The good Doctor in Austinopoli wants pictures? My amigo in Napa loves pork? Well have at it boys. An afternoon in a prosciutti palace near Parma, the Galloni Fratelli producer in Langhirano was the setting for these images. I’ll keep the words to a minimum so you all can feast your eyes. 
There was about $40,000,000 worth of prosciutti in the building.I just received an email from Roberto Bava who said of one of their lines of prosciutti, “They use Stradivario Barrique for seasoning it.” The Stradivario barrique Roberto talks about is the barrels he ages his Barbera Superiore in. I cannot imagine how the used barrique finds its way into the prosciutti, but there you have it. Italians are crazy about barrique.
Seriously, this is some of the finest ham I have ever had, and I am no fan of ham. But “when it Langhirano”…
One of the current proprietors, Mirella Galloni, faced an uphill battle coming into a male dominated culture and industry. Mirella is no shrinking violet, and she has an amazing take on culture and cuisine. It was great having a simple meal of prosciutto and bread, lubricated with the always excellent Alta Langa Brut from Giulio Cocchi, my friend Robert Bava’s winery.Let the images be all the feast you need, for as we say, “one picture is worth a thousand prosciutti.”
With my two "handlers", Michaela and Giovanna, in our "special suits".
This one reminded me of a French Impressionistic painting
Close up and personal
An implement from a horse femur is used to
evaluate the aromatic development of the prosciutti
A blog post wouldn't be as fun without one of the ubiquitous photo ops with then Agri-Minister Luca Zaia hamming it up for the camera. Zaia is the Zelig of Italo-politics and is now Governator of the Veneto Region.Note: this post was written as a result of being on an invited tour of Emilia and Tuscany by the Italian Trade Commission