From 18 to 24 November, Chongqing and five other cities (Chengdu, Leshan, Guiyang, Kunming and Lijiang) will host over 40 events including tasting sessions, cooking classes and promotional activities. The initiative, which will see the participation of 15 restaurants and lounge bars, 5 luxury hotels, 3 ice cream parlours and Chongqing’s largest supermarket offering imported products, is meant to showcase Italy’s rich wine and food traditions.
The Italian Vice Consul General in Chongqing, Davide Castellani, spoke at the opening event, underlining that this year’s programme which the Italian Consulate General put together, is the richest and most varied ever developed. “The love for eating well is shared by everyone in the world and is an element that unites cultures. If this is true in general terms, it is even more so in China and in Italy,” said Castellani. “When we drafted our programme, we wanted to fulfil a two-fold goal – enhancing the awareness of the relation between food and health and promoting the Mediterranean Diet, a real pillar of Italian Cuisine, and its ingredients.” He then went on to say: “Italian products are becoming ever more appreciated and in demand in China, as shown by the rise in exports.”
The second part of the opening event, which was organised by ENIT, the Italian National Tourist Board, featured a presentation of Italian wine and food culture, followed by tasting sessions of regional dishes and by a show of a well-known fashion brand.
“The passport of Italian taste” was launched during the opening ceremony. Organised in partnership with ENIT, the initiative envisages a free distribution of passport-like booklets containing information on the typical dishes and top-quality wines of each Italian region along with a list of restaurants, cafeterias and other shops participating in the 2019 Italian Cuisine Week in the World. When people go to any of the listed shops, a seal will be stamped on their ‘passport’. By collecting 20 seals in a year, a patron will become “Ambassador of Italian Cuisine” and participate in the drawing of a flight ticket from Chongqing to Rome.
