I once watched an inteview to Italian celebrity chef Massimo Bottura, from Osteria Francescana, considered the best Italian restaurant in the world, where also I had lunch few years ago.

Bottura spent some words about “Time” and what he called “I tempi lunghi” as a picture of his place “Modena”. Emilia Romagna, he said, is a land of long times, fog, hot summer, cheese ageing, meat curing, ragu slowly boiling… I love this picture because it feels very close to me.

I think our notion of “Time” is something we should really think about it.

If we look at an Italian table we may find a Parmigiano aged 30 month, a prosciutto 1 and ½ year, a balsamic vinegar 8 years… I happen to think to the past, when people did these things and wait years and years to taste a piece of cheese, a piece of meat, a bit of naturally thick and sweet vinegar. I happen to think about all the patience and passion involved in it. Now every thing seems commercial and ready to use and nobody think about this. Now every thing want to be fast. Fast is good, slow is bad.

There is something beautiful in this Italian slowness, as part of waiting and enjoying life. “Il dolce far niente” the pleasure of doing nothing is something really hard to understand outside of Latin countries. In Wellington saying that you are busy has seen as a positive thing. The free time is something uncomfortable, something we have to kill going to run on the waterfront even if its raining and winding like crazy. If someone asks you what did you do in your day off and you said “Nothing”, it will sound weird.

I think that to deeply enjoy life and what happens around you and what you have on your table, you need time, en empty beautiful time. In Italy often summer are so hot you can move for most part of the day and this allows you to just stay in the place, dreaming, thinking useless things, or no thinking at all. Being there, without the stress of doing things, to feel that you exist.

This knowledge of Time has a strong impact on the table too. People in Italy could spend all day cooking and eating in a slow long process. Everything has its time. It’s like a religion.

I think we should go back to this peace of time. Allowing time to cure the meat, heal our sorrow, be with each other, or just cook the ragu.