Identità Golose changes but doesn't stop: here's how Identità on the road - Digital edition will work

The world has changed completely in the past few months. Our perspectives, and even our daily lives have changed. So – it's necessary - Identità Golose also changes. The 16th edition of the congress will no longer take place. 

The time is not right, not yet. The data given by the evolution of the pandemic, we all know, have worsened too much in the past few days to allow us to follow our initial plans. «So on Monday morning, we decided to postpone Identità Golose to June 2021. But, at the same time, we immediately chose to create a new format, based on the current affairs, so as not to leave the Italian restaurant industry alone in these complicated months. And we got immediately down to work, with a huge productive and organisational effort. So that now we can finally announce Identità on the road – Digital edition».

These are the words of Claudio Ceroni, who with Paolo Marchi founded Identità back in 2005; he pronounced them during the press conference to present this new format for the congress, last Friday. If the mountain won't go to Mohammed,  Mohammed will go to the mountain; if Covid advises chefs, pizzaioli, pastry-chefs, dining-room people, food entrepreneurs, industry professionals or simple food lovers not to got to Milan all together, for that shared embrace on which the event has always been based, to restate their joint intent which is its deep, true soul – we will miss the human touch. But it will return, the way we know it, and in the meantime we can experiment other formats – hence came the idea that will become concrete: various sites will host some mini-congresses scattered not just in Milan but all around Italy; from there, the different sections that have always characterised Identità Golose, dedicated to strategic themes and areas of the food industry will take place; over 150 journalists will be able to participate in person, on rota, in the three initial days of filming, only at Identità Golose Milano in via Romagnosi 3; there were be more, around Italy, with a programme that we will soon implement and share, always paying attention to social distancing because safety and safeguarding health are a priority. Finally, everyone will be able to enjoy this, as of the 16th of November, when we will start to share content on the online platform of www.identitagolose.it. In a few days' time, on these same pages, we will start to give details on how to register and access the platform. 

A great, ambitious project: «It will be much more than a digital version of the Congress – Ceroni explained – which we had already planned for the 16th edition. It will be a brand-new format, which will exist thanks to 20 filming sets which we will create in different places in Italy, on top of Milan, starting with the Hub of Identità Golose Milano. I want to take this opportunity to thank all our partners, our main sponsors and all the businesses that have already confirmed their participation in the congress. I want to thank those who were close to us in this difficult phase. It's a difficult time for everyone, businesses, restaurateurs, but despite this our network has remained solid».

It was Paolo Marchi who came with the idea of Identità on the road – Digital edition. He explained during the press conference how hard it was to take the necessary decisions to build the programme: «Even when we normally prepare the programme of the Congress with Giulia Corradetti, we find it hard to make some choices, as we're not able to host all the chefs, pastry-chefs, pizzaioli and ice cream makers who would deserve a place. In this case, since we had to choose 70 lessons to film, and present them through the digital platform, we had to make a very difficult selection, and I would like to thank all those who understood, in these past few days, the need to make these choices». Soon we will publish the list of the lessons to be produced on www.identitagolose.it, preserving the sections in which the Congress is usually divided, like Identità di Pasta, Identità di Pizza, Dossier Dessert, Identità di Gelato...

During the press conference there were also some friends of Identità Golose who honoured us with their presence at the Hub in Via Romagnosi. The first to speak was Davide Rampello, who should have opened the Congress this year with a speech giving his take on the theme of the year, "Building a new future", and which he anticipated with a few extracts: «The theme chosen on this occasion was strongly connected to another theme covered by Identità Golose, the "sense of responsibility": a crucial concept in a time like this, even without mentioning Covid, but thinking of issues of great importance such as climate change and migrations. Responsibility means being able to respond to something, and we must be aware that the first person to whom we must feel responsible is ourselves. Future is another extraordinary word: Saint Augustin who was a doctor of the Church, a saint, as well as a genius, and he said that there's only the present, because we only live in the present. But then he explained that there's a present of the past, made of memories, hence of what we remember of the past, a present of the present, which is made of actions, of the moment we're living, and a present of the future, which is represented by expectations, which doesn't mean waiting, but tending towards what will happen, which people need to imagine. We must imagine the future, today as ever, with a great sense of responsibility, to be able to face the extraordinarily important problems of our time. And we must remember how time is not just something we measure with a watch but, as Saint Augustin also said, time is a distension of our soul, a deeply intimate experience. And indeed a crucial text like the Ecclesiastes reminds us there's a time for war, a time for hatred, a time for peace and a time for love: we're the ones to decide in which time we want to create our future».

Davide Oldani told us how in these unique past few months he has found a way of giving new value and meaning to words he had learnt from his parents: «Inclusiveness, a concept I hold especially dear now. Saving, a word to which we too often give a mistakenly negative meaning. And responsibility, which is a very important concept also for Identità Golose, whom I would like to thank for the way in which they manage to give voice to us chefs, allowing us to start from our dishes and reach people. And if this year we will miss the great value of human touch, of relations, I hope that next year we will deal with a theme that I would like to suggest: "Embrace". Let's embrace each other, interpreting that inclusiveness I mentioned before, among chefs, producers, journalists, food lovers...».

The press conference to present Identità on the road – Digital edition also hosted a brief hallo from Massimo Bottura, recently nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep), who on Friday 16th of October, the World Food Day, made his first appearance as Ambassador, and opened the works for the World Food Day with a message: «It's a truly important day for me, a day when we will focus on topics like fighting food waste, in which we will present data on people around the world who have no access to food. In my message I wanted to concentrate all the projects, the energy and my vision for more sustainable food in the future».

Cristina Bowerman, chef at Glass Hostaria in Rome (who these days is about to open a new Glass in China, in Xi'an) then spoke. She started by complimenting the team of Identità Golose: «I was here in the past few days [Bowerman was indeed at the Identità Golose Milano Hub until Saturday 17th with her menu] and I watched this team face the difficulties it came across. I wanted to congratulate myself for how you managed to find new solutions: this is what needs to be done when facing new difficulties. I never give up, I'm convinced there's a solution for every problem and I never thought that this crisis could mean the end of the restaurant industry as we know it. And indeed, at this time I want to send a message to all my colleagues, inviting them never to abandon their creative vein: in fact, this is a time to invest, in new projects, new ideas, new techniques, new machines. This is the time in which our intelligence can develop new solutions to create a better world, and most of all a world in which creativity, which is our most important feature as human beings, dominates».

The entire press conference is available on Identità Golose's YouTube channel. Follow this link. 

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso