Moveable feasts

The Guardian reports a new phenomenon in Italy: the private trattoria. At its most basic, this is a group of friends pooling the cost of cooking for a dinner party. But the examples described in the article sound more like full-scale restaurants, like this one, to which a British visitor was directed by a friend:

"He'd drawn us a map in the countryside and the directions were along the lines of, drive out of town for four kilometres, take the first road to the right at the war memorial, drive for another two kilometres and turn left at a big tree," she says. "We drove out and we came across this barn which had a lot of cars parked beside it. The barn was lit by candles and gas lanterns and people were just sitting there - in the middle of the countryside - eating this wonderful food that was being cooked on a barbecue and giant gas cooking rings. There was no menu and the wine was a choice of white or red in jugs. We were a bit intimidated because we couldn't speak any Italian, but we muddled through and we had a wonderful dinner."

It sounds like the fantasy of most good domestic cooks: Hey, I could run a restaurant if it weren't for all those regulations about hygiene and keeping accounts, and having to cook different dishes at different times for all those picky customers.

It sounds, specifically, like this fantasy: ( The Flying Inn )

In both cases, I suspect, the idea is enormously attractive, but the reality has major drawbacks.