The theme of Identità 2024 has been revealed: the Disobedience

Revolution – again and strongly so - but starting from a completely different perspective compared to the theme of Identità Golose 2023. In the edition 19, scheduled from the 9^th to the 11^th of March 2024 in Milan, we will take for granted that the pandemic and the war have distressed the world. We want to focus on a very close aspect, on the imperative of being full protagonists of our actions. We should no longer be subject to facts. We must fight them instead - no matter the setting and the reality we live in, and in every aspect of the catering industry. Dining room and kitchen, personal or professional relations, new forms of organisation and communication, wine list and online shopping. We must change the rules and find new ones. Imagine new scenarios, and take a step sidewise to see if something positive emerges. We must take a step into a different film, as new as possible.

It all starts from the saying that in cuisine, and in life itself, “tradition is a successful innovation”, one that pleases more and more people. To the point that eventually, nobody will notice its innovative strength any longer. But this is only one part of the truth. Like every medal, this too has another side on which we read, or should read, that “innovation is a successful disobedience”. Basically, we must stress another aspect, choosing different directions. We must no longer wonder where habits are born but where novelty is born.

It often seems that in any field - cuisine, design, fashion, or science… - creative people should justify themselves for breaking a known situation, just for thinking outside the box, and shaking the everyday calm. New ideas should be judged according to their value, whether big or small, and not for the annoyance they may cause. The accusation of having disobeyed is convenient and prevents us from thinking, from analysing the reasons that have led people and things to take a new and original journey. Those who create inevitably disobey. Inventions cannot exist without disobedience.

We’re light years away from improvisers, from those who act weird in the hope of generating interest and grasping something. In the kitchen ingredients, temperatures and cooking times cannot be added by chance, to see how it goes hoping for a positive guess. Of course, we can end up serving a good dish for a lucky coincidence, by mistake - a product that fell into the pan without us knowing. Pedigree cooks and pastry chefs, however, must understand the reason, and understand what happened so that they can repeat it. This is the case of accidental disobedience that is transformed into a recipe, into something positive. The mistake turns out to be an opportunity. As long as we understand it - and not everyone is capable of this - and make sure it is not just a one-hit-wonder.

It's not easy. Regardless of their profession many people say they have made a particular choice “because nobody had ever thought about it”. This is not enough. In front of modest results, it is almost automatic to reply that “if nobody had thought about it yet, maybe there had to be a reason too”.  Namely, if it didn’t make sense historically, one had to delve into it a little more so as to avoid missteps. At the same time if we never dare, if we would never break the rules, we would still be living in caves. Creativity and whizz must lie on a solid ground. They cannot stand on clouds or quicksand.

Those who disobey choose to walk on a tightrope, in balance between success and failure, challenging the dominating rules in order to get rid of them. What is true today, sooner or later will no longer be so. It’s the same with records: they are meant to be broken. Now as ever.