13-09-2014
A small delegation of the Italian chefs who will get on the stage of Gastronomika, the fine dining congress in San Sebastian, in the Basque Country, from October 6th till the 8th. Left to right, Lorenzo Cogo of El Coq in Marano Vicentino (Vicenza), Viviana Varese of Alice in Milan, Matias Perdomo and Simon Press of Pont de Ferr in Milan and Andrea Berton of restaurant Berton. The photo was taken at Eataly Milano last May 12th
«There’s not just one Italy, there are many. Many countries in one. Different cultures and sensitivities. Many cuisines and distant flavours. North and South, the shady woods in Piedmont and the dreamy blue of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Alps and Vesuvius. Venice and Sicily. Milan and Rome. North and South». This is the passionate editorial written by Roser Torras and Xavier Agulló, curators of Gastronomika, one of the most important gastronomic congresses in Europe, based in San Sebastian, in the Basque Country, a city with a very high density of great chefs.
In three weeks’ time, from Monday 6th till Wednesday 8th October, this «double panorama of aromas», these «intertwined historic recipes, compositions with a complex modernity, street food and mythical products» will be explored in depth at Palacio Kursaal, the famous cube solidly based on the seafront. A stage on which 21 fellow countrymen will mount, divided between chefs (Monday 6th Massimo Bottura, Carlo Cracco, Pino Cuttaia, Gennaro Esposito, Mauro Uliassi; Tuesday 7th Nino Di Costanzo, Arcangelo Dandini, Norbert Niederkofler, Davide Scabin and Salvatore Tassa and Wednesday 8th Massimiliano Alajmo, Andrea Berton, Moreno Cedroni, Lorenzo Cogo, Matias Perdomo, Niko Romito and Viviana Varese), but also pizza chefs (Tuesday, Enzo Coccia, Enzo Piccirillo and Cinque Raimondo) and ice cream makers (Alberto Manassei of Gelateria dei Gracchi).
The Kursaal stage, the heart of Gastronomika
And this is only Alta, the juiciest programme dedicated to fine dining in San Sebastian. However, if one looks at the programme closely, there’s much more: besides the traditional stands in the Market area, there’s a dense programme of sessions with wine (guided by Josep Roca among others), parrilla and pintxos contests, workshops for kids and a series of lessons that will be open to the public, including, among the foreign speakers, Italian chefs who are working in Spain such as Max and Stefano Colombo of restaurant Xemei in Barcelona and Andrea Tumbarello of Don Giovanni in Madrid.
Programme, costs and registration to the congress are available on Gastronomika’s website.
Reviews, recommendations and trends from the four corners of the planet, signed by all the authors of Identità Golose
by
This article is curated by Identità Golose, the publication that organises the international fine dining congress, publishes website www.identitagolose.com and the online Guida Identità Golose, on top of curating many other events in Italy and abroad