Perfetto – the best salami in the land. With northern and southern flags already flying high, Essentials has discovered that tempers are already flaring: some event hopefuls are claiming that the judging structure is out of order and that southern salami makers already outnumber the northern. In anticipation of this very serious event, Essentials cuts deep into the heart of the Italian north-south divide.
James Mele is a man passionate about meat, sausage- and salami-making in particular. The owner of The Meat Room boutique butchery in Kilmore Victoria, he is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to preparing salami and pork sausages for personal use.
As a child, James spent his holidays with his father and uncles visiting Melbourne’s Newmarket sale yards and recalls being mesmerised by the sights of the livestock being herded and penned, and listening to the auctioneer selling off the cattle. James would work with his father on Saturday mornings at his butcher shop, where over time, he mastered the art of making traditional Italian sausages. He also learnt at a young age the value of exceptional customer service.
Essentials recently caught up with James, who had recently returned from Italy studying rare pig breeds and salami-making techniques after receiving a fellowship from Australia’s International Specialised Skills Institute. Fittingly, James has been invited to join the panel judges for this year’s salami festival. Salami lover and festival patron Christian Dal Zotto told Essentials the complete judging panel will be made up of a ‘good mix of food and wine professionals, 6 or 7 people in total’. Cash and other prizes are up for grabs courtesy of sponsors including Home Make It and Tafco Rural. There’ll also be hampers of fresh pork meat and Dal Zotto wines for the winners.
The King Valley Salami Festa and competition may be a novelty but the rivalry between the opposing northern and southern salami camps has a long and fierce history. Whether that is rooted in an excess of ‘our salami is best’ pride and assuredness from the heads of individual families or a product of the north versus south historical socio-economic divide, one thing’s for sure – we’re in for an emotionally fuelled battle, one that organisers are praying will not get out of hand.
M. E. Evans, author of the expat-targeted pop-culture blog survivinginitaly.com knows all too much about the complexities of the Italian mindset with regard to the north/south divide. As a foreigner (she’s American) with a collection of influential northern friends she was recently brave enough to marry a southerner. As a consequence she’s borne the brunt of incessant social shaming, even at the hands of her very close friends.
Evans explains: ‘Northerners call the Southerners lazy, and blame them for the economy while they chomp down on the delicious oranges that the farming south has provided. The Southerners discount the Northerners as “not being Italian and lacking culture”.’
A friend from Brescia (near Milan, well north) delivered an openly shocking judgement: ‘I don’t understand what you’re doing. The southern people are all wife beaters. He’ll move you to a family commune and force you into domestic slavery.’ A Florentine friend said, ‘Your new boyfriend is cute but I don’t like the eye shape of the southern people.’ Another friend said, ‘Your boyfriend is actually very intelligent for a southern man.’
Earlier this month Essentials spoke to a handful of Victorian-based home salami producers; some of northern Italian heritage and others southern. We learned that, overall, Southerners seemed to be more relaxed about the forthcoming competition, and spoke openly about their salami-making techniques. Northerners on the other hand were more secretive and took a much more capitalist and stern approach to the competition. One producer complained that the southern salami makers already outnumber Northerners and that the judging criteria are ‘out of order’. It was suggested that point scoring for colour is unreasonable as northern-style salamis don’t include chilli or capsicum as an ingredient, and that southerners therefore have an unfair ‘colour’ advantage.
Essentials communicated this topic of concern to one judging panelist member, who has asked to remain anonymous. He, however, disagreed with the sentiment that some ingredients might deliver a colour advantage and opined, with the scrupulous impartiality befitting a judge, that ‘this is capitalist, paranoid claptrap typical of Northern Italians’ who needed ‘to settle down and have a good hard look at themselves’.
He assured us that ‘Northern-style salamis have a great potential to also produce a pleasing colour and while there will be awards given for both northern and southern styles, there shall be no bias towards which type of salami is able to achieve the “Best Overall Salami” award.’
Evans’ 9 Differences Between the North, Central, and South of Italy blog article highlights that ‘The food quality in the south is epic. The produce is literally farm to table’ and is ‘So good’. Perhaps these are the comments that Northerners fear most as Essentials poses the question: do Southerners potentially have a food producer ‘leg up’ over the northern competition?
There’s no mistaking the success and other skills of the north. In 2014, citymetric.com published a chart illustrating Italy’s north-south divide, and wrote: ‘The thing that instantly leaps out at you is that Milan is, give or take, twice as rich as the cities of the south. The municipality accounts for just 2 per cent of Italy’s population, yet generates around 10 per cent of national GDP. It’s most famous for its fashion industry, but it’s also the country’s media, tech, and financial capital.’ So there’s hope for the Northerners – if they can just harness that technology and media expertise to make up for any possible lack in culinary talent then they might be able to craft some winning salamis.
Regional pride aside, though the King Valley Salami Festa is serious about selecting beautifully hand-crafted salamis as its winners, organisers suggest the north versus south competition should be regarded as ‘friendly rivalry’ and invites everyone to participate in the festival with a view to celebrating Italian culture in Australia.
Non-competing visitors to the festival can expect to meet a range of producers selling all things salami, including Wangaratta’s La Bella Rocca produce store, the specialist food and beverage equipment supplier Home Make It, selling salami and sausage kits, and James Mele of The Meat Room performing salami- and sausage-making demonstrations throughout the day.
An alfresco long lunch celebration featuring a pork-focused menu will be matched to Dal Zotto’s premium wines. Colourful prosecco cocktails and prosecco aperitifs will help get people moving to the live music, and salami-making equipment, skills-sharing sessions and salami tastings will insure all guests will enjoy the best in Italian salami hospitality.
King Valley Salami Festa – North vs. South
Hosted by Dal Zotto Wines & The Meat Room
When & Where:
September 10 2016
Dal Zotto Wines
4861 Main road, Whitfield, Victoria
www.dalzotto.com.au
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