Parmigiano cheese, what strange and great things do you generate in life? Aeschylus would not scorn to speak of you, nor Sophocles perhaps. I met the daughter of an illustrious Parmigiano cheese maker. She was beautiful and delicate, a mimosa. She studied piano and languages and drawing. But the cheese suddenly dropped, as it usually does, its price, and she had to go into service, you see. Oh, we should all eat a lot of Parmigiano cheese, thinking about these things.

— Cesare Zavattini

Writers, artists, poets, reporters. Festivals, fairs. cinema and television. Sport, life and culture. Parmigiano Reggiano is a food with a long history, craftsman traditions, values, and know-how. It is something that – maybe because of its quality, its taste, or everything we’ve already mentioned – has become deeply connected with the lifestyle of the people it has encountered. It is the symbol of areas and places. It carries imagery and memories and is intertwined with social events and much more. In short, it has become part of a country’s culture.

The quote at the beginning of this story is by Cesare Zavattini. A writer and reporter, who, among other things, also contributed to the neo-realism movement by writing the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves). Zavattini’s imagination, his poetry, and the landscapes he narrates come from a specific area of Italy, the Po Valley. It is a vast area of Emilia-Romagna whose borders are not exact, but located in that strip of land along the Po river. Cesare Zavattini was one of the best singers in this area. An area that includes Parmigiano Reggiano, where cheese is part of people’s everyday lives, and it sometimes sustains entire small communities. Zavattini recounted these great spaces, the plains, and the ancient rituals of people. He embodied the nostalgia, rhythms, and richness of the lands. The same ingredients vibrate inside the Parmigiano Reggiano.

Scrolling through the Consortium’s archived photos, you might immediately think that a lover of landscape photography such as Zavattini would undoubtedly have liked these backstage photographs – which were created to bear witness to poster art, but which in reality, portray what life was like in this area of Italy -.

However, that meeting point between Parmigiano Reggiano and the world of literature is not an isolated case. To see another example, we can go back to 1300, to the sixth novella of the 8th day of Boccaccio’s Decameron. In Calandrino and the Elitropia, Boccaccio imagines a fantastical place, the land of Bengodi, where we are surrounded by wellness, abundance, and pleasure.
And in the middle of the village is a mountain made entirely of “grated Parmigiano”.
This is a curious story that obviously deserves further reading, but it demonstrates the aura surrounding the cheese that would later become Parmigiano Reggiano.

And then, in 1944, Alberto Savinio, pseudonym of Andrea Francesco Alberto de Chirico mentioned the cheese. He was a visionary, writer, and painter but often in the cumbersome shadow of his brother Giorgio de Chirico. In 1944, in the pages of Ascolto il tuo cuore, città (I Listen to Your Heart, City), describes Parmigiano Reggiano as “a base. It is to the cheese family what the double bass is to the family of string instruments. Parmigiano Reggiano is serious, robust, trustworthy. Its truck-wheel shape attests to the solidity of its flavour. It is the Morgante Maggiore of cheeses”.

But the literary influence of this cheese does not end there. Some of the best international writers have paid tribute to Parmigiano Reggiano. It makes an appearance in the works of Molière, Stevenson, and Tolstoy. Their worlds and realities are far apart, even geographically, but a small ingredient unites them. At a time when travelling was complex and lengthy, the success of exports is indicative of how a cheese, made in such a small area, could be so extraordinary. Its fortune in such different realities lies in its raison d’être: the Benedictine and Cistercian monks who invented it were looking for a cheese that would last. And so, thanks to how it was preserved, it has always been able to go on very long journeys since the Middle Ages. Its extraordinary quality was such that it amazed both the learned and the people of the simplest trades. It became linked to everyday culture, regardless of location, whether it was France, England, Russia, or a small village in the Po Valley.

In the post-war period, the success of Parmigiano Reggiano became something more. Parmigiano Reggiano became one of the images of a country that was recovering socially and economically.
It speaks about an industry with a clean face, a deep-rooted and identifiable tradition, and a way of doing new and old things. These qualities make it a perfect point of reference, representing Italy all over the world, even at an institutional level.

The Consortium’s archive is like a small tour through 20th century Italian political life . The faces of council presidents, senators, ministers, and honourable members of parliament scroll by. They are all captured while tasting some Parmigiano Reggiano.

During the years of the economic boom, Parmigiano Reggiano established itself as a representation of conviviality. It united people, institutions, and palates of all kinds, whether they belonged to great chefs or everyday consumers.
These characteristics made it the ideal accompaniment for la dolce vita. Parmigiano Reggiano always made an appearance amidst cocktails, handshakes, haute couture, show business, and personalities of the day. It comingled with the tastes of filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, or great actors like Ugo Tognazzi and Aldo Fabrizi.

But Parmigiano Reggiano is not just a food for kitchen counters, parties, bars, and restaurants. It is not the cheese of an elite few. It is a cheese that has solidified itself as part of the daily lives of millions of people. It is part of everyday meals, trying to make every moment even more special and lively. In the hands of young and old, the joy of a meal is made more delicious thanks to this small ingredient. It enhances the flavours and the moments, and has truly become part of a fabric of family memories and the warmth of our homes.

Parmigiano Reggiano is also tied to the world of sports.
The reason? Its protein-rich composition has been broken down through its ageing process, making it the perfect food for all sporty people. Easy to digest, genuine, full of history, but ultimately simple.

Since the 1970s, Parmigiano Reggiano has become the official companion of the World Cup Italian football team and is always front and centre for the national athletics team’s trips. With every edition, Permigiano Reggiano is there, alongside players and athletes, spurring them on with its tried and true philosophy: an extraordinary taste and flavour is the result of many small actions, carried out with the greatest possible care. And it was there, in Berlin in 2006. The players wearing the Italian national team jersey lifted their World Cup.

But it is not only football. There are many sportsmen and sportswomen with whom Parmigiano Reggiano has worked throughout the years: cyclist Eddy Merck, marathon runners Stefano Baldini and Gelindo Bordin, and legendary tennis champion John McEnroe. Thanks to the qualities of Parmigiano Reggiano, it also entered the artistic world of dance. Due to its remarkably balanced and delicate nutritional values, Parmigiano Reggiano has become one of the dietary selections of professional dancers. In 1985, during a tour of Italy, the Marta Graham Dance Company dancers declared their love for Parmigiano Reggiano. They were invited and taken to visit the Giglio Gruppo Lattiero Caseario factory in Reggio Emilia.

In short… sport, culture, literature, fairytales, and imagination. Events, festivals, time and the institution. Cinema, the Oscars, directors. Tennis players. Italy, and a particular way of doing things. Children, everyone’s homes, and great chefs. The penalties, the cups, and the dance.
Sometimes, we wonder how we know we have made a good cheese. And when we see that it has become so deeply connected to people’s lives, we realise that this is exactly how we wanted Parmigiano Reggiano to be.