La Dolce Vita

This afternoon, Stephen and I went along to the trade day of La Dolce Vita at Olympia. While not all about food and wine, there was certainly more than enough of both to keep us both occupied for the afternoon.

We sampled lots of different oil, cheese and cured meats and were particularly impressed with Laverstoke Park Farm who make their own buffalo mozarella in Hampshire. It was one of the best examples of buffalo mozarella we’ve tasted: firm on the outside with a soft and milky centre.

We also tasted an intersting truffle sauce at the San Pietro a Pettine stand that was delicate and creamy with the obvious heady flavour of the truffle remaining in the mouth long after we moved on to the next stand.

While many of the exhibitors were based in Italy and dealt only with large-scale restaurant supply, we also discovered Olio and Farina who run a small chain of deli-shops in the UK. They produce all manner of ingredients on their farm in Tuscany which are sold in their four shops and by mail-order. We couldn’t resist a small, slotted spoon made from the wood of olive trees that is designed for draining olives and anchovies.

At the end of the day, we took part in a cookery class run by Enzo Oliveri, where we made some fried cheese with a group of other visitors. Sadly the camera battery ran out at this point so there’s no photographic evidence of our efforts. We had consumed rather a lot of Prosecco by this point though so perhaps that’s a good thing!