Food, Humanity, and a Lasting Vision
The American Academy in Rome mourns the passing of Carlo Petrini, a writer, gastronomist, activist, and journalist who was a global inspiration and founding figure of the Slow Food movement. He died on May 21, 2026 at his home in Bra, Italy just south of Turin. He was 76.
He will be remembered as a thoughtful and tireless advocate who understood that gastronomy is not simply about eating. His work across the decades challenged the accelerating rhythms of industrial consumption and proposed instead a philosophy rooted in locality, sustainability, and human connection.
An Advocate Remembered Across the World
Petrini was an honoree at the Academy’s 2015 McKim Medal Gala, an annual award given to path-breaking pioneers in the arts and humanities. He was as a dear friend of Alice Waters, a chef and writer who founded the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the Academy. Waters praised Petrini’s expansive vision, generosity, and charisma upon learning of his passing, tearing up during an interview and remarking in fact that she had hoped to see him this fall.
Slow Food International, a non-profit organization that Petrini founded in 1986 and which quickly became a global movement, called him “one of most brilliant and original public intellectuals of our era” in a statement announcing his death, adding that his legacy lives on in every field, kitchen and young person who “chooses to believe that a better food system is possible.”
From the Spanish Steps to a Global Movement
The idea for Slow Food International was born during a protest Petrini led at the Spanish Steps in Rome, where a new McDonald’s fast-food restaurant was set to open in place of a beloved café. As legend has it, during the demonstration he and his friends handed out pasta and gave speeches denouncing fast-food. Slow food, a slogan he came up with on the fly that day, was everything that fast-food is not: respect for culture and biodiversity, artisanal production, and ethical agriculture.
In 2004, he founded the University of Gastronomic Sciences near his hometown of Bra, the first interdisciplinary food studies program in the world, and created a network called “Terra Madre” which brings together farmers, fishermen, academics, consumers, chefs and shepherds for an annual conference in defence of our common global food system.
Petrini has been honored as one of Time magazine’s heroes of the year and in 2008 was selected by the Guardian newspaper as one of 50 people that could change the world, the only Italian on the list. The Slow Food movement, which was founded on Petrini’s belief that food should be “good, clean, and fair” stands as his enduring legacy, with a presence today in more than 160 countries.
Gastronomy as Culture, Memory, and Responsibility
At the Academy, the Rome Sustainable Food Project reflects many of the principles central to Petrini’s vision. Founded by Alice Waters and Mona Talbott in 2006, the program promotes seasonal and locally sourced food while training young culinary professionals in practices that have become an international model for sustainable food culture.
Petrini’s passion and charismatic spirit brought together political and cultural leaders ranging from Pope Francis to King Charles III. Unlike traditional food critics who focused primarily on taste or culinary prestige, Petrini approached gastronomy as a field of cultural and political inquiry.
His central project was to rebuild the connection between humans and nature through food, preserving culture and memory into the future and giving back as much as we take. His philosophy expanded beyond culinary appreciation into an ethics of consumption grounded in environmental sustainability, dignity of labor, and cultural preservation.