24-11-2020

Identità on the road 2020: Klugmann is "chef of the Year", the "Dish of the Year" is Alajmo's, Guidara wins the "Twenty Years" award

The prize-giving ceremony and its 13 protagonists. The awards go also to Santini, Caceres, Cioria, Colonna, Genovese, Caruso, Ceraudo, Mazzocchi, Bracali, Giacomello

The 13 great protagonists of Italian cuisine award

The 13 great protagonists of Italian cuisine awarded by Identità on the road 2020. This was the launch of our new digital platform. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER IN IDENTITÀ ON THE ROAD. For info write to iscrizioni@identitagolose.it or call +39 02 48011841 ext. 2215

«We've discussed at length. Indeed we asked each other: is it a good idea to give awards in such an unhappy year?». This is the question Paolo Marchi posed himself and to which he answered during the open preview ceremony of Identità on the road, the new format with which Identità Golose has decided to give voice to the Italian restaurant and hospitality industries, which are fighting hard against the effects of the pandemic.

So: is it right to give awards? «Our answer is yes: absolutely. Those who have received one – but also the many who would have deserved one and for whom it would have been a pleasure for us to award – have been fully committed in the midst of thousands of difficulties. These 13 professionals become points of reference in a storm that, in Italy, has been heavy for everyone, but especially so for restaurants. So these people deserve our admiration and praise. They are tangible examples of people who are working very well and want to react to a situation of uncertainty, of difficulty. Their merit must be acknowledged».

Paolo Marchi and Claudio Ceroni

Paolo Marchi and Claudio Ceroni

Federico Quaranta and Cinzia Benzi

Federico Quaranta and Cinzia Benzi

The prize-giving ceremony, hosted by Federico Quaranta and Cinzia Benzi from the Oval room of Identità Golose Milano, the first international hub of gastronomy, included a speech of Claudio Ceroni, co-founder of Identità Golose with Paolo Marchi.

Cappuccino Murrina from Alajmo, "Dish of the Year"

Cappuccino Murrina from Alajmo, "Dish of the Year"

And here are the magnificent thirteen:

 

DISH OF THE YEAR 
MASSIMILIANO ALAJMO
 - Le Calandre, Rubano (Pd)
For the dish Cappuccino Murrina

The award is given by: CONSORZIO GRANA PADANO, and handed by
ELISABETTA SERRAIOTTO, Marketing and Communication Manager at Consorzio Grana Padano

REASON – It's a variation of another very famous dish from this great chef, the first and only to have reached three stars at only 28. By now everyone knows Cappuccino with squid and squid ink. We're awarding a new version, so perfect it puts the previous one – with all it honours – in the warehouse of anthologies. He's managed to make everyone forget his signature dish; the plus – the magical intuition – is the marvellous aesthetic outcome, a celebration of a Venetian excellence becoming pure, unforgettable taste.

 

TWENTY YEARS (PREMIO VENT’ANNI)
DAVIDE GUIDARA

The award is given by: S.PELLEGRINO, and handed by
GIACOMO GIACANI, Marketing Manager Business Unit Italia San Pellegrino

REASON – Born in 1994 in Sannio, he's already more than a promise in Sicily. He says: «The Mediterranean region is evolving. We young people are the protagonists; we have emigrated to other places to learn cultures and techniques we're now expressing by mixing the old influences with a new one». He develops his idea of contemporary Mediterranean cuisine: he recuperates lost traditions, which are even more ancient than the tradition we know. They thus become innovation, or better still retro-innovation.

 

TYPICALLY ITALIAN IN THE KITCHEN 
NADIA SANTINI
 - Dal Pescatore, Canneto sull'Oglio (Mn)

The award is given by: LAVAZZA, and handed by
Michele Cannone, Global Brand Director Away From Home Lavazza

REASON – Building a great maison Italian style: this is an iconic restaurant, now part of the culinary history of the country. It is the most ancient three-starred restaurant of the country, and has been receiving the highest award every year since 1996. And its deep soul, in the kitchen, has the name of this tireless – but always smiling – ambassador of Italian taste, of our excellences, of our bien vivre.

 

CREATIVITY IN THE KITCHEN 
ROY CACERES - Carnal, Rome

The award is given by: PETRA MOLINO QUAGLIA, and handed by
PIERO GABRIELI, Marketing Manager Molino Quaglia

REASON – Mixing gastronomic cultural influences is the diamond in his crown. A Colombian in Rome, with Syrian and Spanish heritage too, he has studied the literature of our great gastronomists of the past – from Apicius to Scappi, from Platina to Stefani – to learn Italian food culture, which he then shapes through his cosmopolitan lenses and his talent. In the early days he risked abandoning our country, he didn't have a residence permit. Today he's like an illustrious son of ours.

 

IDENTITÀ IN THE DINING ROOM 
FRANCESCO CIORIA - San Domenico, Imola (Bo)

The award is given by: CANTINE FERRARI, and handed by
MATTEO LUNELLI, president and CEO Cantine Ferrari

REASON – Working in the dining room of one of the most prestigious and history-rich restaurants in our country, which in this difficult 2020 celebrates its 50th anniversary, is not easy. To stand the test, you need to be great professionals, empathic with the guests, and well prepared; you must be both welcoming and impeccable. Born in 1988 in a little village in Irpinia, he manages splendidly.

 

IDENTITÀ NEW CHALLENGES 
ANTONELLO COLONNA

The award is given by: BERTO’S, and handed by
ENRICO BERTO, president and CEO at Berto’s

REASON – It's hard to have the necessary determination and courage to face new challenges when you're at the beginning of your career; it's even more so when you've been busy – in the kitchen – for a long time now. Since 1985 when he took over the family restaurant. Since then, he's never stopped setting himself new goals; taking on projects that anticipated trends; receiving praise; in other words, bestowing us emotions. And he continues to surprise us, year after year.

 

IDENTITÀ BIRRA
ANTHONY GENOVESE - Il Pagliaccio, Rome

The award is given by: BIRRA DEL BORGO, and handed by
ALFREDO COLANGELO, Sales Director at Birra del Borgo

REASON – The Italian restaurant scene is full of creative talents. Of great professionals. Of illustrious masters. Of chefs who can define their original vision, and are also capable of passing it to their pupils, without creating clones, but by opening their minds. This award goes to a chef who sums up all this: in his restaurant in Rome he matches what seemed impossible to match; he opens new horizons; he gives value to many different excellences. Including beer.

 

CHEF OF THE YEAR 
ANTONIA KLUGMANN - L’Argine, Venco’ (Go)

The award is given by: GRUPPO TERRA MORETTI VINO and handed by
FRANCESCA MORETTI, president at Terra Moretti Vino

REASON – We're the country with the highest percentage of starred women; the country where cooking is feminine, more than elsewhere. Yet here at Identity we've never awarded a female chef as "Chef of the Year". The time has come to fix this flaw. We're not doing it as a tribute, though dutiful, to the other half of the sky, but because of the objective and unquestionable merit of a woman who offers an extraordinary cuisine, well-read – just like she is, - original, and well-rooted in the region though she's capable of shaping it with an exceptional contemporary approach.

 

OIL IN THE KITCHEN 
MARTINA CARUSO - Signum, Salina (Me)

The award is given by: PREMIATI OLEIFICI BARBERA, and handed by
MANFREDI BARBERA, owner at Premiati Oleifici Barbera

REASON – Then new frontier of Italian cuisine passes also through a splendid and distant islet, which until recently wasn't even part of the gourmands' map. Now it's a not-to-be-missed destination, and it is so thanks to a restaurant and hospitality family that can boast as its jewel in the crown a young chef capable of giving new and refined energy and shape to the extraordinary products of the Mediterranean region, to the ingredients of our gastro-cultural history, and to extra virgin oil above all.

 

NATURAL IDENTITIES 
CATERINA CERAUDO - Dattilo, Strongoli (Kr)

The award is given by: CARAIBA, and handed by
CRISTINA FRANCESCHETTI and  ALESSANDRO GUIDI, patrons at Caraiba Luxury

REASON – Being born surrounded by a bold nature, with marvellous and difficult landscapes, is both beautiful and complicated; even more so when you're born in a family where the relationship with nature is a mantra, a reason of pride, and the goal of a unique enterprise. It's both beautiful and complicated, and the same goes when you take all this, and make every inspiration your own, through your style of cuisine. Despite her young age – she was born in 1987 – she has climbed the hill of success with the same enthusiasm with which her father Roberto climbs their hills of vineyards, in Strongoli.

 

TERRITORIAL IDENTITIES 
ISA MAZZOCCHI - La Palta, Borgonovo Val Tidone (Pc)

The award is given by: GUIDO BERLUCCHI, and handed by
CRISTINA ZILIANI, Communication Manager Guido Berlucchi

REASON – The boldness of authenticity; of remaining truthful to oneself; of resisting to trends even when these, a few years ago, seemed to point in the opposite direction. Instead, she has remained sound in the Colly Piacentini, continuing at the same time to travel with her mind and through creativity, sure of her roots but also sure that, through them, she wanted to give new lymph to branches that spread out to the sky. It's the strength of an identity that is born from the territory but is then capable of being open to the surroundings.

 

ARTISAN OF TASTE 
FRANCESCO BRACALI - Bracali, Massa Marittima (Gr)

The award is given by: LEVONI, and handed by
MARELLA LEVONI, Communication Manager Levoni

REASON – A self-trained chef, and a great lover of art. A Tuscan cook who has interpreted his roots in dishes that have a strong territorial identity. His choice of working mostly with local artisans was a winning one. He's never been a chef who wanted to surprise with special effects. Instead he expresses his cooking art through flavours, colours and Tuscan memories. Two Michelin stars that arrived in two moments: the first, in 1999, in London, handed by Paul Bocuse. The second in 2010, an acknowledgement that with his brother, master of ceremonies in the dining room, has strengthened an idea of cuisine based on substance.

 

EXPERIMENTS IN THE KITCHEN 
TERRY GIACOMELLO - Inkiostro, Parma

The award is given by: GOELDLIN, and handed by
ANTONIO GOELDLIN, General Manager Goeldlin

REASON – In times when the culinary world is rethinking itself, he presents avantgarde in the kitchen with freshness, creativity, and talent. He's a prodigy of technique and inspiration. He's so faithful to this new frontier he appears, in these times, a chefs who goes almost against the flow, but fertile; a soul against the flow which becomes a treasure to enhance. To those who ask him why he doesn't deflect from his constant experiments, he replies with six words and a smile: «There's no fun in doing otherwise».

 

CLICK HERE AND REGISTER IN IDENTITÀ ON THE ROAD. For info write to iscrizioni@identitagolose.it or call +39 02 48011841 ext. 2215


IG2020: on the road

Carlo Passera

by

Carlo Passera

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

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