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Amaster in the art of making Parmesan cheese, Manjit Singh is part of a large community of Sikhs in northern Italy, who are shoring up an industry under threat of extinction.
Since moving from India seven years ago, the former taxi driver has become the main cheesemaker in a small family-run factory that produces thousands of rounds of the world-famous cheese. Many of Italy’s 25,000-strong Sikh community originate from India’s Punjab region but have found their calling producing Parmesan and prosciutto ham in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna. Most are employed as dairy hands but some, such as Manjit Singh, are taking over key roles in preparing the sharply flavoured hard cheese grated onto pasta dishes and shaved into salads the world over. Graziano Cacciali, who runs the Parmesan plant in Zibello, took Manjit Singh on as help in 2004 after undergoing a heart bypass operation and says he has enjoyed teaching Manjit skills that Italians are no longer prepared to learn. At a dairy in nearby Novellara, which specialises in producing milk for making Parmesan, half the labourers are Sikhs, prized as methodical, hard workers, who are eager to fill the posts that open as Italians desert the industry. The money is good too, with Sikh cheesemakers earning up to 2,000 euros ($ 2,800) a month. "Most of our workers are Indian," says farmer Stefano Gazzini. "They are more dedicated to their work. They seem to have integrated well into the community, and even have their own temple." The first Sikhs arrived in the region at the end of the 1980s. While a few opened their own import-export businesses, many found work in cattle farms or cheese factories — and tasted Parmesan for the first time, Manjit adds. Wearing saffron, white or blue turbans, the men accompany their wives to the market on their days off and sip milky tea under the porticoes in Novellara’s historic centre, before heading off to the large white temple, or gurdwara. — AFP
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