Chiara Guffanti's book and the uncomfortable truths about berries

From the heights of her farm at 950 metres above sea level in Val d’Intelvi, Chiara Guffanti sweeps readers of “Mille metri di dolcezza” into a whirlwind of passion for the mountains and their fruits.

Chiara Guffanti’s book is no bucolic tale, but a powerful journey through pre-dawn starts, tears over hail destroying a year’s work in just fifteen minutes, and the satisfaction of serving, only three hours after harvest, the chefs of some of the world’s finest hotels.

What is the secret of this young entrepreneur, who bought a farm at the age of twenty after working there for two summers and, just a few years later, almost dismantled the entire operation to start again from scratch, driven solely by the pursuit of absolute excellence? Not something that merely “works…”, but the ambition to produce something unlike anything else.

There is a kind of sacred fire in Chiara, a torch she has taken up by drawing on “knowledge that is not written in any book, that exists only in the memories of people in their eighties and that will die with them if no one gathers it first”.

“Working this way is difficult and requires iron discipline […] but it is also the only choice that makes sense if you truly want to make a difference”.

This radical life, built on bold choices, also leads to some uncomfortable truths, particularly concerning our relationship with the food we buy every day from supermarkets.

The true cost of time

Readers should be prepared for some blunt words about the business logic behind a blueberry found in an ordinary shopping trolley that “has travelled for two weeks and is biologically dead”.

A blueberry that is “perfect when harvested and mediocre when it reaches the shelf […] simply because the system takes too long”.

I will leave you the pleasure of exploring the more than two hundred pages of this passionate confession. It contains Chiara’s manifesto on price and the value of quality, her continuous search for new and better varieties, her determination to grow what no one else produces – such as yellow raspberries and Siberian blueberries – and her profound understanding of the calendar and seasonality.

Recipes, photographs and transformation

The book is interspersed with simple recipes based on the right ingredients and traditional combinations, as well as photographs portraying the everyday life of a mountain grower.

It concludes with processing, as Chiara spends five months capturing summer in a jar or a special bottle, something “unrepeatable by nature”.

The “we’ll find a way” that makes projects possible

Finally, mention must be made of the other protagonist in this traditional story, even though he remains more in the background by character and choice: Antonio.

A professional life spent in the world of modern technology, working with computers and 3D printers, enabled him to respond to his daughter Chiara’s boldest projects with a simple “We’ll find a way”. This attitude allowed her to take her first steps, while his continued support now helps Chiara with managerial decisions and daily commitments.

But out in the fields at six in the morning, she is the one on the front line. Because “quality does not come from doing the easy things, but from doing the difficult things in the right way”.

Meeting Chiara

The final invitation to the reader can be found on page 198: “If you want to visit in person, check the calendar, find a date between June and September, mark it down, schedule it and actually come”.

Because “flavour speaks, and direct experience is worth more than a thousand certifications”.

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