Letta presents the Expo to America

Identità Golose is once again, almost a year after the “cooking” event that took place in 2012, the partner of Expo 2015 in the most prestigious and difficult market there can be for the event that Milan will host in 19 months’ time, namely the World Fair, in which 130 countries are already participating. A large number, it’s almost full and the space that was kept free, as a spot for the possible last-minute VIP participant, is reserved for the few countries, basically all English-speaking, who should join in mid-October, such as Australia and the United Kingdom. And above all the United States.

Here we are, on the night of September 26^th, inside Manzo, on Fifth Avenue. The occasion is an Expo event that was assigned to us of Identità in collaboration with Eataly – host Oscar Farinetti was present and the chef for the night was Carlo Cracco. The occasion? A triple one: the opening of the solo show by Dante Ferretti at Moma (the mascot of the 2015 fair was created by the set designer from Marche, three times awarded with the Academy Award), the visit to the United States of Prime Minister Enrico Letta and the launch of Identità New York, the coming October 4-6, again in the megastore of Italian quality products overlooking Madison Square Park. The objective was to make a step further towards the final yes of the United States, a positive answer the organising committee expects to receive by October 17^th, when the meeting of premier Letta and president Obama will take place, if there will still be a government in Rome and not just ruins, that is.

The stability of institutions is an essential value also in view of the Expo and at Eataly everyone has worked hard to leave our national problems outside of the restaurant. At least for an hour. Letta was welcomed by the general manager and commissioner of the Expo Giuseppe Sala and by Farinetti, who in fact supports Renzi and is strongly convinced that the future of the country will need a regenerated Partito Democratico. Farinetti took the guests with him and led them to the entrance of the restaurant Manzo where they were expected for the traditional welcome to both press and guests of honour such as, for example, architect and neo honorary senator Renzo Piano.

Sala talked first, and then Letta who had Cracco next to him, with short hair and a satisfied look. Both spoke about the future and the extraordinary economic and image opportunities that an event such as this guarantees to those who host it, for good or unfortunately for bad. Unfortunately all that happens in Rome influences also Milan and May 1^st 2015 is now very close.

Letta pardoned himself but he didn’t stay for dinner. He needed to return to Fiumicino to deal with the problems connected with the future of the government. There were 80 people dining. Cracco first proposed his Marinated egg yolk with pappa al pomodoro, the former placed on the latter and everyone would have dipped some bread in it, if only the bread had been included in the recipe. Then came the perfectly cooked Saffron risotto with marrow with, at my table, writer Gay Talese, born in 1932, asking how could the rice grains remain separated. Dishes were cleaned, just like with the third dish: Milanese veal cutlet with courgettes and mint.

Milan was present even when the dessert arrived, with the Panettone Milano – New York created and prepared by Katia Delogu, pastry-chef at Eataly, made with choux pastry filled with panettone, coffee cream and almonds. It was both incredibly tasty and light. And in the glasses, in turns, we had Vespa Bianco 2011 by Bastianich, Inferno Valtellina Superiore 2009 by Nino Negri, Barolo La Rosa 2001 by Fontanafredda and Moncucco Moscato d’Asti 2011 also by Fontanafredda. Praising the work of Cracco, on behalf of everyone, Renzo Piano, with a glass of wine in one hand and a big smile on his face. Farinetti closed the event: “Expo 2015 is an occasion for us Italians to make a good impression. Of course it’s easier for us to criticize than to create, I hope for once we will prove our inclination to act stupidly wrong”.