The varied offer of food and wine of Italian regions also includes food for astronauts. The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, running from 19 to 25 November, will be illustrated in Portugal through a dense programme of events, conferences, workshops and masterclasses held in Lisbon and Porto. For the occasion, the Italian Embassy, in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute, the Italian Chamber of Commerce and the ASCIP Dante Alighieri Association of Porto, has convened chefs, journalists, sports celebrities and business people along with several local Italian restaurants who will offer menus dedicated to the theme throughout the week.
The first event is scheduled for the 19th of November with a lecture entitled “Where Italian Cuisine is Headed between Regional Roots and Global Influences” by reporter Davide Paolini, the Gastronauta®, as he is called on his programme on Radio 24. The first region presented is Umbria, with a taste of the most popular local products, ranging from the Sagrantino di Montefalco to the Trebbiano Spoletino wines, to the lentils from Castelluccio di Norcia to the saffron produced in Cascia, the black celery from Trevi and the prosciutto from Norcia. On the following day, Chef Pasquale Laera will hold a cooking class to the accompaniment of a concert with music by Gioacchino Rossini, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his death. On Wednesday, a famous sportsman, champion yachtsman Raimondo Cappa, the grandson of the founder of the Reale Yacht Club Savoia of Naples, will illustrate the menus used on sailing boats. The focus will be on pasta omelettes, fried mozzarella cheese and potato casseroles. On Thursday, the spotlight goes back to the regions with a workshop on Neapolitan cuisine which will teach how to make eggplant parmesan and Neapolitan rice timbale (“sartù di riso”) with Chef Necci Bertini from the Hosteria Luce of Rome. The workshops held by Italian chefs will also be attended by the students of the Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies and of the School of Hotel Hospitality of Porto.
On Friday, 23 November, it will be the turn of Apulia to offer a taste of its typical products. The week will wind up in outer space with a meeting with Raffaele Tiberino, whose family farm, established in Bari in 1888, has been preparing Italian menus for the astronauts of the International Space Station since 2007.
