All of a sudden, the band of cooks arrived in Mugello for the celebrations in Villa Panna

Part of the team of cooks who last Tuesday gave life to a mini-edition of Gelinaz in Villa Panna, the historic headquarters of Acqua Panna’s plants in Scarperia del Mugello (Florence). Left to right, Agata Felluga of Jour de Fête in Strasbourg, Inaki Aizpitarte of Chateaubriand in Paris, Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese in New York and San Francisco, Petter Nilsson of the Spritmuseum in Stockholm and Kobe Desramaults of In De Wulf in the Flanders. The gig was conceived by Clément Vachon of Sanpellegrino and Gelinaz's Andrea Petrini (photo credits Gabriele Stab)

Hardly a spiritual retreat. It is a known fact that the chefs of Gelinaz prefer pagan feasts, food celebrations and the can-can of improvisation to asceticism. The last act of the temporary band of cooks that was created by Andrea Petrini in 2005 (we already reported their appearance in Gent in Belgium) was performed last Tuesday in Villa Panna, the historic headquarters of the Acqua Panna plants, on the occasion of the celebrations for the 450th anniversary of the estate (on July 15th 1564 an official edict indicated the borders of one of the game reserves owned by the Medici family in Scarperia and since then the estate was left untouched and is still a nature reserve).

A craveable trip on the volcano, visiting excellent wineries and two young chefs worth keeping an eye on

Ripiddu nivicatu, one of Andrea Macca’s signature dishes: he’s the chef at La Cucina di DonnaCarmela, a gourmet restaurant in the homonymous resort in Riposto, Etna’s “port”, near Catania. The dishing out recalls the volcano: scampi bisque under fresh pasta mixed with a sauce made with ink squid, chopped squid with an infusion of lapsang souchong tea, and slightly braised scampi and squid

It’s as if the lava, the ash and the lapilli irradiated from Mount Etna to the area surrounding it and over the centuries, had gradually defined a sort of free zone – an island on the island – a perimeter kilometres wide that has rules of its own: more calm than the rest of Sicily, greener – even though it is coloured with dark stones – more hardworking, linked to the earth and its fruits. Here life originates from the Mother-volcano, the majestic and incumbent giver of life, both benign and terrible.

The great Neapolitan pizza-chef Enzo Coccia arrives in Shanghai and Beijing with two new restaurants

Great celebrations in China for Neapolitan Enzo Coccia, the real world ambassador of pizza. Fissler, a German company that produces high quality tableware, called him for two new restaurants they’ve opened in China. And Coccia brought all his wisdom... and of course even a couple collaborators to train the local staff

Enzo Coccia, patron of the double pizzeria La Notizia in Naples and tireless testimonial of Neapolitan Pizza, hasarrived in China with as many as two brand new restaurants. The Neapolitan pizzajuolo was called in the Far East by Fissler, a German company that produces high quality tableware. The German brand, already available in Asia since 2005, called him specially, together with his pizzas, for their first two Fissler Academy Cafés which were opened in the past few weeks with lots of celebrations in Shanghai and Beijing.

We’re back on the streets of Lombardy’s capital, discovering the writers’ favourite places

The second part of Camilla Baresani’s report on her favourite places in Milan. And the first one to which the journalist and writer takes us is Trussardi alla Scala (tel. +39.02.80688201), with the great barman Tommaso Cecca on the ground floor, and Luigi Taglienti’s cuisine on the first floor

From the classics of Bar Basso we now get to the innovations of the brilliant Trussardi alla Scala, the most beautiful counter and restaurant in town, with the excellent Tommaso Cecca, a barman that anyone opening a bar would like to have in his team. Of course I recommend getting to the first floor to taste Luigi Taglienti’s delicious cuisine (you can taste something at a moderate price in the bistro, a beautiful glass case full of green plants at the top).

The writer from Brescia, who became a gourmet in the city, tells us about her favourite places

Camilla Baresani, writer, journalist, great gastronomic expert and enthusiasts, wrote an article in which she tells us about her craveable Milan for Guida ai ristoranti di Identità Golose 2014, published by Mondadori. While waiting for Expo 2015, and in order to give some tips to those who happen to walk in the sunny streets of Milan, we republish her piece in two parts (photo credits Sarah De Pietro)

Even though I was born and raised in Brescia, it was in Milan that I first started to be a gourmet, thanks to my grandparents who lived here. It was back in the Sixties and the most beautiful memory of the times when I would visit them was the daily grocery shopping at Peck, which at the time had three sumptuous shops, besides visiting the restaurants where my grandfather was a regular: Giannino, L'Assassino and Romani, where I would discover a different cuisine from the one that was typical of my area, all focused on agnoli and broiled birds.

Superheroes or jelly architects? British Sam Bompas and Harry Parr create wondrous things

Funland is one of the most recent projects that Bompas & Parr, an increasingly popular creative studio, created for the NYC Museum of Sex. "Pleasures and risks of the sex fair" is the title of this complex installation, which is in fact only one of the many inventive creations of these two young Brits

Fruit flavoured fireworks over the Thames; gherkins that lit up like light bulbs; London’s lost cityscape built in gingerbread; an ice cream that glows in the dark; a mirror maze to navigate through your sense of smell; a dinner in a masonic temple inspired by Jodorowsky’s cult movie "The Holy Mountain"; and again, a machine to make bubble gum using the most bizarre flavours, a tall ship on a sea of jelly, occult jam, a map of America built of jelly, the river Lea coloured in emerald green.

Starting from Rio Pusteria, a series of delicious places for a summer in Alto Adige

The total green of Valle Isarco, where cows and goats happily pasture, infusing they merriness in the excellent milk used by artisan dairy farmers to produce excellent products

So you don’t know what to do this summer and you don’t feel like going to the beach? Then it’s time to take the Brennero motorway and go to Alto Adige. Your place for peace is holiday area "Sci e malghe Rio di Pusteria" in Valle Isarco, a totally green kingdom among the mountains, where time seems to have stopped. The main town, after which the area is named, is Rio Pusteria, and above it, there are the ski resorts of Maranza-Valles. All around, one can find villages with medieval castles such as Rodengo, woods, paths for walks and bike routes.

In October, Italian chefs and wineries will be at Eataly for the first edition of the Italian Food and Wine Festival

La Scuola at Eataly Chicago, the store located on 43, East Ohio Street. From Tuesday 14th to Thursday 16th October, this will be the location for the first edition of the Italian Food and Wine Festival, with 30 wineries selected by the Merano Wine Festival and important Italian chefs (photo credits terryssecondhelpings.blogspot.it)

Summer still needs to explode over here but we’re already thinking about the autumn, with the fifth edition of Identità New York (October 9th-12th) coming up, followed by a true premiere, that is to say the Italian Food and Wine Festival, which will take place at Eataly Chicago right after that, from Tuesday 14th to Thursday 16th October.

Patrizia Corradetti and restaurant Zenobi: the victory of passion over the difficulties in life

Patrizia Corradetti together with one of her children, Marcello Zenobi, who over the years became the manager of restaurant Zenobi (tel. +39.0861.70581). Patrizia’s two daughters, Sandra and Cristina, are also personally involved in the management of the family business

The greatest Sardinian chefs have given life to an association that only a short while after its birth is already very active

A group photo of the chefs of the association "Cuochi per l'Isola" [chefs for the Island], founded at the end of 2013 to help the people who suffered from the floods on November 18th 2013. Left to right we can see Roberto Petza, Achille Pinna, Luigi Pomata, Roberto Serra and Pierluigi Fais. The group is very active, with a long series of activities that have the objective of promoting Sardinia’s gastronomic heritage with attention, and encourage the new generations of professionals (photo by Pietro Pio Pitzalis)

La Sardegna è storicamente terra di campanili e di rivalità inter-rionali. È perché le diverse parti dell’isola hanno subito nei secoli influssi diversissimi, differenze ancora evidenti nei dialetti: chi parla in sassarese stretto difficilmente si farà capire da un cagliaritano e viceversa. Ci volevano i cuochi per costruire un vocabolario comune. Li ha messi insieme l’associazione Cuochi per l’Isola, una congrega senza scopo di lucro che accoglie sotto il suo tetto i più grandi cuochi sardi: il presidente all'unanimità Roberto Petza (chef del ristorante S'Apposentu di Casa Puddu a Siddi) con i soci fondatori Luigi Pomata (Luigi Pomata a Cagliari), Achille Pinna (Da Achille a Sant'Antioco) e Stefano Deidda (Dal Corsaro a Cagliari), ai quali si aggiungono gli emergenti Clelia Bandini (Lucitta, Arbatax), Pierluigi Fais (Josto al Duomo, Oristano), Manuele Senis (Fradis Minoris, Pula) e Roberto Serra (Su Carduleu, Abbasanta).