Giuseppe Santovito Renato Agnello
6 generations of truffle hunters
Renato Agnello was born 1939. He is a truffle hunter and continues the family tradition of truffle hunting, they have shared for 6 generations.
He tells about his experience and the preoccupation of his family when he goes out in the night. Thus he moves from 5 am until night for the hunt.
He tells his history, describes the intimacy with his dog and the changes he experience in the region where he lives.
The interview was conducted by Jacqueline Cavazza, Valeria Dogliotti and Odile Pécoud for a research in ethnobotany supervised by prof. Andrea Pieroni at Univerversity of Gastronomic Sciences.
Video table of contents
- The names
- The smooth black truffle
- White truffle
- The melanosporum
- Other varieties
- When the truffle is good
- 4 reasons
- Distraction
- The night
- The vineyard
- The wheather
- Defending the soil
- Soil and trees
- Roero
- The hole
- About my father, the Saturday market and Giacomo Morra
- Preserving
- Poplar and linden
- Symbiosis
- Unpredictable
- Truffle hunting is an illness
- Training a dog
- Qualities of the truffle
- 40 years in the same place
- Truffle ripening
- The moon and the day of truffles
- Exclusive places
Interview information
Country: IT
Region: Piemonte
City: Diano d'Alba
District: CN
Altitude: 496m s.l.m.
Wikipedia: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diano_d%27Alba
Renato Agnello
Year: 1939
Languages: Italiano
Document by: Luca Percivalle
Video by: Jacqueline Cavazza, Valerio Dogliotti, Odile Pécout
Created: 09-06-2011
Questo video fa parte del seguente archivio
The white truffle
The white truffle
The archive investigates white truffles, known for their taste and frivolous aspects, but not for their cultural characteristics which plasmed generations of truffle hunters. The research presents a substrate of knowledge documented through dozens of interviews: historical and anthropological elements, rituals and myths on this prized fungus, still considered nowadays a nocturnal mystery. The project was promoted by the University of Gastronomic Sciences, l’Athe National Association “Città del Tartufo”, the national centre for truffle research and the Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo Foundation.
