Arriving to Beantown
There was hardly time to catch their breath, with so much amazement to catch up with! Tess and Asha joined the group there, so the group is now complete!
Matteo Pugliese, together with professor Matteo Vignoli, made a short stop in Toronto and met the founder of the Food Innovation Hub. Those brilliant young men from Ryerson University are also alumini of the Food Innovation Summer School in Sicily last year.
The scenes changed rapidly for our champions to the cityscape of Boston. A hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, with over 2000 startups according to the World reputation rankings 2016, and the home of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT). There is no wonder Oliver Wendell Holmes, called it the “Hub of the solar system”, and later Boston became known as “the hub”.
The first day was a free day for discovery. Our champions couldn’t resist the temptation of visiting Boston public library and Harvad university.
The second day started for the team at Barrington coffee in Boston that offers unique blends of the finest coffee around the world. It was featured in an entire chapter of Rebecca Gray’s Book. It is not only the organoleptic quality they are keen on, but also sustainability criteria and sourcing from family owned farms or growers’ cooperatives.
While the group was not yet homesick, an important food landmark was Eataly in Boston. For 10 years Eataly has been bringing the best of what Italian territories offered to the world, offering authenticity and unique quality that reflects the rich diversity of the Italian food culture.
While the team was not yet homesick, an important food landmark was Eataly in Boston. For 10 years Eataly has been bringing the best of Italian territories to the world, offering authenticity and unique quality that reflects the rich diversity of the Italian food culture. It’s clear to see that Eataly Boston is strongly influenced by the seafood culture of the city, the students made a stop at the oysters for a tasting but a tasting with a difference as they were encouraged to open their own!
The day wouldn’t be complete without a remarkable dining experience. The place of choice for lunch was The little donkey with a variety of raw tapas dishes by chefs Ken Oringer & Jamie Bissonnette who won the James Beard Award in 2001. The idea is to offer flavours from around the world, or as the owners put it, “From Jersey to Japan”.
The next food innovation landmark was Clover food lab with ten cafes in total, their philosophy is “keep it simple”, and it works! They have no freezers, they source their vegetables locally, and have a small menu that changes daily and a growing clientele who love their dishes. The name brings to the mind the endless experiments that can be made with different flavours and textures using ingredients that are in season. The man behind the Clover food Lab is Ayr Muir MIT and Harvard MBA graduate whose idea was to develop the best food product possible for taste, scalability and shelf life.
In the evening, the team headed to the Italian consulate in Boston, where the students presented their individual projects to the consul general, Mr. Nicola De Santis and gave him a bottle of Lambrusco wine from the heart of Emilia Romagna. It was an enriching evening that also included a presentation of the Food Innovation program and a networking session with Italian cheeses and foccacia.
The next post will be an attempt to capture a glimpse of what Food Innovation from the MIT viewpoint looks like!
