Studio Orta

70 x 7 The Meal act XXIX at the historical Savoy palace, Venaria Reale is the first collaboration with Fondazione Slow Food per la Biodiversità Onlus. The theme chosen by the artists for the 29th setting is food biodiversity with the aim to support the project Cooperativa Cauqueva (Cooperativa Agropecuaria y Artesanal Union Quebrada y Valles) and to protect the production of the precious Andean potato, the fundamental food and financial resource for the Argentine population. 150 guests participated in the Orta performance based on the preparation of the most basic of dishes, the Soup. “The soup is universal, across all socio-economic groups with different staple origins and wonderful colours: green vegetable, black bean, red tomato, orange pumpkin, white garlic and onion, …”. Each guest was given a calico bag filled with vegetables that had been prepared live, to take home and prepare a soup. The Limoges porcelain plate edition designed especially for the occasion celebrated the theme by depicting delicately drawn vegetables and a recipe for the potato soup. The menu was created by Turin’s most promising chef Alfredo Russo, from Dolce Stil Novo restaurant at the Venaria Reale, taking his inspiration from the plate: “The soup is the common denominator, a sustainable dish which brings together populations and cultures of every continents. From the main course to the dessert I will utilise ingredients so called ‘poor’ – although I prefer to call them ‘democratic’ – like the potato and vegetable in order to give a contribution, in terms of cooking, to the theme of the event”. Curated by Maria Perosino and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi