01-05-2016
The Minister for Agricultural Policies Maurizio Martina, Massimo Bottura, Claudio Ceroni of MagentaBureau, the then Expo commissioner Giuseppe Sala and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the Identità Expo temporaryrestaurant, precisely one year ago
Facebook is a useful reminder. This morning, upon waking up, many of us were welcomed by a series of “your memories” photos portraying the first day of Expo. In my case, the one I had the opportunity to take, opening this article: it depicts the Minister for Agricultural Policies Maurizio Martina, Massimo Bottura, Claudio Ceroni of MagentaBureau, the then Expo commissioner Giuseppe Sala and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, sitting at the Identità Expo temporaryrestaurant, which debuted one year ago precisely, together with the World Fair. This is in a way a symbolic image, presenting many aspects. Let’s sum them up.
1) THE REBIRTH OF MILAN – Expo favoured and turned the spotlights on Milan’s development, yet Milan had been evolving even before Expo. The World Fair contributed substantially, it offered the chance for the town to freshen up its makeup. But, most of all, it was the stage for a growth that had already began, «many were preceding projects, they were already working, the capital of Lombardy had undergone a strong renewal in the past few years, Expo had the merit of making many people around the world know this, communicating this reality, imposing it even on the international press», ponders Paolo Marchi.
A group photo at the end of the second meeting of the Forum della cucina italiana, on 28th July at Expo Milano 2015
The general director at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Vincenzo De Luca, the undersecretary for Economic Development Ivan Scalfarotto, the Minister for Agricultural Policies Maurizio Martina, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentiloni and the undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Benedetto della Vedova at the presentation of the Protocollo per la cucina, last 14th March
5) THE SUSTAINABLE CHEF – Finally, let’s return to the initial photo. Massimo Bottura was also at Identità Expo on the first day. This was no coincidence, because nobody like him was so capable of interpreting the “Feeding the planet” theme. One year ago, Gabriele Zanatta was taking note of these words of his (read here): «The cuisine of the future must be based on culture, which generates knowledge, which itself opens the conscience, which finally creates a sense of responsibility. I believe a chef does his job if he’s capable of moving the spotlight pointed at him towards the silent heroes of our tables: farmers, fishermen…». And then: «Food waste is no longer acceptable. This is why the tortellini I created today are made using the skin and all the scraps left from the side dish of the main course». Meanwhile, the work at Refettorio Ambrosiano was beginning, a great idea that is now spreading: Bologna, Palermo, Torino, Modena, soon New York and Rio de Janeiro too, as we said here, here and here. The Food for Soul association was recently born (read here), a Foundation is about to be created… A huge effort, which depicts the new sustainable chef, (which the author of this piece also presented on the prestigious Treccani encyclopaedia, here) and which we hope will lead the chef from Modena to stand in the first place in the next 50 Best. We hope so: because he truly deserves it and because it would mark the consecration of the new Italian cuisine. It would be, in a way, a further heritage of the event that began precisely one year ago, surrounded by general scepticism.
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by
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief