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Here at the eCool Compound, we’re big admirers of the Alice-Waters-sanctioned Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome.  If you don’t know about this project, then you should click on over and read the recent New York Times article detailing the endeavor.

The project is headed up by Mona Talbott, a former Chez Panisse chef, who was chosen by  Waters to transform the AAR’s formerly industrialized meals into delicious feasts of local and organic foods.  To say that she and her team have succeeded would be a huge understatement.  The food served at the American Academy is now some of the best in Rome, in particular for the way in which it honors the wonderful wealth of local produce available in central Italy.

In the quest for fresh and delicious ingredients, the Rome Sustainable Food Team has relied on one man in particular, Giovanni Bernabei, a farmer who delivers fresh goods to the AAR and whose produce is  available to those without an Academy meal ticket by means of a bi-monthly organic market held in Vicolo della Moretta, just off the Via Giulia.

Proud of his connection to Alice Waters–whose efforts to transform the way we eat have reached as far as the White House where Michelle and Barack Obama planted an organic garden some weeks ago–Bernabei spent most of his time at last week’s market proudly advertising the press he got in the New York Times article about the Rome Sustainable Food Project.  We stood in line (cheerfully) for a long time waiting to buy potatoes and green garlic and watching as Bernabei passed out photocopies of the New York Times article and carefully adjusted a sign (appropriately taped to a hoe) that read, “The farmer that inspired Obama is here.  Giovanni Bernabei.”