Slow Food was founded in 1986 by food and wine journalist Carlo Petrini in reaction to the opening of a McDonald's on the Spanish Steps in Rome.

To counter the effects of fast food, Carlo and a group of his friends started SlowFood. The Movement achieved international status in 1989 with the signing of the official Slow Food Manifesto at the Opera House in Paris by delegates from over 20 countries.

Since these humble beginnings, Slow Food has grown to 70,000 members in over 50 countries. Among some of the great achievements in the history of Slow Food were the founding of the Slow journal in 1996, and the formation of the Ark of Taste project, also in 1996.

The Ark project shifted the focus of the organization from gastronomy to "eco-gastronomy," a movement which believes that gastronomy cannot exist without a concern for the environment, and vice versa.

Slow Food promotes the defense to a right to pleasure in the purest form.