Italian Cuisine Week: Madrid focuses on education

In Madrid, the Italian Cuisine Week focuses on education. The Italian Embassy, in partnership with the Madrid offices of the ICE Agency and ENIT and the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Spain, organised “ITmakES – Prepare Your Future”, a series of professional wine-tasting courses enabling Spanish sommeliers to get acquainted with Italian cuisine and wines. In particular, the Coordinator of the ALMA Wine Academy, Ciro Fontanesi, will hold a masterclass dedicated to Barbaresco wine and, together with gastronomy critics and star Spanish wine tasters, will sit on the jury of the “ITmakES – Prepare Your Future – Young Sommeliers of Italian Wine” contest, which will be called on to select three young sommeliers to attend the next Master’s Course at the Alma Academy. The Italian Embassy will then host an event dedicated to the presentation of training projects implemented in 2019. The event will be conducted by Giuseppe Iannotti, ALMA Ambassador and chef at the Michelin-star winning “Krésios” restaurant in Telese Terme. The brigade of youths assisting Chef Iannotti will include the winners of the last ItmakES contest for young chefs, who are finalising their training in Italy. Ambassador Stefano Sannino said: “I am particularly happy to see this group of noteworthy youths grow, and they will be given the chance to experience high-level training opportunities in the kitchen of some of Italy’s most important chefs and get acquainted with our Country’s most emblematic regional wine and gastronomy itineraries, discovering Italy’s most representative products and visiting vineyards, wine cellars and winemaking regions, such as the “Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene” recently declared a UNESCO Human Heritage Site.” He went on: “With these projects we intend to establish a closer cooperation between Italy and Spain in order to promote the Mediterranean Diet and a correct approach to nutrition, food education and to providing a correct information to consumers.” Precisely to the Mediterranean Diet will be dedicated a seminar co-organised by the Medical Association of Madrid, the Italian Embassy and the Italian Culinary Academy titled “Importance of the Mediterranean Diet applied to the treatment of hepatic steatosis”. The agenda of events to celebrate the Italian Cuisine Week in the World will close at the Embassy with the presentation of the book “En la Mesa con Leonardo” (“At the Table with Leonardo”) by Spanish writer, journalist and gastronomist Eva Celada, who will illustrate the Renaissance culinary tradition through the observations and experiences of the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, on the 500th anniversary from his death.