Marco Riva, who has died tragically at the age of 57, was, pro-rector, lecturer in Processes of Food Technology and leader of the Gastronomic Measurements and Bibliographic Research workshops at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo.
A respected food technologist, from 1992 to 2006 he was first a researcher then an associate professor at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Milan, where he taught Food Technologies, Enological Technologies and Catering Technologies.
The author of over 150 publications, he was a regular contributor to the publications of Slow Food and, earlier, of Arcigola, and a member of the scientific committee of the UNISG journal Gastronomic Sciences – Food for Thought.
In the early 1980s, Como-born Marco was a member of the Milan-based group of scholars and intellectuals who gave rise to La Gola, the first periodical in Italy to observe food analytically through the lenses of culture, history and, in his case, science.
For the readers of La Gola and later of Slow Food’s international journal Slow and the many other publications with which he collaborated over the years, Marco stood out as a critical observer of technology and its increasingly important presence in the production, conservation and marketing of foodstuffs.
His ability as a communicator was the fruit of genuine passion for his subject and the material roots of food culture. His is a great loss — not only for Slow Food.
Marco Riva, food technologist and writer, born October 24 1951; died August 25 2008