The Rustico

Situated in the foothills of the Italian Alps, the Rustico is a research space for the intuitive, traditional food processing techniques of the Biellese mountain people. It is a tasting room for hosting events focussed on the region’s forgotten foods- recipes that pre-date the industrial era that are true to themselves, genuinely sustainable and non-conforming to the suffocating restrictions of today’s food safety authorities.

It is a dining room for vanishing recipes and the base camp for our biannual guided trips into the mountain.

Based on the traditional country structures used to house livestock, hay, and offer a sheltered fireplace on which to cook and make cheese, the Rustico is kitted out with traditonal farmhouse vernacular furniture and kitchenware honouring the beauty of natural materials before plastics and stainless steel. The cooking pots are made with local clay, the butter churns and bread wracks are chestnut wood from the nearby trees, cheese cauldrons are copper, and the wine flows freely.