Celebrating the Italian Cuisine in the World

Italian cuisine has always been an undisputed symbol of refinement, creativity, but also genuineness, sharing, and family. It is certainly so for Italians, a people who have made food the cornerstone of their personal, social, and cultural identity.

“If you ask an Italian where the best food is in Italy, you almost always get the same answer. “Eh,” they like to say. “At my mother’s house!” — Forbes

Unlike other countries, kitchens in Italy tend to be the largest or most lived-in places in the home. They serve as places where we preserve wellbeing through food preparation, places where we experience the power of food as a medicine, gathering places for conversation, and places where a natural richness comes into contact with the human-home dimension.

But Italian cuisine is also an undisputed symbol for foreign countries. Representing unequivocally the excellence of the Italian brand, the values of Italianness at the table have reached every corner of the world, following the migrations of those Italians who moved from their country, or simply due to its undisputed quality.

Abroad, the Italian brand is immediately associated with quality foods, that’s why the levels of counterfeiting (or the so called Italian Sounding) are so high, comment Pino Coletti, CEO and Founder of Authentico, a start-up born to protect the real Made in Italy abroad.

Within this context, it is also crucial to keep in mind that our country, the country of beauty and good food, is the first country in Europe for products of geographically protected origin. This is without a doubt a reason for pride, even more so if we consider that, compared to 2003, the number of products covered by the denomination has almost doubled and the value of production has almost quadrupled, as recently stands out from CIBUS 2021, the Food Fair in Parma — Italy.

It is for all these reasons that since the 2015 Expo in Milan, every year an entire week is dedicated to celebrating Italian Cuisine in the World, coordinated by the Directorate General for the Promotion of the Country System of the Italian Foreign Ministry.

Italian Cuisine in the World: let’s start from a global heritage for humanity

Just as last year, the Future Food Institute is honored to support the 6th edition of the Italian Cooking Week (15–21 November 2021), with digital and in-person events coordinated within the Agenda of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

This year’s theme is “Tradition and Perspectives of Italian Cuisine: Awareness and Enhancement of Food Sustainability.”

This is a topic that is perfectly framed within the current political and diplomatic contexts: with Italy being a protagonist in the international dialogue and debate, for having hosted the G20 meetings, the UNFSS Pre-Summit and Pre-COP26, it is clear that it is more necessary than ever to evaluate the role of food as a link that connects all areas of human development.

For this reason, we could not have chosen a more perfect place to kick off this week than Pollica, placed in the heart of the Mediterranean, emblematic community of the Mediterranean Diet and secretariat of the network of UNESCO Emblematic Communities of the Mediterranean Diet.

Beginning on the 16th of November, we celebrate the 11th anniversary of the recognition of the Mediterranean Diet as UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

It is now well-known that the Mediterranean Diet is much more than a list of foods. It is commonality, conviviality, it is respect for the land, but it is also a “remarkable body of knowledge, songs, maxims, tales, and legends” ensuring “the preservation and development of traditional activities and crafts related to fishing and agriculture in Mediterranean communities,” as recognized by UNESCO.

Over three days of events, the Centro Studi Dieta Mediterranea “Angelo Vassallo” of the Municipality of Pollica and the Future Food Institute will host representatives of UNESCO, Italian institutions, Ambassadors of the Emblematic Communities of the Mediterranean Diet, in addition to professors, researchers, architects, local representatives, farmers, and anthropologists to explore the iconic value chains of the Mediterranean. The event is an opportunity to connect people to the planet and maximize collective prosperity starting from the power of the Mediterranean Diet, a power that perfectly merges together tradition and pioneering innovation.

Coinciding with this event we will proudly inaugurate the Mediterranean Food Lab, the new research and innovation laboratory based on traditional Mediterranean ecological knowledge.

Traditional knowledge contains a priceless heritage of skills and understanding of the environment for sustainable management, which has survived millennia of development and has been strengthened by the cross-pollination of the cultures that have traveled the roads and navigated the waters of Mare Nostrum.

But as the Mediterranean teaches us, innovation is equally crucial to allow traditional knowledge to adapt and thrive. That is why, also in Pollica, we will also host the EIT Food Journalism Award Food Innovation and Sustainability, a ceremony designed to disseminate knowledge, best practices and testimonials on issues of technological innovation and environmental sustainability supported by guests called specifically for the occasion.

From East to West: the Marathon of the Italian Cuisine

After Pollica, the 6th edition of the Italian Cuisine Week in the world will continue with a schedule of events, both digital and in presence, to promote Italian culinary savoir-faire in all its different dimensions, from Innovation to gastronomy, from agriculture to sustainability.

Each event will involve, in close collaboration with the Farnesina, the Italian Embassies in foreign markets involved, and also the Municipality of Pollica and I Love Italian Food, the platform for the promotion of “Made in Italy” in the world, with millions of users.

From West to East, here are the main places involved in the marathon:

• San Francisco (USA): Food of the Future: Sustainability and Innovation — Lessons bridging Italy and the US
• Washington (USA): Food and sustainability
• Nur Sultan (Kazakistan): Food for Earth. A sustainable and regenerative model of agriculture: From inspiration to action, during which the Future Food Institute will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the “S. Seifullin” Kazakh Agrotechnical University
• Chile: Mediterranean Diet and Psychological Well-Being: An Opportunity for Health Promotion and Prevention of Chronic Diseases in Chile
• Berlin: The Future of Italian Food through Innovation and Sustainability where Italian start-up, selected by the BravoInnovation Hub, will be hosted in Berlin’s accelerators and incubators
• Zagabria (Croatia): Tradition and perspectives of Italian cuisine: awareness and enhancement of food sustainability
• Tokyo (Japan): Lifestyles for human and planet prosperity: connections between Mediterranean Diet and Okinawa Diet
• New Delhi (India): The future of food sustainability through the eyes of Italian and Indian start-ups

This is because Italian Cuisine, just as food in general, is an incredible glue of relationships, a unique bridge of dialogue and immediate knowledge of peoples and among peoples.

Food enlivens traditions, craftsmanship, and innovation of which chefs and sommeliers are interpreters; it enhances territories and enogastronomic itineraries.

Food and Italian Cuisine is, most of all, a unique form of soft power.