Six magnificent Italian chefs in New York

There are still 8 days to go before the fourth edition of Identità New York will take place, from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th October. The stage is the same as usual, namely Eataly, on 200 Fifth Avenue; the number of lessons will be the same as the one in the past two editions (6 lessons over 3 days, thus 2 per day) the same goes for the number of gala dinners (two, the first on Friday 4th and the second on Saturday 5th). The content, on the contrary, changes: no more Italian chefs performing solo (like in the 2010 edition, a sort of pilot episode), no more confrontations between Italian chefs and Italian chefs working in the Big Apple (the leitmotiv of the 2011 edition) and not even a parallel between our chefs and their New-York colleagues with different origins (as in 2012). The 2013 theme is the Expo of Tastes.

In view of the World’s Fair which will take place in Milan in 2015, this year we decided to pair the Italian chefs with American chefs (plus a French one who now works in the United States, namely Daniel Boulud) following the theme given by six universal ingredients that are available in almost all the gastronomic cultures around the world: Egg, Tomato, Salted Codfish, Cheese, Pasta and Rice. Six edible elements for 6 lessons and 12 chefs, who are in fact more, if we take into account the chefs who will cook during the gala dinners. Today we present the Italian chefs. Tomorrow we will continue with the foreigners.

Massimo Bottura and Carlo Cracco, the pillars of the first three editions, return this year too. After giving lessons together with Mario Batali (2011) and Alain Ducasse (2012), this year the chef from Modena will be sided by Boulud (their theme: egg). The chef from Vicenza, after the duets with Wylie Dufresne (2011) and Michael White (2012), now will have Matthew Lightner by his side, a creative chef who’s increasingly popular in the Big Apple, with 2 brand new Michelin stars received for his Atera. They will speak about rice. Davide Scabin, another pillar during the first three editions, should have come too, but he hasn’t recovered in time from a recent injury to his. His place (next to Mario Batali, following the theme of pasta, like last year) will be taken by Milanese chef Cesare Battisti.

Mauro Uliassi, on the other hand, will debut this year: he was meant to participate last year too, but funnily enough, just like Scabin, he was held up by an injury to his ankle, just before leaving. This year, the chef from Senigallia is in great shape: we will verify this during his lesson with Sara Jenkins. Their theme will be tomato. Moreno Cedroni will also come from Senigallia: this will be his third edition, after those in 2010 and 2011 (his lecture was be with Jonathan Benno). This year he will section salted codfish together with Dave Pasternack. Finally, there’s another complete debut, that of Viviana Varese, who will give the last lesson of the 3-day-event: she will explore the tasty meanings of cheese together with Jeremy Bearman.

Together with the 6 magnificent Italian chefs, there will also be some friend-chefs who will contribute in creating the menu for the two super-dinners in the Birreria: Mark Ladner for the starter with Mario Batali on Friday; hosts Lidia Bastianich and Fortunato Nicotra, side by side in the preparation of Saturday’s starter, and Katia Delogu for the dessert on both nights.

For all details regarding the lessons and dinners click here

Info and reservations
website: www.eataly.com
tel: +1.212.539.0204, ext. 304
lessons reservations: lascuola@eataly.com
dinner reservations: privatedining@eataly.com