Luigi Veronelli was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 gastronome and intellectual

Intellectual

An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...

. He is remembered as one of the central figures in the appreciation and promotion of Italy's gastronomic heritage. Veronelli was the first to express views that would later achieve general currency and the protagonist in battles for the preservation of diversity in the fields of agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 and food production. To this end he contributed to the development of Italian appellations of origin, fought alongside local administrations and offered his support to retail producers.

Background

Veronelli was originally from the neighborhood of Isola in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

. As a young man, he studied philosophy, becoming assistant to Giovanni Emanuele Bariè, and devoted himself to politics. He was a lifelong anarchist, and attended Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce was an Italian idealist philosopher, and occasionally also politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodology of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...

's last lectures in Milan.

Career

Veronelli began his editorial career in 1956 with the publication of three periodicals: I problemi del socialismo (The Problems of Socialism), Il pensiero (Thought), and Il gastronomo (The Gastronome).

Still working as an editor, in 1957 he translated Proudhon's The Social Question and de Sade

Marquis de Sade

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...

's Histoiriettes, contes et fabliaux - he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for the publication of obscene material (De Sade’s works would later be burned at Varese

Varese

Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...

).

During the 1970s Veronelli was again imprisoned for six months for having incited Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

ese farmers to revolt by occupying the station of Santo Stefano Belbo to protest new legislation that favored big industry to the detriment of small wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 producers.

1959 marked the beginning of his twenty-year collaboration with Il Giorno

Il Giorno (newspaper)

Il Giorno is an Italian national newspaper based in Milan, Italy, with numerous local editions in Lombardy.- History :Founded by the Italian businessman Cino Del Duca in 1956, with the journalist Gaetano Baldacci, to challenge the newspaper Corriere della Sera...

. He would remain active as a journalist for the duration of his life, and his articles, full of neologisms and archaism

Archaism

In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...

s and marked by a provocative style, would become landmarks in gastronomic journalism.

Among the periodicals to which Veronelli made notable contributions are the Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera

The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...

(Milan), Class, Il Sommelier, EV, Carta, Panorama, Epoca, Amica, Capital, Week End, L'Espresso, TV Sorrisi e Canzoni

TV Sorrisi e Canzoni

TV Sorrisi e Canzoni is an Italian weekly listings magazine and is the most sold weekly in Italy.Based in Segrate, Milan, Italy, it is published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the biggest Italian publishing company....

, A Rivista Anarchica, Travel and Wine Spectator, Decanter, Gran Riserva ed Enciclopedia del Vino, and The European.

His appearance on television notably increased his fame, in particular the program A Tavola alle 7 ("Around the Table at 7"), which he hosted with Ave Ninchi

Ave Ninchi

Ave Ninchi was an Italian supporting actress who played character roles on stage, television, and in over 98 feature films that included Tomorrow Is Too Late and Louis Malle's Lacombe Lucien . She has worked with some of Italy's top movie stars, including Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni,...

, and his Viaggio Sentimentale nell'Italia dei Vini ("Sentimental Journey in Italy's Wine Country"), where he provided a report on the state of Italian viticulture

Viticulture

Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

. His extensive research in the field of wine and food led him to publish several works. These include Vignaioli Storici, Cataloghi dei Vini d'Italia (The Wines of Italy, 1964), dei Vini del Mondo, degli Spumanti e degli Champagnes, delle Acqueviti e degli Oli extra-vergine, and Alla ricerca dei cibi perduti. His collaboration with the renowned chef Luigi Carnacini was also of great importance; among its fruits were La cucina italiana and Il Carnacini.

In 1990, Luigi Veronelli founded the Veronelli publishing house with "the specific objective of thoroughly classifying the immense national gastronomic inheritance and contributing to the heightening of awareness of the touristic appeal of the loveliest country in the world".