Every valley hides a flavour that tells a story. Among the mountains and villages of the Chiese Valley, the culinary tradition is handed down like an ancient gesture, made of skilled hands, simple ingredients and seasons respected.
Polenta, milk, maize flour, wild herbs and smoked meats: every recipe is a small tale of survival, ingenuity and sharing. The dishes of the past were not just food but part of a country culture, closely tied to work in the fields and to what the land could give. Today those flavours endure, becoming memory and identity, ready to be rediscovered with the same respect in which they were born.
Polenta di Storo
The golden queen of Trentino cooking
A symbol of the humble cooking that fed generations, polenta di Storo is far more than a side dish: it is a heritage of taste and memory. Made with the celebrated yellow flour produced in the Chiese Valley from the local Spinato di Storo maize variety, this polenta stands out for its deep colour, rustic grain and forthright flavour. The maize is grown without irrigation on the sunny slopes of Trentino and slowly stone-milled, in an artisan process that preserves its scent and its nutrients.
Always cooked in the traditional copper pot, stirred patiently and shared with family or at village feasts, polenta di Storo is today being rediscovered by fine dining too, for its versatility and authenticity. A convivial dish above all, it accompanies cured meats, game, mushrooms and local cheeses, bringing the deep flavours of the mountains back to the table. Every spoonful tells of working hands, lit fires and identities that endure.
Alpine Pasture Milk and Trentino Cheeses
From the mountain to the table, with nothing in between
Among the unspoilt pastures of the Dolomites and the Alpine valleys of Trentino comes a milk that tastes of fresh grass, clean air and tradition. The cows are kept on high summer pastures, where they graze freely on hay and aromatic wild herbs: this gives the milk an extraordinary quality, found again in every taste of the local cheeses.
Artisan production yields fine cheeses such as Trentingrana, Puzzone di Moena PDO, Spressa delle Giudicarie PDO and many other typical cheeses, all expressions of centuries-old dairy know-how handed down between herdsmen and cheesemakers. The Qualità Trentino mark and the PDO designations guarantee traceability along the chain and respect for traditional techniques.
Every wheel holds the knowledge of the mountains and the slow rhythm of nature: a heritage to taste and to protect.
Wild Herbs and Edible Flowers
The mountain, scenting the plate
In high meadows and along the edges of paths, the nature of Trentino offers a wild basket of delicate flavours and intense scents. Dandelion, elderflower, wild mint, bladder campion and violets are just some of the herbs and flowers that for centuries enriched the humble cooking of the valleys, turning everyday gestures into rituals of survival and creativity.
Once considered “food of the poorest”, these plants are being rediscovered today as precious ingredients: natural anti-inflammatories, laden with history and tied to knowledge passed on by word of mouth. In mountain cooking they become fragrant soups, aromatic omelettes, flower syrups and digestive infusions, able to tell the story of the landscape in every sip or mouthful.
Every harvest is an act of respect towards biodiversity and the seasons. Every recipe is living memory, flowering on the plate.
Smoked Meats and Fish
The wood that tells of the mountains
In the Trentino valleys, smoking is far more than a way of preserving food: it is an ancient gesture that smells of wood, slow time and skilled hands. In the Chiese Valley the tradition continues with sweet woods such as beech, alder and juniper, which lend their aromas to trout and Alpine char, freshwater fish raised in crystal-clear mountain water. The meats are cold-worked, slowly, to keep their delicacy and to give the palate the taste of the pure waters they come from.
Among the local specialities, one stands out: the smoked Mortandèla of the Val di Non, recognised as a Slow Food Presidium: a rustic, deep-flavoured cured meat, once made with pork from pigs raised at home and today a symbol of Trentino's culinary identity. Its rounded shape and intense aroma evoke the atmosphere of hearths, village feasts and craft knowledge handed down through generations.
These are flavours that smell of the woods and tell the story of a land balanced between necessity and creativity.
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