Could you eat an Elephant? If it was slow enough you could consider it.

Watching last nights Channel 4 documentary I realised something very unique about Italian food and Italian cooking and Italian's themselves. Attracted by the shows title 'Could you eat an Elephant' I watched avidly as Fergus Henderson and Jeremy Lee explored the more unusual culinary delights that Italy offers.

No our holidays do not champion eating songbirds such as Thrushes or Blackbirds, nor do we feast on Casu Marzu (a type of pecorino left to rot and to be a host for maggots, then eaten - with live maggots inside) but we do champion the overridding message in the programme. We believe in slow food, produced locally and naturally. Italian's seem unique in Europe in how cooking is intrinsicly linked to its source and origin. No we do not serve up thrush pizza and maggot cheese risotto and you will not be expected to go near anything so wild, unless you really want to on one of our holidays. However you will be drinking fine wine grown mere metres from the kitchen which will be washing down a local gourmet delight, which has probibly never seen a lorry, freezer or a roll of cellophane in it's life. So in answer to the question could you eat an Elephant. No, but if it was locally sourced, responsibly farmed and organic, it might be worth considering.

Flavours of Italy are avid supporters of the Slow Food Movement.