BAROLO is now in stock and available! To order BAROLO click here
Barolo, Matthew Gavin Frank’s food-and-wine memoir, was published by the University of Nebraska Press, Spring 2010. Frank spent six months in Barolo, Italy (pop. 646), living out of a tent in the garden of the local Pittatore farmhouse. Through the Pittatore family, he was able to secure work picking wine grapes for famed vintner Luciano Sandrone. Barolo details his developing relationships with the region’s families, restaurateurs, butchers, vintners, local foodstuffs, strange markets, and circus-like atmosphere. Rich with real Italian small-town “characters” and a wealth of historical and culinary information, Barolo is a blend of intimate travelogue and memoir. (The title refers to both a Piemontese Italian town and an Italian wine). Barolo has moments of flamboyance as well as ruminative meditation on foreign travel (and its many alien seductions), filtered through food and wine.
Portions of Barolo have been published in The Best Food Writing 2006 (Avalon Publishing Group), The Best Travel Writing 2008 (Travelers’ Tales/Solas House, Inc.), The Best Travel Writing 2009 (Travelers’ Tales/Solas House, Inc.), Gastronomica, Plate Magazine, Creative Nonfiction and Brevity, and have received a 2008 Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council.
Travel Writer and Blogger Rolf Potts interviews Matthew Gavin Frank about BAROLO here.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE LOCAL CUISINE
CLICK HERE FOR SAMPLE RECIPES FROM BAROLO
SAMPLE CHAPTERS FROM “BAROLO”
The Fewest Idiots (Chapter 1)
Italian Butcher Shop Blues
Dessert
BAROLO is now in stock and available! To order BAROLO click here.
PRESS
“Aaahhh . . . ! Here are all the joys of being young and exuberant and passionate and in love with women, and life, and better yet . . . in Barolo. This remarkable and enchanting tale makes me want to set the clock back many years and to book passage to Italy and to the sips of the world’s greatest wine, and to be inspired by all the things that make life such a wonderful journey! Kudos to Matthew Gavin Frank for reminding us what really makes life worth living!”
“If you love red wine, you’ll love this book. And it’s just as hard to put down this book as it is a glass of good red. This irresistible story takes you to the real Italy and its rich fragrant wine region where Barolo is made. I want to live in this book forever.”
—Gale Gand, executive pastry chef and partner of Tru in Chicago and host of the Food Network’s Sweet Dreams
“Suddenly you are in Italy, suddenly you are in love, suddenly you are picking the delicate Nebbiolo grape under a burning sun—and in a moment Matthew Gavin Frank has captured your unwavering attention, with a firm grasp that continues for all three hundred pages of this delightful and incisive book.”
—Lee Gutkind, editor of Creative Nonfiction magazine and author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think
“In his memoir, Matthew Gavin Frank has truly captured the essence of this enticing region of Italy through his evocative descriptions of the landscape, the cuisine, the local characters, and his multifaceted experience with the Nebbiolo grape. This book transported me right back to Piemonte; wherever you are, as you read, you will start to smell the tartufo, the vineyards, the salumi, and of course the red wines of Barolo!”
—Belinda Chang, wine director at The Modern in New York City
“Matthew Gavin Frank gives us a witty account of his experiences roaming the Italian countryside in search of food, wine, and life’s true meaning. His vivid descriptions, historical references, and voracious appetite combine to leave the reader thirsty for the next page, and hungry for the next literary morsel. I loved reading this. Buon appetito!”
“Matthew Gavin Frank captures all the warmth and charm of Barolo, with mouthwatering stories about a journey through wine and food. A great read to fill any food and wine lover’s stomach.”
—Rick Tramonto, chef and owner of Tru in Chicago and the author of Tru: A Cookbook from the Legendary Chicago Restaurant
Matthew Gavin Frank was born and raised in Chicago. Bitten by the food, wine, and travel bug, he left home at age seventeen, embracing the vagabond lifestyle that often lent itself to work in the restaurant industry. He ran a tiny breakfast joint in Juneau, Alaska, worked the Barolo wine harvest in Italy’s Piedmont, sautéed hog snapper hung-over in Key West, designed multiple degustation menus for Julia Roberts’s private parties in Taos, New Mexico, served as a sommelier for Chefs Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand in Chicago, and assisted Chef Charlie Trotter with his Green Kitchen cooking demonstration at the Slow Food Nation 2008 event in San Francisco. He returned to academia and received his MFA in Poetry and Creative Nonfiction from Arizona State University. He taught creative writing to undergraduates in Phoenix, Arizona, and poetry to soldiers and their families near Fort Drum in upstate New York on the Canadian border.
Hi!
I am devouring this book so I can start over again right away! I too have spent time in the Langhe region, learning about the local agriculture and eating it too. I went to the Slow Food Conference and Salone Del Gusto in 2006, which of course changed my life. I too grew up on canned frozen microwaved fast “food” and taught myself to eat close to the source once away from home. I am really relating to your story and it has been such fun to read. I yearn for the respect for food (and life) the Italians have and can’t wait to return!
Mille grazie! I am so happy you are enjoying BAROLO. I also can not wait to return– I hear the Salone del Gusto has really blossomed since I last attended. Hope all is going well with you! -Matt
Outstanding info !! I am editing an ebook myself and I will include some of your info.
[...] and met some longtime web friends I was thrilled to encounter IRL. I also met friend-of-a-friend Matthew Frank, author of my current read and new favorite book Barolo. Which you ought to buy and read, because [...]
interesting, i am bookmarking that.
Matthew
Did a short review of ‘Barolo’ in Camping it Out in Barolo for Love of Food and Wine, Matthew Gavin Frank on ‘Serge the Concierge’.
Serge
‘The French Guy from New Jersey’
Facebook: sergetheconcierge
Twitter: @theconcierge
Wow, thank you for writing this delightful book! And I am so happy to have found this blog with the actual recipe for the Panna Cotta I am reading about in the book. My husband has been asking for it but I wanted a tried and true recipe before I attempted it. I would love it if you visited my Italian Food Blog and tell me what you think! Maybe I could even post the recipe for the Panna Cotta with a link back to your blog of course.
La Buona Cucina: http://labuonacucina70.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much, Ann! Looking forward to checking out your blog.