Barolo

by Matthew Gavin Frank

After a childhood of microwaved meat and saturated fat, Matthew Gavin Frank got serious about food. His “research” ultimately led him to Barolo, Italy (pop. 646), where, living out of a tent in the garden of a local farmhouse, he resolved to learn about Italian food from the ground up. Barolo is Frank’s account of those six months.

 

At once an intimate travelogue and a memoir of a culinary education, the book details the adventures of a not-so-innocent abroad in Barolo, a region known for its food and wine (also called Barolo). Upon arrival, Frank began picking wine grapes for famed vintner Luciano Sandrone. He tells how, between lessons in the art of the grape harvest, he discovered, explored, and savored the gustatory riches of Piemontese Italy. Along the way we meet the region’s families and the many eccentric vintners, butchers, bakers, and restaurateurs who call Barolo home. Rich with details of real Italian small-town life, local foodstuffs, strange markets, and a circuslike atmosphere, Frank’s story also offers a wealth of historical and culinary information, moments of flamboyance, and musings on foreign travel (and its many alien seductions), all filtered through food and wine.

 

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Food, Wine, Travel, Italy

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of the nonfiction books, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers, The Mad Feast: An Ecstatic Tour Through America’s Food, Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer, Pot Farm, and Barolo; the poetry books, The Morrow Plots, Warranty in Zulu, and Sagittarius Agitprop, and 2 chapbooks. “Preparing the Ghost” was a New York Times Editors' Choice, an NPR Notable Book, and a New Yorker Book to Watch Out For. “The Mad Feast” was selected as a Staff Pick by The Paris Review, a Best Book of 2015 by Ploughshares, The Millions, and Paste Magazine, and featured in The Wall Street Journal, Saveur, and Entertainment Weekly. His work appears widely in journals and magazines, including The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Guernica, The New Republic, Iowa Review, Salon, Conjunctions, and The Normal School. After spending 17 years in the restaurant industry, he now teaches at Northern Michigan University, where he is the Nonfiction/Hybrids Editor of Passages North.

Reviews

[Cerealflakes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not make myself finish this book. I read about half of it, and I couldn't take it anymore. This author is far more concerned with flowery pretentious writing than he is with the story. Could he write that he and his party were going into a restaurant for dinner? No, he had to write this: "The white facade of the restaurant extends is thick arms to us, the orange lantern-lit interior containing its secrets, if only for a final moment." I know this example from page 48 is only one sentence, but the first half of this book was full of sentences like this.

I generally like travel memoirs, especially ones set in countries I have traveled to, but the quality of the writing is very important to my reading experience. I wish the author had spent more time on the story, and less time with his thesaurus.

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was awful, but some of the info about the people, culture, and food was almost worth the agony

[Rhonda Wiley-Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to complete the book, but it was work to read his purple prose--over the top descriptions that slowed the reading and the delight of his experiences in Italy harvesting grapes and drinking his way through the region in which he was working. I typically enjoy books of living abroad and experiencing a new lifestyle, but this read took more effort than the enjoyment I got from it. I feel like I would have needed to visit there in order to grasp the setting he tried to share in his writing. I cannot recommend this book.

[Brian Topping · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barolo is filled with the beautiful and empathetic language one would expect from a person who obviously loves life, food, and wine. Short of taking each of his readers to Barolo, he fills their minds with metaphors of the region’s fantastical food and beverage. It is through his creative wordsmith mind the reader is able to truly taste Sandrone’s Nebiollo grape, the elusive white truffle, and (unfortunately) the raw tripe.
Each chapter captures the consciousness of the region’s people and flavors and truly immerses its readers in a culture far removed from the typical American palate. Frank understands that food is not simply for eating but is the synapses in which life is transferred from one being to another.
If one is looking for a book that describes every facet of the publicly known features of Barolo, pick up a tour book. But, if one is looking for a deluge of indulgences for all of the senses, Frank’s Barolo is a fine choice.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was compelled to read this book because I know Gavin's spouse, and although I enjoyed many of the adventures he had while in Tuscany, especially how the wine harvest works, I often got bogged down in all the adjectives. Gavin is indeed a creative writer, not exactly an easy to read novelist. His style is a little overboard for my taste, and I like a lot of persnickety non-fiction, which made it a book to pick up and put down like little cloudbursts.

It will make you want to visit Tuscany and delve more deeply into Italian wines and meats. And I have vivid visual images of the vineyards and wine houses that I will likely never experience first-hand. So he paints a wonderful picture, but perhaps a little too finely detailed when the actual story was itself more interesting.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the most wonderful, transcendent writing about food, wine, and eternity I have ever read. A little over the top at times, yes, but some of Frank's passages are right up there with MFK Fisher, Jim Harrison, Richard Sterling.

[Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it. It's a beautiful and seductive ride.

[Kayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that "foodies" will enjoy. I admire the author's bravery for trying some of the food that he did.I sure wouldn't have.

[Wendy Hollister · Rating 4 out of 5]

recommended by Wine Enthusiast. A gastronomic and wine adventure from start to finish. I loved the writer's style and description of the perfection on when to pick the grapes.

[MaryPB]

Transports you to Le Langhe, where you're going to want to go after reading this. I went to the B&B Gioco dell' Oca a few days after reading this, but Raffaella was not available.