Another year with Identità Golose

Identità Golose 2015 can be summed up in a few numbers: 678 restaurants, 484 in Italy and 186 in the rest of the world, 33 different countries, with the debut of Russia, Argentina and Canada – it is the only Italian guide offering a view of creative cuisine across five continents - 107 collaborators of whom 12 are foreigners, since it is crucial to look beyond one’s own business, 858 pages, a 50% increase, compared with the debut, eight years ago, and this has to mean something … “The guide chefs read”, the happy slogan created by Mondadori, the publisher, for the second year in a row, of this guide desired and created by Paolo Marchi, which was presented a few hours ago in Milan, inside Eataly Smeraldo, in front of enthusiasts, professionals and curious people, a nice mix that perfectly fits a guide to signature restaurants that stands out thanks to its dynamicity, freshness, vivacity: it would be enough to remind of the 193 new establishments, a wide turnover, because Identità is updated and reflects how a world such as that of gastronomy changes with an impetuous evolution. Or it would be enough, just to give another idea, to mention the surprising name of the “Chef of the Year”, a sort of outsider, little known in our country, namely Luca Fantin, 35 from Silea, Treviso, at the helm of Bulgari Ginza Tower’s kitchen in Tokyo. After all, wine and food critics should not ratify what is obvious, but tell the untold and offer useful directions for the future.

On the stage of Eataly in Milan, under the eyes of host Oscar Farinetti – there’s an ever growing link between these two realities – the first who contended the microphone with the presenter of the evening, Tarsia Trevisan, was Claudio Ceroni, patron of Magenta Bureau, Identità Golose’sorganizational structure. He traced a picture in which this brand is seeing a strong development, thanks to a long list of collateral activities beside the traditional ones (the congresses in Italy and abroad, the identitagolose.it website, the guide itself): he recalled the main sponsors (Acqua Panna-S.Pellegrino, Birra Moretti, Ruinart), the finals of the Birra Moretti contest, this coming November 17th at Alice ristorante with Claudio Sadler as jury president, the Roma Food&Wine Festival at Eataly Roma, from November 29th till December 1st, with the Pesto Championship, which will also take place at the Milano Food&Wine Festival inside MiCo Milano Congressi on February 7-9th, one day before the Identità Milano 2015 congress. Then, as mentioned before, there’s the growing collaboration with Eataly, which will give life also to “Identità Golose per Eataly”, a new space inside Farinetti’s website. Moreover, there’s Host 2015, from October 23rd till the 27th, with the debut of a new collaboration called Identità Future. And before then there will be all the activities linked with the Expo…

In other words, it’s a sparkling picture, just like the graphics of the new guide, as usual, «worth reading from one end to the other», as underlined by Marchi when calling on the stage Alessandro Pipero representing the many authors - Marco Bolasco, Marco Stabile, Nino Di Costanzo, Enzo Vizzari, Mario Batali... – of the “Storie di gola”, the palate stories. This also applies to the congress in Milan, whose programme was published today on the website: the main theme will be “A healthy intelligence”, the guest region Veneto, there will be many focuses in the halls, some classics (Identità Naturali, Identità di Pane e Pizza, Identità di Pasta), some new themes, such as Identità di Montagna [Mountain Identità], Identità Piccanti [Spicy Identità] and Identità Estreme [Extreme Identità].

The time has come to illustrate all the awards. Having said about Fantin as Best Chef, the “Beer in the Kitchen” prize went to Fabrizio Ferrari of Al Porticciolo 84 in Lecco; the best wine and spirits list is that of restaurant Il Palagio at the Four Seasons in Florence, clapping of hands for Walter Meccia, Edoardo Boncinelli and Gabriele Fedeli; the best sommelier is a woman, Elisa Bellavia at Cinzia – with Christian and Manuel (Costardi) in Vercelli; the best maître is Manuel Miliccia of Piazza Duomo di Alba (Cn); the best bread basket is that of Guido da Costigliole in Santo Stefano Belbo (Cn), by Monica Magnini; the “surprise of the year” is Gianluca Gorini, chef-disciple of Paolo Lopriore at Le Giare in Montiano (Fc); the best foreign chef David Toutain of the homonymous restaurant in Paris; the best sous-chef Simone Nebbia, Roberto Petza’s right-arm at S’Apposentu di Casa Puddu in Siddi (Vs); the best pastry chef Luca De Santi of Al Mercato and Ratanà in Milan; the “young family” is that of Elia and Matteo Rizzo at Il Desco in Verona.