Oldani’s dish for the Olympics

We’ll end up calling it “the official dish of Italy” in the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, even though this definition is perhaps inappropriate. For sure, this is the emblematic creation and recipe that Davide Oldani, Sport and food ambassador of the Italia team in Rio, designed for the occasion.

While Horizontal is the basic theme that will inspire the activities inside Casa Italia («Horizontal is the title of the concept, promising a hierarchy-less approach, a contamination of Italian and Brazilian culture: artworks, furniture, food, sport will contribute in making a visit to Casa Italia a unique experience», told us Diego Nepi Molineris, Marketing and Development Director at CONI [the Italian Olympics Committee] ), Oldani’s Ciaolà intends to represent this in the best possible way, starting from the name, a crasis of the Italian greeting and the one that is popular across Latin American, hola in the Spanish speaking countries, olà in Brazil. Then there’s the aesthetics, as it stylised the Olympic torch.

Oldani: «Between the hollows of the plate, which was made by craftsmen, I will place the ingredients in the shape of sauces, and they’ll have Italy’s and Brazil’s colours. The food at Casa Italia will interpret the peculiarities of the territory with the freshness of fruit, vegetables and fish next to the best Italian products, resulting in a truly contaminated cuisine, based on taste and wellbeing».

The chef is clearly enthusiastic: «I will be in Rio with the Italian delegation and this is a great honour and pleasure for me, on top of a reason to be proud. I’ve just spoken with CONI: as Sport and food ambassador of the Italian team, they told me to officially invite Massimo Bottura to Casa Italia. He will already be in town with his RefettoRio. I do this with great pleasure. We’ve already spoken some ten days ago. We want to create a sort of synergy, work as a team. CONI is very keen on having Massimo with us... We can help each other, support his project. Is this not the best thing in being Italian? I’ll speak to the young people, he’ll speak to the poor».

The Italian adventure in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will thus start in the best possible way. Food will be the protagonist at Casa Italia, which will be opened on 3rd August, two days before the opening of the games. It will be an out-of-the-ordinary house, starting from the location chosen by CONI, the Costa Brava Clube, a historic Carioca club 20 km from the Olympic Village, designed in the Sixties by architect Ricardo Menescal. It spreads over 1,700 square metres on

top of a promontory overlooking the Ocean, which you can reach via a supension bridge. This bridge was indeed the main source of inspiration for this project, which was designed following a horizontal concept, a symbol of the integration of Italy and Brazil.

«We wanted to be original, creative and to keep away from stereotypes», continued Diego Nepi Molineris – We will get artists and partners who represent the excellences of both countries involved. The result will be a contemporary, unusual and welcoming setting in which everything recalls the idea of integration of Italy and Brazil.

The event is part of the Food Act in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development, Ice-Agenzia, CONI, Unioncamere and Assocamerestero.