Segmento + Cibus Autumn 2020

UNAPOLOGETICALLY ITALIAN

[

Autumn 2020 - ISSUE XXI

The time Mother Nature feared to be overcome

Food Special, Cibus in Fabula filp over to read

]

segmento.com.au

5 DAYS OF MUSIC, DANCE, VISUAL ARTS, FOOD AND PARTIES CELEBRATING SOUTHERN ITALIAN AND MEDITERRANEAN CULTURE

MELBOURNE · 2020 · 11-15 MARCH

FESTIVAL GALA CONCERT • 13 MARCH • 6:30PM • MEAT MARKET

ENZA PAGLIARA & DARIO MUCI (ITA) feat. SANTA TARANTA TARANTULA GARGANICA (ITA) ARTE KANELA

FESTIVAL FINALE: MEDITERRANEO • 15 MARCH • 12:00PM • DAREBIN ARTS CENTRE

MELBOURNE TARANTA ORCHESTRA WITH SPECIAL GUESTS ENZA PAGLIARA & DARIO MUCI, ALLARA, DANIEL JAUREGUI, KAVISHA MAZZELLA AND MIRKO GUERRINI PLUS ZOUROUNA, DELYRIUM, DAVIDE IERARDI & DILUSS (ITA) THE RUSTICA PROJECT, OPA BATO, BANDA BELLINI AND THE MELBOURNE SCHOOL OF TARANTELLA FULL PROGRAM AND TICKETS AT

www.tarantafestival.com.au PRESENTING SPONSORS

Founder and Managing Director Daniele Curto daniele.curto@segmento.com.au 0418 891 285

Italian Magazine

4

Dear reader Hayley J. Egan

5

How strange to be named Federico Jytte Holmqvist

6

ENDORSEMENT

8

FOLLOW US ON

Associate Editor Halyey J. Egan editor@segmento.com.au

EDITORIAL 3

Graphic Artist Elaine Bocchini marketing@segmento.com.au

Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Daniele Curto

Creative Consultant Imbarani Poonasamy Photographers Wide Shut Photography For features, articles and editorial submissions: segmento@segmento.com.au

If life is just like one big dream Jesper Storgaard Jensen

For advertising equires please contact: marketing@segmento.com.au 0418 891 285

The place on Dalhousie The homecoming of Melina Marchetta Daniele Foti-Cuzzola

9

The time Mother Nature feared to be overcome Hayley J. Egan

10

Interview with Mary Marcuccio Vice president at the società Dante Alighieri, Melbourne Jytte Holmqvist

12

A radical view Hayley J. Egan

Cover photo credits Illustration by Daniele Curto & Elaine Bocchini Translation Support Jenna Lo Bianco Hayley J. Egan Imbarani Poonasamy

Contributors Agata Grimaldi Archimede Fusillo Hayley J. Egan Francesco Ricatti Rachael Martin Daniele Foti-Cuzzola Mariantonietta Rasulo Jenna Lo Bianco Natalie Di Pasquale Elaine Bocchini Raffaele Caputo Jytte Holmqvist Valeria Suriano Benedettta Ferrara Laura Napolitano Jesper Storgaard Jensen Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli

DISCLAIMER The Editorial-Staff ensures that every details are correct at the time of printing, however the ity for errors and inaccuracies.

ISSUE XXI

publisher accepts no responsibil-

Daniele Curto

SYMPTOMS OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER Italians are aware of the uncertainty of their present and future. In fact, 69% of Italian citizens feel insecure thinking about the future, 17.2% feel pessimistic, and only 13.8% see their future as a harbinger of expectations.

A sense of discouragement is the

the decade affected by the crisis, over

the same sample goes to a fast food

common thread in matters of the

400,000 young people aged 18 and 39

restaurant at least once a week.

relationship

and

emigrated. To these must be added the

politics. At the 2018 political elections,

between

society

more than 138,000 people under the

29.4% of eligible voters did not vote.

age of 18. From 2010 to today Australia

Nine out of ten Italians would willingly

has seen the arrival of more than 32,000

give up seeing a politician on TV and

new young Italians.

only 19.3% discuss politics socially.

There is no good blood even with the Public Administration, towards which

Three quarters of citizens said they felt very stressed over the year for work,

relationships,

family

reasons,

or even for no specific reason. More than half of them talk to themselves sometimes and more than 68% consider Italy an anxious country - confirming

mistrust rises over 80%.

and social relationships, Italians have

employment increased by 321,000, confirming the impact of the long recession, unemployment is still felt as the main issue to put on the agenda.

position for leisure time in Europe.

•

CENSIS (Centro Studi investimenti sociali) 53° Rapporto sulla situazione sociale del Paese/2019

million practice sports. 73% of Italians

•

Rapporto Italiani in Australia 2013

•

Rapporto Istat 2018 su La soddisfazione dei cittadini per le condizioni di vita

•

Censis – Coldiretti Primo rapporto sulle abitudini alimentari degli italiani

In the past ten years, volunteering has grown by 19.7% and more than 20

of anxiolytics and sedatives (the use of

check the phone first thing in the

which increased by 23.1% in the three-

Today only 17.8% do not trust GPs.

morning or last thing in the evening

year period between 2015-2018).

The percentage of Italians who do

before going to sleep.

not consider journalists capable of narrating with critical thinking and good judgment does not exceed 20.7%.

Italians are having fewer children.

entrepreneurs (63.9%) are convinced of

Since

a downward slide and that their children

demographic decline (for the first time

and grandchildren will be worse off.

in 90 years) which has seen 436,066

Over 75% of Italians don’t trust others.

2015

there

has

been

a

fewer citizens.

Emigration

Sources:

per day, putting Italy in the 5th last

own a smartphone, and half of them

while the middle class (43%) and

satisfaction with their lives.

just 4 hours and 54 minutes of free time

Although between 2007 and 2018

Intolerance of, and anger towards,

their current socio-economic condition,

7/10 is the vote that Italians give for

Italian lifestyle model based on leisure

the professional class is weakening.

Almost 70% of Italians are convinced

for men.

Partly disproving the often vaunted

the fact that 4.4 million are now users

that in the future they will remain in

In 2041, life expectancy at birth will be 88.1 years for women and 83.9 years

In

Italy

there

are

50

different

nationalities. Romanian is the most

Italian Magazine

numerous,

followed

Moroccan,

Chinese

by

Albanian,

and

Ukrainian,

confirming the country’s multi-ethnic framework.

Italians eat bread, fruit and vegetables

five times a week, while meat is present abroad

has

had

a

at the table three times a week. Almost

considerable effect on this figure. In

a third buys organic products, however

3

Dear readers Some of you have been to Italy, on a short trip, or a long one, or perhaps a semester at uni. You may have WOOFed your way around Umbria, or undertaken an Artist Residency in Rome. At some stage you certainly came to the stark realisation that Spaghetti Bolognese is not a thing. You may have felt bad about your dress sense. Some of you ate too many carbs, drank too much red wine and fell off your bike on the way home (admit it). Some others hung out in the piazza until 3am and got swept up in the incredible, infectious Italian folk scene. ‘What?’ you said to yourselves, ‘No-one is singing That’s Amore here?’

Some of you have never been to Italy. You are world music enthusiasts and get your weekly dose of Pizzica from Roger Holdsworth’s Global Village on PBS. You’ve actually never read Segmento before but whoever was sitting at your table before you left it open, and now you’re reading these words. Yes, you (I like your haircut).

Some of you readers left Italy to come to Melbourne, because you wanted to open a mouth-watering pizza restaurant, start an events business, work at either DOC or Brunetti, or get as far away as possible from your parents.

You’re having fun here, but every now and then you miss going out and having a big serata.

Well, to you, and all those other people I mentioned before, I say: Come to the 2nd Edition of the Taranta Festival, it will be excellent.

Readers of Segmento will love it, because, like Segmento, Taranta Festival is a window into Italian culture as it is today, with a thriving, dynamic folk scene that is enjoyed by young and old, hipsters alongside their Nonni.

Also there will be carbs.

Enza Pagliara & Dario Muci

Here are the details.

The festival will take place in Melbourne from the 11th to the 15th of March. It will be headlined by international guests Enza Pagliara & Dario Muci. Now, those PBS fans know who I’m talking about. For the rest of you, these two are incredible, and played a huge role in the Italian pizzica scene as we know it today. Just come and watch them. You will be blown away by those voices.

Also headlining are Tarantula Garganica, hailing from the Gargano Peninsula. The name, a symbol of Apulian traditions, immediately evokes the rhythm of the tarantella, the ‘chitarra battente’ and the castagnettes. But this is not your Nonna’s tarantella! Its inviting sounds are inexhaustible sources of songs and poetry.

Expect a powerful acoustic sound with a modern twist and a lot of dancing. Carmela Taronna from Tarantula Garganica will be giving dance workshops, so you can learn (get addicted to) another folk dance prior to their show.

Over the 5 days the Festival will also be showcasing heaps of local acts, and stimulating new collaborations between local artists like Allara, Daniel Jaregui, Kavisha Mazzella, Mirko Guerrini and Santa Taranta, endorsing the new project The Melbourne Taranta Orchestra that will be debut on Sunday 15th of March at the Festival Finale.

Also performing at the finale: Middle Eastern fusion band Zourouna, high-energy progressive Cretan band Delyrium, and nufolksters The Rustica Project. Look out also for local favourites like Balkan marching band Opa Bato, The Banda Bellini as well as the Melbourne School of Tarantella, and look out also for the much-anticipated return of ex-Melbournian Davide Ierardi with his band Diluss, all the way from Basilicata.

ARIA winner and choir leader Kavisha Mazzella will also lead 4 days of singing workshops to create the Taranta Festival Choir that will be presented on the last day of the Festival as a special feature of the show.

Wondering where you’ll get your carbs?

There will be a long, lingering, traditional Pugliese lunch on Saturday, with wine and live music from Italian artists Luciano Castelluccia and Peppe Totaro. There will also be a breakfast at Brunetti’s and a lunch at iPugliesi in Coburg with some of the artists on Friday.

Back at the Darebin Arts Centre on Sunday we gorge ourselves again, this time on live music, with the launch of the Melbourne Taranta Orchestra. This event also merges with the annual Darebin Meet the Makers festival. Home grown tarantella and home-made salami? A match made in heaven!

For you Segmento readers who hate sleeping and want to party all night, on Saturday the festival will end up at Joanie’s Baretto in Thornbury for a late night DJ set. Also a good idea if you want to dance off all those carbs. On Sunday night the closing party will take place at Oliva Social in Preston for drinks and a latenight Italian jam session.

The festival is made possible with the support of its presenting sponsors Co.As.It and Regione Puglia.

The full festival program and tickets can be found at: www.tarantafestival.com.au

Tarantula Garganica

Dance workshop at the Taranta Festival

4

Jytte Holmqvist

HOW STRANGE TO BE NAMED FEDERICO “Either a film has something to say to you or it hasn’t. If you are moved by it, you don’t need it explained to you. If not, no explanation can make you moved by it.”

— Federico Fellini (1920-1993) On the 100-year anniversary of Fellini’s birth in Rimini, 1920, it is timely to commemorate his life and influential career through a brief retrospective that looks at the man who became an icon and some of the films he created so masterfully.

Promoted by the gigantic and highly successful and prosperous Cinecittà media apparatus, the largest film studio in Europe and originally built in 1937 to revive the Italian film industry and with Benito Mussolini himself inaugurating the studio, directors like Rossellini and Fellini celebrated Rome then and now in visual narratives that have gone to cinema history and that explore the Italian psyche while drawing a link between the individual and their environment. In some of these movies celebrating, in part, Italian grandeur, Rome becomes a character in its own right but while Rosellini’s “Roma città aperta” (“Rome, Open City”) develops in line with neorealist criteria, Fellini’s “Roma” (1971) is a more scattered or fragmented portrayal and representation of the Italian capital; one where many of the city’s main locations and monuments turned tourist attractions are revisited as replicas of the real place. As argued by Peter Bondanella in his important study on “Italian Cinema from Neorealism to the Present”, ‘For Fellini, the cinema exists solely for the purpose of individual self-expression; fantasy, rather than reality, is its proper domain, because only fantasy falls under the director’s complete and absolute artistic control. ‘Cinema entails expression, not the communication of information, and therefore its essence is imagery and light. To guarantee control, Fellini prefers to work within the massive studio complex of Cinecittà where he manufactures his own version of the outside world.’

Guided by a vivid imagination, Fellini chose to break with the preceding cinematic neorealism, exploring, instead, the deep crevasses of his own mind and creating narratives that move between reality and a dreamlike state, where characters step in and out of scenes that take us from past to present and back again and that interconnect the many different periods and eras of Italy’s – and Rome’s history. On a number of occasions Fellini creates a snapshot of Rome with its many sights and locations and introduces us to the diverse groups and characters that inhabit this bewilderingly intoxicating,

Federico Fellini during the shooting of the film “Amarcord”, 1973 Photo: Cine Foto D. Minghini, chaotic city often highlighting the parodic or burlesque aspects of human nature.

Yet Fellini refrains from calling his films autobiographical, stressing that ‘it is not memory that dominates my films’ but that he has invented everything. Rather, his films take us on a grand tour of Italy and Rome where the dialogue between past and present includes an ongoing conversation or juxtaposition between ancient history, Christianity, modernity and the present – as visually demonstrated in the opening scene of “La Dolce Vita” (1960) where the three epochs or eras are all represented within the same frame.

Considered one of the finest films in Fellini’s oeuvre, “La Dolce Vita” perfectly aligns the aforementioned three elements: Ancient Rome, Christianity and more a-religious, sensual modernity and takes us on a visual guided tour through some of the most celebrated locations in the Italian capital. The film features the critically acclaimed nocturnal bathing scene in the Fontana di Trevi where Swedish muse, from thereon also embraced by Italians, Anita Ekberg makes a busty entrance as temptress Sylvia striding into the water in a confidently sensual manner.

Even if she oozes sensuality, the seconds prior to entering the fountain she maintains a sense of innocence through a tiny kitten positioned on her head and in her hands. She soon visually seduces Roman gossip columnist Marcello Rubini (played by his namesake Marcello Mastroianni, one of Fellini’s lead actors) who would later himself fall prey to the media in an ironic turn of events that sees him exposed by sensationalistic tabloid magazines. Curiously, this film is said to have given rise to the term paparazzi, coined after Rubini’s photographer friend Paparazzo (Walter Santesso).

“La Dolce Vita” is accompanied by other Fellini masterpieces: “I Vitelloni” (1953), “La Strada” (1954), “Nights of Cabiria” (“Le notti di Cabiria”, 1957), “8” (“Otto e mezzo”, 1962), “Juliet of the Spirits” (“Giulietta degli spiriti”, 1965), “Fellini: A Director’s Notebook” (“Blocknotes di un regista”, 1968), “Fellini Satyricon” (1969), the phantasmagorical film “The Clowns” (“I Clowns”, 1970),

ISSUE XXI

The highly influential Italian filmmaker “with a bold and brilliant visual style” (Farr 2014) joins a league of Italian cineastes who have left an impact on their audiences throughout time, their contemporary societies, and the world at large embracing topics and thematics that are both locally important; striking a chord with Italian cinema goers, and universally relevant. The films by Italian filmmaker heavyweights Fellini, Roberto Rossellini (Fellini’s mentor who made his adept a collaborator on the script for “Roma città aperta”. A year later Fellini would become Assistant Director for Rossellini’s 1946 film “Paisà”), Vittorio De Sica, the Taviani brothers, and Piero Paolo Pasolini (a controversial filmmaker who after a tumultuous life met with a very violent death) can be revisited and reinterpreted by audiences in and outside Italy time and time again. Partly timeless in character these visual narratives, the characters and the filmic plots are both steeped in Italian traditions and at the same time speak to the world outside Italy. The fates met by the characters at different moments in time could equally be faced by individuals and people across the world and some of Fellini’s protagonists become stereotypes with universal traits.

aforementioned “Roma” (1971), and “Amarcord” (1974).

Importantly, Fellini would cast his wife, actress Giulietta Masina in several movies, starting with “La Strada” and later also in “Nights of Cabiria”, “Juliet of the Spirits”, and “Amarcord”. It is said that the recurring evocative soundtrack by Nino Rota in some of Fellini’s movies would have such an impact on the actress that she asked for his music to be played at her funeral five months after her husband’s death in October, 1993. In one of Fellini’s more recent classics, “Ginger and Fred” (1986), Marcello Mastroianni would join forces with Giulietta Masina, joining up in a visual tribute to Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

Federico Fellini, winner of five Academy Awards throughout his prolific career (including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for “Nights of Cabiria”, in 1958), has earned a special place in cinematic history through films that reflect his own unique style ‘a highly idiosyncratic and surrealist world of images and dream fantasies’ (Bondanella 2004), as evidenced in, e.g., the voyeuristic, surreal and highly controversial “La Città delle Donne” (“City of Women”, 1980). The film has been viewed as an ode to feminism and a stereotyped, shallow portrayal of women all at once.

A filmmaker who stirs, seduces and impresses audiences worldwide Fellini created movies shot in a highly auteurist vein. He defied cinematic traditions and combined references to different beliefs, people, places and eras in a refreshing and ground-breaking manner.

His films have stood the test of time and count as some of the most masterful and aesthetically expressive made in our contemporary times. 2014 saw a respectful and enlightening tribute to Fellini by fellow filmmaker Ettore Scola, “Scola racconta Fellini (Che strano chiamarsi Federico)” that serves to further understand a filmmaker who started off at a young age, was provided the right guidance then shot off to directorial fame having discovered his own particular and idiosyncratic style.

With films that embrace different narrative styles Fellini opens our eyes to a new way of thinking and presents us to a world that steps away from the norm – paving the way for a whole range of exciting possibilities.

5

Jesper Storgaard Jensen

IF LIFE IS JUST LIKE ONE BIG DREAM This year Italy is celebrating Fellini who was born in Rimini on 20 January 1920

Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina at the Grand Hotel in Rimini on occasion of the event “Omaggio a Fellini”, 25-26 September 1983 Photo: Cine Foto D. Minghini,

In both his hometown Rimini and in Rome important exhibitions will take place. Here it will be possible to emerge into the maestro’s magical world of dreams, colorful circus atmospheres, pain, tragedy dancing with comedy, life and death.

boredom, superficiality, TV’s present theocracy and the crisis of today’s intellectuals.

Well actually, you could easily say that in some way his whole cinematographic vision was prophetic’.

Could the content of the present festivity be decided by the protagonist himself, this Fellini-anniversary year would most likely resemble one big circus performance, populated with eccentric characters, noisy Italian families, dreamlike scenes, big bosomed women and other strange objects and curious personalities from the master’s own imaginative movie drawer.

And perhaps Welles’ comment was not so farfetched after all. It’s commonly known that to describe Rome well (as Fellini did in several of his films) you need an external and impartial point of view, such as the one of Fellini.

Rimini (Fellini’s home-town) and Rome (the city that ‘adopted’ Fellini) will divide the honours of this anniversary. Rimini started out with the exhibition “Fellini 100.

Immortal genius” last December to celebrate the life of a universally recognized film genius, who was born in Rimini on the 20 January 1920. Rome will follow in April when the same exhibition will be opened in the Italian capital.

Fellini was not only a genius, but also a very prolific genius. In his career he made a total of 22 films – from “Luci del varietà” in 1950 to “La voce della luna” in 1990. Four of his films were rewarded with the Oscar price – “La Strada” (1954), “Le Notti di Cabiria” (1957), “8 ½” (1963) and “Amarcord” (1973). In the latter, which has the reputation of being his most personal film, we meet the sensual Gradisca, the huge bosomed tobacconist and the nymphomaniac Volpina, together with a representation of Fascism, Fellini’s own teenage years, and an incredible gallery of colourful personalities of which an uncle climbs to the top of a tree screaming out loud for hours: ‘I want a womannnn .....’.

He is brought down again after several hours when a team from the local psychiatric hospital shows up and persuades him to climb down again.

Moreover, Fellini also received an Oscar for his career in 1993.

A prophetic vision

Fellini was dreaming, and his cinema was onirico, dreamlike. These dreams are reproduced in practically all his films. Strange and poetic and weird and fantastic dreams that bring you along a fantasy road where some of the main characters are juvenile eroticism, family matters, the period of Fascism, strange characters and much more.

‘I don’t make films to discuss about thesis or to sustain theories. I make film in the same way that I experience a dream’, he once said.

A cinematographic God Just like it was the case of Pasolini who said that Rome was in his destiny, also Fellini regarded Rome as a dream destination. The Riminese poetess, Rosita Copioli, has written: ‘When Fellini leaves Rimini and goes to Rome, it is actually to conquer a part of himself which is ‘already’ part of him, even though the depth of Rome is inaccessible, perpetually exotic and falsely familiar’.

But Rome certainly becomes Fellini’s real home, his second home. He lived in Via Margutta with his wife Giulietta Masina, not far from the Spanish Steps. In the morning he used to go to the nearby café Canova, on Piazza del Popolo, which he regarded as his own personal office. Here he would meet with colleagues, e.g. Pier Paolo Pasolini, to speak about cinema, or he would receive business connections to speak about work.

For many years Canova has paid tribute to Fellini, and today, inside the café, you’ll find a small “Fellini-museum”.

Fellini defined himself ‘a craftsman who has nothing to say, but knows how to say it’. In a recent article in Corriere della Sera the well-known journalist and cinema critic, Maurizio Porro, remembers:

In this year of tribute, many filmmakers and intellectuals have commented on Fellini’s person and career. One of them is Paolo Virzì, one of Italy’s most popular filmmakers, who describes Fellini like this:

‘I once talked to Fellini about how his film “8 ½” was a masterpiece and how it was bound to change the cinematographic language onwards. But he would not listen to me. He was oversensitive to praise, and if you started to praise him, he would instantly change the topic’.

‘Fellini is like a divinity, like a film God, the biggest filmmaker of all times. His films are like a sort of a medicine. Pronouncing is name is like pronouncing a magic word. In his films you could meet many things and concepts that we regard as typical Italian ... irony, dancing, the circus, pain, tragedy and comedy mixed together, the life’s big party. He managed to create his own extremely personal style, which has inspired generations of Italian filmmakers’.

Porro has also underlined the many prophecies in Fellini’s film, e.g. in “La dolce vita”. ‘In that film, surprisingly he managed to predict all the worst of today’s society:

6

Many articles about Fellini and his operas, published in recent months, have focused on the fact that Fellini was ‘a provincial’, who went to look for his creative Eden in the Italian capital. The American filmmaker Orson Welles, who knew Fellini well, once said: ‘In reality, Fellini has never arrived in Rome. He is still dreaming about Rome’. Welles’ comment was made many years after Fellini had been living steadily in Rome!

One of Italy’s most talented filmmakers nowadays, that has been inspired by Fellini, is Paolo Sorrentino. His film, the Oscar-winning “La grande Bellezza”, from 2013, is not only a homage to Fellini and to one of Fellini’s most famous films, “La dolce vita”.

Many film critics have almost perceived Sorrention’s film as a sort of “La dolce vita” in a modern version. And you could hardly disagree with that.

Fellini and the Studio 5 Despite Fellini’s upbringing in Rimini his real love story was with Rome. He liked just to drive around in Rome, without any particular goal. Just to let the eternal city’s atmosphere get under his skin. In Rome his second home was the Cinecittà film studios, especially the famous Studio 5. And perhaps the choice of this number was not incidental at all. The number five represents multiplicity, change, changeability and exploration, both physically and mentally. Its central position in the scale of numbers from one to nine ensures that the person under the influence of the number five is constantly in search of new destinations and stimuli.

He loved the Studio 5 so much that instead of shooting scenes on location in Rimini (where he was not able to control everything), he would build up the whole scene in Cinecittà, as he ‘remembered’ that particular part of Rimini.

Fellini was the true star of Cinecittà. And according to many, he truly turned Cinecittà into a star. In an interview I once did with the former Cinecittà director, Lamberto Mancini, about the relationship between Fellini and Cinecittà, he told me: ‘It’s quite easy to describe Fellini’s relationship with Cinecittà. Fellini ‘was’ Cinecittà’. There are hundreds of documents and hundreds of interviews where Fellini declares that Cinecittà was his second home. In some he even says that it was his first. Sometimes he got annoyed with the journalists’ questions and once he simply said: ‘Why do you often ask me why I’m always at Cinecittà? Would you ask a doctor why he is always in the hospital?’ Fellini has contributed tremendously to the fame of Cinecittà. His screenplays, his often dream-like scenes, and the way his films were shot all highlight Cinecittà’s magic and charm. In our most famous studio, Studio 5, Fellini had set up a small apartment for himself. After his death in October 1993, a small mortuary was set up here where his body was laid out so that the public could pay its respect before his funerals. Even today, many people abroad still strongly associate the studios with Fellini’.

Fellini’s love story with Rome has, however, not prevented Rimini from keeping a pulsating heart for the old maestro. In the city’s fascinating Borgo San Giuliano, a fisherman’s village, the entire neighborhood has been enriched by a huge number of colorful facade paintings made by various street artists, which all associate with the Fellini film universe. To walk around here is like a constant artistic discovery-tour where you bump into murals of Fellini chatting with actor Marcello Mastroianni, a giant postcard with one of Fellini’s drawings, Giulietta Masina (Fellini’s wife) hanging on to a lamp post, Marcello Mastroianni and Swedish actress Anita Ekberg kissing each other (from La Dolce Vita’s most famous scene) and many more.

Federico Fellini on occasion of the award of the prize Caveja d’oro, San Marino, 1958 Photo: Cine Foto D. Minghini, director’s magical world of dreams, colorful circus atmospheres, pain, tragedy dancing with comedy, life and death.

ISSUE XXI

Today, if you go and visit the Cinecittà, you’ll be greeted by the giant crowned face Venusia from the Fellini film “Casanova” (1976) which has been secured on the lawn.

It’s a gigantic reminder of il maestro’s importance to Italian filmmaking and to Cinecittà in particular.

And speaking about death, once in an interview, back in 1979, Fellini was asked ‘are you afraid of death?’, to which question he answered: ‘Yes, I’m actually afraid of death. But the way I defend myself is not by conserving objects or places or persons. My way to defend myself against death is by conserving memories. I’m constantly searching for memories’.

In 2018 Rimini reopened its renowned Fulgor cinema (that used to be Fellini’s favorite cinema) after years of renovation. It has two auditoriums, Federico and Giulietta. And towards the end of this year, the Federico Fellini Museum is bound to open on a permanent basis at the city’s Castel Sismondo.

The Fellini exhibition, that opened in Rimini in December, will go on until the middle of April. After that it will move to Rome where it will be possible to emerge in the

More than just a holiday! www.vitaitaliantours.com

Pronto Travel & Vita Italian Tours are a boutique travel agency and tour company specialising in travel to Italy and Europe. The family team has over 15 years experience in the travel industry and are all about quality service and giving you, the customer, a positive and friendly experience from an expert personal travel consultant. Their organised small group tours are designed to take travellers off the beaten track to explore beautiful medieval and renaissance hill-towns, spectacular scenery and taste genuine local food and wine.

7

Daniele Foti-Cuzzola

THE PLACE ON DALHOUSIE THE HOMECOMING OF MELINA MARCHETTA

Melina Marchetta

It’s been 28 years since Melina Marchetta released her debut novel, “Looking for Alibrandi” to critical and commercial acclaim.

The novel about an Italo-Australian teenager, Josie Alibrandi navigating her way through her final year of high school in Sydney’s Western Suburbs was a revelation. Never before had an Australian author accurately depicted an ItaloAustralian’s adolescence. Since then Marchetta went on to pen her acclaimed follow-up, “Saving Francesca”, before distancing herself from migrant stories. Now the author has returned to her roots with another moving Italo-Australian story, “The Place on Dalhousie”.

The novel not only marks a return to Marchetta’s relatable Italo-Australian stories, but also revisits some of her beloved characters from “Saving Francesca”, mainly Jimmy Hailler, who in this story becomes romantically involved with the central character Rosie. While the novel is a spin-off to “Saving Francesca”, it is stand-alone story in its own right.

‘I always wanted to return to that world,’ says Marchetta.

‘But when your first two novels are about either migrants or children or grandchildren of migrants, you know you’re going to be stereotyped for the rest of your life if you keep on writing about them.’

‘I don’t think I would…I just know that I want everything to be tied up neatly and I want them all to be happy and I’ll probably lose credibility.’

Home is a central theme in “The Place on Dalhousie” which follows Rosie Gennaro and her estranged stepmother Martha, who are fighting for their right to the family home that Rosie’s late father and Martha’s husband Seb had built. The story explores the importance of home for children of migrants. Rosie, like Marchetta, is the daughter of Italian migrants while Martha is the daughter of German migrants. Marchetta tapped into her own family experiences while writing the book.

‘I thought about the big houses (that Italian migrants built). My parents built one themselves and I was always a bit resentful that people mocked that,’ explains Marchetta.

‘I made the conscious decision that Seb Gennaro didn’t come out in the 1950s or 1960s. He was a relatively new migrant and it didn’t have to be about the size of the house it had to be about the place. He would have owned nothing in Sicily so it was this sense of (building something) and leaving something behind for the family.’

8

Photo KIREN

‘I’m not saying I don’t believe in sequels, I just feel that I have finished the story,’ explains Marchetta. ‘I just loved this idea of putting people inside a house and seeing how they operate whether they are a blood family or are not related but connected. I just felt that as soon as I discovered Rosie, I knew that somehow she was connected to Jimmy.’

While the AFI-winner has revisited “Saving Francesca” she is sceptical about writing a follow up to “Looking for Alibrandi”.

This year marks 20 years since the award-winning film adaptation of “Looking for Alibrandi” was released.

The film, like the book, was a breakthrough for the ItaloAustralian community, but since then few Italian stories have made it to the big screen.

‘I don’t believe there’s a great representation in film and literature on the migrant experience,’ says Marchetta.

‘I want to see more of that. There are a lot of things that have to be done but it starts by encouraging our stories to be told. Alibrandi came out all of those years ago, and it’s been said, that Italian girl story has already been done.

Well there are a million other Italian girl stories!’

Marchetta is once again looking within her own home for inspiration for her next project - a series of children’s books inspired by her daughter, Bianca. The Zola book series follows Zola who lives with her single mother and Nonna in a multicultural suburb.

‘I don’t think there is a lot out there for six year olds that have any cultural diversity… As a parent, I am constantly trying to normalise the fact that my child doesn’t have a

father living with her. In the same way as I’ll speak to friends who come from Arabic backgrounds and their children have never read mainstream books with characters called Omar and I’ve met same sex couples whose children have never seen books where it’s normal that someone has two Mums. It’s not about ticking boxes. It’s about normalising these kids so that they feel as though they belong somewhere in the pages of books.’

‘The Place on Dalhousie’ is available now.

Hayley J. Egan

THE TIME MOTHER NATURE FEARED TO BE OVERCOME finest Renaissance paintings.

Perhaps at this point you are reflecting on Raphael’s work, and marvelling that though he enjoyed great success during his lifetime and the honour of being acknowledged as one of the masters after his death, he has not suffered the posthumous indignity of having one of his masterpieces become reduced to an image on a T-Shirt. Well, if you were thinking that, you’d be forgetting about the angels.

The fresco The School of Athens in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican

Here at Segmento we acknowledged Da Vinci’s contribution to art and science. This year, it is time to write a similar article, because 2020 marks 500 years since the death of another Ninja Turtle namesake (and great master of the Renaissance), Raffaello Sanzio.

Who are the angels? How did he die?

And why on earth did he end up with a Ninja Turtle named after him?

Raphael is arguably not as iconic a figure as Da Vinci. He did not, after all, paint the Mona Lisa, nor did best-selling author Dan Brown seem to like him as much. Nonetheless, the man could paint.

The more cultured of Segmento readers (you know who you are), may be familiar with Raphael’s masterpiece, The School of Athens. The Romans and jetsetters among you may have even seen in person the fresco on the walls of the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace. The four walls of the room contain frescos that represent philosophy, poetry, theology,

Some of you might also know The Triumph of Galatea. Don’t confuse it with The Birth of Venus (that’s by Botticelli). The more popular (reproduced for calendars and book covers) Birth of Venus depicts Aphrodite rising from sea after being born from her father’s severed genitals. Yes, go on, read that sentence again.

Paris will also be paying tribute at the Musée du Louvre this year, in collaboration with the Prado Museum (Madrid). In Rome, the Scuderie del Quirinale will be collaborating with the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence for the largest and most important Raphael anniversary show in Europe.

But I know that the most pressing question on your minds remains unanswered. How did Raphael get a Ninja Turtle named after him?

Well, an interview with Peter Laird, creator of the comic book will answer that (Thank you, internet).

ISSUE XXI

Raphael was born in 1483, and his works were incredibly significant even during his lifetime. Alongside da Vinci and Michelangelo, he is known as one of the great artists of Renaissance Italy, and like his colleagues, his life, works and death are surrounded by mystery and intrigue.

and law. The School of Athens depicts philosophy, and Plato and Aristotle are in the centre, making it one erudite painting.

Raphael’s painting Sistine Madonna shows Mary holding baby Jesus with Saint Sixtus and Saint Barbara at her side, and below, two bored-looking, adorable cherubs. You know the ones. It is thought that the cherubs were added as an afterthought as the painting neared completion, due to the light brushwork used to paint them, and their positioning over an expanse of cloud. Whenever, or however they were painted, I doubt Raphael could have predicted the extent to which, over the next 500 years, these babies would be exploited to sell chocolate and notebooks.

This year, half a millennium since his death, there will be various events throughout Italy to celebrate his life and work. At Urbino, particularly, where Raphael was born, a rich programme of events held throughout the town began last year and will run during 2020.

The programme includes conferences, performances, international cultural exchanges and accessible guided tours of exhibitions to celebrate the artist’s life and legacy to Renaissance art.

“Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die.”

Inscription in Raphael’s sarcophagus written by Pietro Bembo

Raphael’s work The Triumph of Galatea, on the other hand, depicts another myth, another woman standing in a clam. It shows the daughter of Poseidon, who was married to the one-eyed giant Polyphemus. Rather than present the events of her gory story, the painting depicts Galatea’s apotheosis (promotion to the status of Goddess), after all the violence went down.

The Triumph of Galatea is not as famous as The Birth of Venus, but it is considered (by scholars and art snobs) to be a superior painting. In fact, it is considered one of the

Sistine Madonna. Rapael depicted Mary holding baby Jesus with Saint Sixtus and Saint Barbara at her side, and below, the two cherubs.

There are many more masterpieces

by Raphael, an enormous amount, considering he only lived to the age of 37.

The circumstances surrounding his death are largely unknown. It is documented only that the great painter passed away after 15 days of fever.

Rapael’s masterpiece The Triumph of Galatea

Here it is: ‘We decided, Why not name them after Renaissance artists? We picked the artists we were most familiar with and went with it.’

Mystery solved.

9

JYTTE HOLMQVIST MEETS MARY MARCUCCIO, VICE PRESIDENT AT THE DANTE ALIGHIERI SOCIETY To honour Dante Alighieri on the 750th anniversary of his birth, 2020 sees celebrations worldwide of his life and great literary endeavours.

Above and in the next page, Illustrations of La Divina Commedia by Salvador Dalí.

The Dante Alighieri Society in Melbourne, established in 1896, counts as the ‘oldest branch of the Dante Alighieri Society in an English-speaking country.’ The organisation actively promotes Dante and Italian language and culture through events, poetry recitals, competitions, lecturers and scholarships that shed further light on Italy and its rich language, history and culture.

Thank you for welcoming me to conduct this interview about your very important society, your work and contribution to the Melbourne literary, cultural, and arts scene. Why is Dante Alighieri so important for Italian culture? (both now and in the past).

Dante Alighieri is still today the most important poet to the national culture of Italy as he wrote his masterpiece La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) in Tuscan or Florentine Italian, thus making it the standard language of the country. Today his work still influences the artistic works of writers, artists and other poets and is constantly translated into other languages and commented on.

10

Even though The Divine Comedy is over 600 years old, its themes are still relevant to today’s politics and human behaviour. His Divina Commedia is the cornerstone of the Italian literary canon and has been the basis for the cultivation of an Italian national and cultural identity. As reflected in his great work, his life was concerned with the moral questions that cross the divide between faith and politics; two dominant strands that have historically challenged Italians as they have negotiated living in a land that both houses the seat of a would-be unifying Catholicism and twenty regions’ worth of proudly diverse customs, languages and identities.

What should the world know about Dante Alighieri?

Gladly, the world is partly aware of Dante Alighieri and The Divine Comedy. It has been translated into many languages and extracts are in a number of school curriculums. The Divine Comedy is a voyage through the very depths of human behaviour, thoughts and character, it makes us think and examine ourselves and what surrounds us. It tells us about culture, history, and religion and everyone can interpret it the way they want from different points of view.

Alighieri wrote his Commedia under great political

and personal duress, driving him to take to the greatest heights the bounds of his vernacular. Though his values and vision for an ethical and just world may differ vastly from ours today, the integrity with which he sought to justify what he believed was right and speak out against the injustices of the powerful, still serves as a model for reasoned dissidence in the modern world.

How do you keep Alighieri’s legacy alive in the Victorian community and at Melbourne colleges and universities where Italian is taught?

The Dante Alighieri Society in Melbourne has a long tradition of promoting the Italian language and culture in the Victorian Community. For 123 years the Society has run Italian language classes and competitions for school students. It provides scholarships for teachers, awards to university students and organises conferences, films, and social and special literary events. It fosters the “Italiansimpatia” that “special love” for the Italian culture, the style of life, its music, arts and, of course, cuisine.

Through poetry recitation competitions featuring Dante’s poetry and the work of other poets we aim to challenge and inspire secondary students.

We encourage tertiary students to undergo various courses on his works to bring people together to share their passion for debate and new ideas, and annual formal “Lectura Dantis” to critically examine his work.

A study of The Divine Comedy is also available in short courses for English-speaking Italophile

You are currently busy preparing the 750th anniversary celebrations in honour of Dante’s birth.

What festivities will feature as part of your agenda?

Last year there was an idea raised to have a “Dante Day”. The Society will propose this idea to schools and perhaps teachers can raise ideas for their students to have one day a week where they celebrate Dante Alighieri - the man, the poet the politician. The formal “Lectura Dantis”, conducted annually, will also be a special event. Perhaps our annual lunch to mark the birthday of the Society will also be a more special occasion.

What can we learn from La Divina Commedia (commenced in 1308 and completed in 1320) and why has this literary masterpiece become so instrumental in understanding not only Italian society but the world at large and “the human condition?”

We learn from the Commedia how personal fortunes are always moulded by the powers and institutions of their times. It speaks across time and place to the dangers and rewards of ambitions, to the search for meaning in life, and to the ever-evolving quest to find our place in the cosmos.

How has the Italian language changed and evolved since Alighieri’s times?

com and we will be happy to contact them.

What should the world learn from Italy, its values and rich culture?

Italy has produced Italian geniuses from all walks of life: mathematicians, scientists, architects, engineers, researchers in medicine, artists, writers and poets.

From its rich and vibrant classical and modern history, we have inherited that determination, perseverance and a strong sense of family and tradition.

The future looks very optimistic for the Dante Alighieri Society. The world is gradually “getting smaller” and as we are in constant contact with “Dante” in Rome, we are always planning new projects. For a while now, Italian immigration has seen the arrival of new young people eager to join and continue the promotion of Italian. Our “Dante Giovani” committee members and co-opted members is a group of enthusiastic lovers of all aspects of Italian culture who are eager to continue working with and promoting the Society here in Melbourne.

Do you collaborate with other Melbourne organisations that promote Italian language, arts and culture - like Co.As.It and the Italian Institute of Culture?

Not only do we collaborate with Co.As.It. and the Italian Institute of Culture, but we share resources and work in partnership with the Dante Alighieri Society branches in Australia. We also have close links with Il Globo newspaper, Rete Italia, SBS radio, and the Italian Clubs.

Perhaps the most significant thing that can be said is that it has undergone a remarkable degree of standardisation, resulting in both a loss of diversity and a national streamlining as Italy’s dominant language, and that this has come about in large part due to the introduction and spread of televised Italian.

Where do your members come from? While the bulk are 1st or 2nd generation Italians, do you welcome members from other cultures too? How do I become a member of the Dante Alighieri Society?

ISSUE XXI

How do you attract both old and young members to your organisation?

We say strongly YES and are happy that Italian is already present in many school curriculums both in Melbourne and in regional areas. Dante Alighieri Society is always present in supporting teachers and students in the learning of Italian with its activities. It is also very strong at tertiary level.

The Dante Alighieri Society is for everyone and people should not be deterred by its namesake.

Everyone is welcome, especially those who have a love for everything Italian and an interest to belong and to learn more.

Where do you see the Dante Alighieri Society heading in the future?

It has, naturally, become more dynamic and accessible to man, it has been more influenced by English terms and sayings and, therefore, with the advent of the Internet and all that it brings, many words which have its Italian noun have been substituted by an AngloSaxon version. We can see this in advertisements, media and politics. Luckily there is Dante Alighieri Society with over 200 branches worldwide which has as its mission to protect the purity of the language and make it more approachable.

Should Italian be included in the curriculum at Melbourne - even Victorian colleges across the board?

Do have any final message to our Segmento readers?

We have a section of the Society called “Dante Giovani” and the members organise events especially addressed to the younger community. We also welcome the new group of young immigrants arriving in Melbourne who are highly qualified, talented and resourceful.

Members come from all backgrounds and ages and anyone is most welcome to join and actively take part in the organisation of the activities. To become member is very easy. Our website www.dantemelbourne.com.au has all the details on how to join. Prospective members can write an email to dante.alighieri.melbourne@gmail.

Segmento wishes to thank Claudia McLean and Nicholas Sgro-Traikovski for their additional input responding these questions.

What are some of the most important or significant contributions of your organisation to the surrounding community?

The Dante Alighieri Society is proud to cultivate the love for Italian in young people and the wider community through its constant hard work. This includes our annual poetry, discourse and poster competitions, which reach thousands of students across the state, our formal events, which bring together Italophiles of all kinds and particularly seniors, and our courses, where small but dedicated groups of passionate learners expand their minds and sharpen their Italian tongues. Many students go on studying Italian in tertiary education and pursue a career where Italian becomes a great asset. Often many remember with affection the times spent learning Italian at school once they become adults.

Mary Marcuccio (first from the right) with the Dante Giovani, a section of the Dante Alighieri Society run by young people, for young people

11

Hayley J. Egan

A RADICAL VIEW Roberta Ingrosso, when she’s not at her desk or caring for her two young kids, can be found pouring over recipe books or experimenting in the kitchen. You could find her pondering how to reproduce authentic pettole while substituting wheat flour for spelt, or working out how to use the last vegetables in her weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box.

Roberta Ingrosso and Salvatore Rossano, Founders of Radical Puglia

Food workshop by Roberta Ingrosso

Ostuni white town skyline and Madonna della Grata church

‘Cooking is my main form of creative expression,’ Roberta says, ‘Food is nurture. Food is family. Some of our most important memories are around family meals.

Sometimes just familiar flavours that we link to childhood are enough to provide comfort.’ For Roberta, however, there is an important balance to be found between tradition, information, and activism.

traditions whilst ensuring they had the most authentic experience.’

Radical Puglia is the result of many dinner conversations about ways to combine Roberta’s passion for food and folk dance with Salvatore’s access to previously unpenetrated traditional music circles in Puglia.

Her journey of migration, her life in inner Melbourne, her exploration of nutrition and food systems, along with her passion for dance and folk music has lead Roberta to look at her culture in a new light, and that is where Radical Puglia is born.

‘The concept behind Radical Puglia is embedded in its name, it is a play on the word Radici (roots), Roberta says.

‘It is our intention to re-connect with, and re-discover our own Pugliese roots whilst allowing our guests to explore Puglia in a ‘Radical’ way, by showing them aspects of Puglia that are not immediately accessible though mainstream tours.’

On a Radical Puglia tour, guests can expect visits to farmer’s markets and cheese-makers, but also instrument makers. The tour includes informal dance workshops and late night parties with some of the regions best traditional musicians and dancers, and combines long lunches with lively discussions around ethical consumption, growing methods, food systems and sustainability. Authenticity is a core value of the business. Watching friends discover the complexity of Puglia is something Roberta and her husband George have experience with.

‘Having grown up in Puglia, but having lived in Australia for many years we’ve hosted family and friends in Puglia countless times. We’ve helped them explore the region and guided them through its cultural and culinary

In fact, Roberta and George first experimented with the concept on their friends and family when they married in the Pugliese town of Martina Franca in 2012. When planning the wedding (and fielding numerous questions from the guests), the pragmatic couple set up a website, an insiders ‘How To’ guide for the region of Puglia.

The wedding was also the starting point for a long and committed involvement with the Italian folk music scene, as Roberta and George, (who is Greek) looked for ways to ensure both their cultures were well-represented.

‘As we were planning the wedding and the music I realised that there were so many Greek dances that would be performed at the wedding, and I wanted George to learn an Italian dance too. So I went looking and eventually found a teacher. That was Rosa Voto, and we were the very first students of what was to become the Melbourne School of Tarantella.’ Dancing was to become a big part of the couple’s lives over the coming years as the couple immersed themselves into the infectious world of Italian folk music.

‘Being involved firsthand with the Italian folk music and dance scene in Melbourne, we realised that whilst the scene has experienced a steady growth and has attracted genuine interest on behalf of the Australian public in recent years, accessing and immersing oneself in the local music and dancing scene in Puglia remains difficult for an outsider, and a privilege of the locals.’

It was dancing that connected Roberta and George to musician and recent migrant Salvatore Rossano, who happened to be one of these artists with privileged local access to traditional music in Puglia and the south of Italy.

‘Puglia has become a tourist sensation, and there are a plethora of tours focusing on food and landscape, but it is not combined with traditional music and dance in an authentic way. Radical Puglia fills this gap.’Coming up with the concept is, however, only the beginning. Salvatore and Roberta have worked hard to identify and connect to their niche market.

‘We need to connect with Australians who are passionate not only about food and travel, but also music and dancing, and it has been quite a challenge to reach them, to make Radical Puglia known to them.’

Despite the challenges, both Roberta and Salvatore are committed to this vision and there is no room for compromise. They are also adamant that while numbers will be small, Radical Puglia will not be a ‘luxury tour,’ aware that to give a truly local experience, their guests will live as closely as possibly to the way the locals do, coming into contact with alternative lifestyles and counter-culture.

‘We purposely try to avoid ostentatious places and look for something that’s nice, but authentic,’ says Roberta. ‘The most exciting aspect of Radical Puglia to me is not only the ability to re-connect with my roots, but also to contribute to the preservation of my culture and traditions by making them more accessible to the community that has become my own here in Australia.

I am thrilled by the opportunity to share Puglia with our guests and re-discover its beauty through their eyes.’

the first school in Victoria to offer a bilingual education IN ITALIAN

56 Brunswick Rd, Brunswick East VIC 3057 - ph. 03 9380 1231 brunswick.south.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

12

cibus in fabula

Inserto speciale on food trends, hospitality and food industry in Australia and around the world

numero1 March - May 2020 wwww.segmento.com.au

Italian style, Australian made Making Gluten Free as Good as the Real Deal!

Artfully created by World Pizza Champion Andrea Cozzolino, Senza Wellness Foods will leave you in Gluten Free disbelief!

senzafoods.com.au senzaglutenfreeaus senza_glutenfree 14 Freeman Street, Campbellfield, VIC 3061

2

, Available at and speciality stores.

Find us in the chilled aisle

summary

02 03 05 06 07 09 09 10 11

The food habits that lead to a healthy life

by Agata Grimaldi

Custodian of one of the rarest pasta in the world

by Jytte Holmqvist

Osteria Italiana is the result of my desire to please and feed my children

by Elaine Bocchini The healing properties of food

by Jenna Lo Bianco

Cantina Ferrari: a sparkling history of success

by Jesper Storgaard Jensen

To the last breath and bite

by Daniele Curto

Blending Italian traditions with Italo-Australian business practices

by Jytte Holmqvist Bringing the fresh cheese closer to you

by Jytte Holmqvist

An artistic creation incorporated into the Australian culinary DNA

by Jytte Holmqvist

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

WRITE FOR US

Catering artisan salumi for increasingly health oriented consumers

by Jytte Holmqvist Chefs Silvia Colloca, Giovanni Pilu & Stefano Pingue in conversation with Daniele Curto

Jytte Holmqvist Agata Grimaldi Elaine Bocchini Jenna Lo Bianco Jesper Storgaard Jensen Daniele Curto Hayley j. Egan

Making a mediterranean diet work down under

by Editorial Staff

COVER CREDITS

Caught with a finger in the Gorgonzola

by Jesper Storgaard Jensen

Illustration by Elaine Bocchini From the rich soil of Tuscia to the Australian table

by Hayley J. Egan

PUBLI CATION

Pausa pranzo: the paninoteca that became a Melbournian institution

by Hayley J. Egan

Curated by Daniele Curto

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

At Sassy.x Asian cuisine influences Italian traditions

by Jytte Holmqvist

Tasty news from the world Street food and the cultural openness to unfamiliar flavours

by Giuseppe Santoro

Italian Magazine

The Latin word cibus (cibo in Italian) shares its root with the verb ‘capio’, which means to grasp, to take. The etymology of the word can be traced back, instead, to the Greek word ‘kapto’ that has the same meaning. In essence, for ‘cibus’ was intended to mean nothing more than the amount of nourishment the animals take in, to feed and keep themselves alive.

In the Roman playwright Terence’s play Adelphoe, written ca 160 B.C, one of the characters cites the expression Lupus in Fabula (The wolf in the story) meaning ‘When you speak of someone or something and they or it suddenly appears.’

Let’s leaf through the pages, as the food is in the stories, and let’s trust that it will appear before us: CIBUS IN FABULA

The food habits that lead to a healty life

by Agata Grimaldi beans and whole grains. Moderate amounts of dairy, eggs, fish and poultry. Red meat is only consumed occasionally.

According to a study published by Bloomberg, Spain and Italy are the healthiest countries on earth. Every year Bloomberg crunches numbers from the World Bank, the UN and the World Health Organization, to score in its Global Health Index the healthiest and unhealthiest countries in the world. A number of factors are taken into consideration including causes of death, consumption of tobacco, obesity, access to clean water, countries health systems and life expectancy.

Spaniards and Italian are notoriously known for accompanying their lunches and dinners with a few glasses of wine, staying up until late and for enjoying smoking. These are for sure not healthy habits.

However, both countries have some healthy lifestyle choices in common: they meet friends on a daily basis often in cities and villages’ piazzas, make frequent trips to bars and cafes, and eat mediterrean food, whose meals are built around a plant-based diet: seasonal vegetable and fruits, olive oil and olives, herbs, nuts,

Extra-virgin olive oil in particular is a major component of the Mediterrean diet. It’s rich in healthy monounsaturated fats and antioxidants, especially polyphenols. Antioxidants are involved in protecting cells from oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is the result of a buildup of free radicals, substances, which are inevitably produced by our bodies during metabolism and other physiological processes. The perfect example is when you see a cut apple turning brown or an old bike getting rusty, you have seen oxidation in action.

Oxidative stress has been linked to the development of several chronic diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, which includes obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, as well as some types of cancer.

by preserving the synaptic integrity, which is how the neurons communicate with each other.

One of the most unexpected benefits is that it can help with depression. The Standard American Diet is loaded with trans fats and vegetable oils extracted with chemical solvents and heat. In a large study participants diagnosed with depression replaced these unhealthy fats with high quality olive oil. At the end of the 12 weeks trial, the participants reported a great reduction in their depression.

The mechanics could be explained by a study conducted recently by the University of Karachi according to the administration of doses of olive oil seems to increase the level of serotonin and dopamine, some of the feeling good neurotransmitters.

Extra-virgin olive oil doesn’t benefit only the heart, but also the brain. and the body. A regular consumption of extra-virgin olive oil is associated with a lower occurrence of Alzheimer and other mental illnesses, including depression.

According to some studies some components of the oil reduce the formation of amyloid-beta plaques, classic markers of Alzheimer’s diseases. These plaques lower memory, thinking and motor skills of people affected

by Alzheimer by interfering with the ability of their brain cells to communicate with each other. Extravirgin olive oil helps the brain in breaking down these waste and removing it from their cells. Olive oil also plays an important role in memory and learning ability

3

Custodian of one of the rarest pasta in the world

Chef Leo Gelsomino tells Jytte Holmqvist how he learned to master the mystical art of Sardinian pasta Su Filindeu Leonardo Gelsomino, a pleasure meeting you. I’d like to ask you a few questions about your profession, experience and expertise and I’m also curious to know more about Su Filindeu – or “threads of God- pasta” from Sardinia.

Chef Leo Gelsomino

You have received favourable acclaim in the Australian media particularly after an enlightening interview with the SBS on 28 March, 2019, which turned our attention to Su filindeu. Before I ask you more about this special pasta, what do you find most fascinating about pasta, in general?

The most fascinating thing is learning to make different types of pasta the artisan way; experimenting with different types of flours and tasting the results of textures, shapes and flavours blended together with other ingredients. For me, each shape or style of pasta can be linked to the identity of the environment of the region it comes from. For example, culurgiones are exclusively found in Sardinia. The artistry towards certain foods helps give identity to a pasta and demonstrate a sign of the times.

Tool used to make Su Filindeu

You have Calabrian roots and in the aforementioned SBS interview you declare that “making pasta is not just a job. It’s a spiritual experience” bestowed upon you by your grandmother, mother and aunties. Please elaborate.

As a child I knew I loved food, I watched my mum and dad make pasta and cook for the family. It wasn’t until I began my career as a chef that I made the connection between my parents feeling the same as I do when I cook for my customers at Lello. When you make the pasta by hand and match it perfectly with the right ingredients, that’s not something you will easily forget.

When did you first hear about Su Filindeu and how did you come upon the “secret” recipe?

I first heard about Su filindeu by reading an article back in 2016 and I immediately thought: ‘I need to learn this!! This is a pasta like no other. I became obsessed by learning this mystical, rare art. I investigated for 2 years to get someone to teach me. I was almost going to pop up at the foot-steps of the Sardinian city of Nuoro in the hope to find someone to teach me. But then I came across an organisation called La Cucina delle Matriarche, run by Simonetta Bazzu and Maria Antonietta Mazzone who informed me that they were only looking for professionals or scholars to teach the secret Su filindeu. I bought my plane ticket before going through a rigorous application process.

Once I arrived I found the wonderful Raffaella Marongiu, who is the rightful heir and custodian of Su filindeu. Su filindeu runs exclusively through her bloodline for as many generations as she can remember and for this reason I am forever grateful to Raffaella for sharing this rare art with me. When I’m making Su filindeu I feel connected to Sardinia and not so far away. I would imagine that in the same way as I hear

her guiding voice when I’m making Su filindeu, she hears the voice of her ancestors.

You are the only pasta chef in Australia who knows how to make this type of pasta. It’s an elaborate and complex process, leading to an exquisite pasta that stimulates the taste buds and is also aesthetically pleasing to the eye. How did you learn to master the procedure?

Raffaella showed me the procedure. She advised me ‘to never give up’ and that the dough I make must be my own personally.

Leonardo shares that he is lucky to have been passed on the recipe as a male chef, as traditionally it was strictly shared from mother to daughter.

What does Italian food mean to you?

Italian food starts with an appreciation for a few ingredients that have been cared and nurtured for: To respect and prepare the dishes in the simplest way that allows the ingredients to shine. I also love the stories behind the dishes and ingredients as to why they came about.

Sardinian pasta Su Filindeu

If you were to pick one dish from each section of your menu, which would you recommend from antipasti, primi piatti, secondi piatti, and dolci?

Finally, would you mind sharing more about Su Filindeu: What are the main ingredients and the creative procedure?

I recommend everything. But at the moment we have our homemade organic prosciutto matured on the bone, that we slice by hand, Spaghetti alla Nerano. It is a lovely dish that uses heirloom organic zucchini and provolone from the Monaco province. And you will love our fish dishes that change regularly. Round off your meal with our Chocolate and Hazelnut Tartufo with Amaro del Capo which was invented for the Piedmont Prince who visited Pizzo at the time to check on his military.

The main ingredients are semolina, water, and salt.

After you have made your dough using semolina and water you take a small piece of dough and begin to work the dough using some salt-water. When you feel the dough is ready to be pulled you make a thick strand and place both ends on the palm of your hand and proceed to pull the strands down and then back up onto your palms. You continue to do this until the strand becomes very fine whereby you then lay the Threads of God onto a flat round circular base until you obtain a ‘criss-cross’ of 3 full layers of threads. You then allow this to dry preferably outside in a warm sunlit room, where the pasta then hardens into delicate sheets of Threads of God.

What makes your restaurant stand out above the rest?

Visiting Lello is getting to know regional Italian food that you would find when travelling through the backstreets of Italy, typical of that area but not typically found in Australia. It is good old-fashioned, friendly hospitality.

Leonardo says humbly but sincerely; conscious of the grandeur of the small that is big at the same time. An appreciation for Italy is, in many ways, about learning to appreciate the apparently simple, and with that savor true authenticity.

Raffaella Marongiu, the undisputed heir and custodian of Su filindeu passed on the secretive recipe to Leo Gelsomino

GIRO D’ITALIA

A journey never experienced before A creation by the dynamic and eclectic chef Domenico De Marco

401 St Kilda Road, Melbourne - ph 1300398707 www.giroditalia.com.au

5

“Osteria Italiana is the result of my desire to please and feed my children”

by Elaine Bocchini

As of 2019, Australia’s food industry was our largest employer, with over 2 million Australians employed in growing, moving, manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing and food service.

Data also shows that in the last two decades, Australian have made eating out a way of life (nearly two thirds of the population over the age of 14 eat out at least once a month). Australians eat out for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. During uncertain economic times, Australians tend to spend less in eateries, but do not sacrifice eating out completely.

Despite this, 46% of the restaurants that were operating in 2014 have now closed. Why? Because the market is changing. And it’s changing so fast that only half the operators can keep the pace.

We have analysed the emerging trends and found a small establishment in Fitzroy North which is reflecting a few of them. Curious? Well, patience is a virtue! Let’s first identify these trends.

The Australian foodservice market is vibrant, dynamic and diversified by a plethora of cuisines across many independent outlets. Victoria, in particular, offers a unique dining scene reminiscent of Southern Europe, thanks to the massive presence of Greeks and, of course, Italians.

Increasingly conscious consumers are requesting more attention towards sustainability, a strong focus on wellbeing and the desire to experiment with local interesting food and beverages.

Technology has also dramatically changed customer expectations and raised the bar in terms of the type of engagement customers consider normal. Technology is also increasingly disrupting the hospitality industry as food delivery services continue to grow.

In this apparently destabilising scenario, there is an oasis of tranquillity called Osteria Italiana.

Run by Alessandra, an energetic, smiling woman from Palermo, Osteria Italiana gathers with it all the answers to this newly shaped market.

When Alessandra started her business (back then called Maccaroni Osteria Italiana), she couldn’t predict such a metamorphosis. In a few years, Melburnians’ lifestyle and dietary habits have changed so much and so quickly that only a few have been able to rapidly adapt and conceive radically new menu designs.

But what really placed her into the vegan and wellbeing stream, was her desire to please and satisfy her kids’ needs.

‘Both are vegetarian,’ she says, ‘and moving to Australia they soon started to miss the Italian flavours they were used to at home in Sicily. That’s then when I started to get passionate about the vegan and vegetarian alternatives to Italian traditional meals. But I couldn’t find anything that pleased me or their palate, so I started to study new solutions, looking for out of the ordinary ingredients and mixing them in an innovative way. Yes, my restaurant’s offering is the result of my desire, as a mum, to feed and please my children!’

So it would seem that Millennials really are driving the changes in the hospitality industry.

6

Along with this determination, her profound knowledge of the Italian traditional cuisine and a life spent satisfying the needs of a more and more sophisticated clientele made the change not only possible, but unique in its outcome.

All the dishes included in the menu are Italian. Their recipes are deeply rooted into the history of the most original version, but they have been shaped around the modern concept of healthier nutrition.

Alessandra’s fine sensibility and ability to create solutions respectful of every possible dietary requirement is impressive. All her recipes, like the vegan carbonara, the vegan fried egg, the low fodmap eggplant rolls filled with pasta, the gluten free gnocchi alla Trevigiana are practically eligible to be covered by Trademark for their uniqueness and creativity.

But this not all. Alessandra has already ticked the boxes for tradition, innovation, and wellbeing. But the Osteria Italiana is also winning as far as experience and customer engagement are concerned. As soon as you walk into the restaurant, for example you are offered the possibility to pick the napkin representing your dietary requirements. Green for Vegan, Yellow for Gluten Free, Blue for Low FODMAP and Red for the Contemporary. The idea was introduced only recently but has been met with enthusiasm.

Last but not least, Alessandra’s commitment to the environment is impressive. Osteria Italiana has said no to plastic and paper towels, having replaced them with bamboo and sugarcane containers for delivery and take-away meals, recycled toilet paper, reusable cotton towels for the restrooms and fabric napkins at the tables. No more plastic straws, these have been replaced by stainless-steel ones and not even plastic wrap is used in the kitchen.

Once again, Italians have got it right, leading the scene of the evolving food service industry in Melbourne and making of it another opportunity to enhance the legacy of our outstanding traditions and creative skills.

Alessandra in the kitchen photo Elaine Bocchini

Osteria Italiana in Fitzroy North, Melbourne Photo: Wide Shut Photography

The healing properties of food ‘Italians love to celebrate, it’s in our blood, life is a celebration. We have forgotten this in many ways; it is part of our rich inheritance to celebrate. When we sit with our families across the table, time stands still. It teaches us that this is where the heart of the table is’. International Sicilian chef, Carmela D’Amore speaks with Jenna Lo Bianco

Sicilian Chef Carmela D’Amore

Italian food is rejoiced and regaled the world over.

It always has been, and will likely continue to be for eternity. Putting aside the value of the cuisine itself, the sentiments of one particular chef are delightfully refreshing in putting a new twist on an age-old culinary tradition. Carmela D’Amore, International Sicilian chef with more than 40 years experience, Ambassador to Sicilian food and cookbook author, shared her views on food, healing and cultural memory with me.

‘When I cook, I connect with my roots. To me it is a form of meditation, connecting, with the core of my being. I am aware of the dish I’m creating and it connects me with the person who taught it to me. In that moment time becomes frozen, and I am receptive to my energy that flows through me’, Carmela says. It’s this very notion of the power of food, not as a primary fuel source but as a means to ‘heal’, that Carmela is most intrigued by these days. ‘Food from your cultural soul heals your body from within. It’s connected to your memory, bringing you much joy and happiness when you are in this state. I express a sereneness and a feeling of wellbeing’. Carmela implores, ‘Open your memory gland to healing through food’.

Carmela isn’t touting an alternative view of eating or food culture. In fact, her views are fairly simple and straightforward. ‘My experience has taught me that

cultural food can link you to a forgotten heritage; it can awaken the core of your being, bringing life, joy, peace, harmony and wellbeing into your everyday life’, she says. ‘From my experience as a child of Sicilian migrants, my entire life has been with food, celebrating through food. Looking back, I found that my family would commune with their land and family when they ate. Certain times we would eat in silence, not understanding this as a child, as it was their way of connecting themselves as they ate, it would comfort their soul. This is healing through my eyes. When they ate food, it reminded them of their homeland, it was a form of connecting with their roots, giving them the courage to continue in a new land. The table became the place to connect with their own cultural soul. This gave them the strength and courage to continue on their own journey in Australia’.

So, what’s at the crux of achieving healing through food and our relationship with it? Carmela suggests, ‘when we are in tune with our mind, body and spirit, it’s like a car that is travelling along the road with all its cylinders running smoothly. This is important for us, as food is our medicine. Eating food that is healthy only creates wellbeing. When we eat food that is nutritious, we will not have the clutter in our head, the fogginess in our brain. We get clarity. When we feel unwell, most of the time, it is our body showing us signs that we are not looking after ourselves. Our bodies are a temple and should be treated as such. It’s what we put into them that we become’.

Carmela tells me about the importance of eating with the seasons, as it’s a direct relationship between Mother Nature’s riches and our most basic primal need: sustenance. ‘The seasons teach us about our bodies, adapting our body to eating food that is seasonal is healthy. In Spring we want to eat food that is lighter, in Winter we want to eat food that preserves our energy levels, like thick soups, stews, and in Summer we love food that the universe gives us, like fresh stone fruit, green vegetables and fish’. This seems like simple enough advice, eat what’s in season, when it’s at its best. Sadly, the demands of today’s society and modern mentality make this near impossible. ‘From

my experience’, she explains, ‘we have become a nation where we want everything now, and then we complain that it has no taste! Of course, it doesn’t. It’s not its season. Some of us don’t want to adapt to life’s seasons.

We want everything now. Seasons teach us about time, patience and wellbeing’.

Carmela’s message stretches across cultures, and isn’t isolated to the Italian or Italian-Australian experience.

It’s about sharing love and cultural memory together over food. ‘The table is a place where we gather and share our news, the news of a new child, a wedding, an engagement, a love; it is our investment for the future of our families and our communities. When we have strong connections, our communities benefit from this’. And for those Italian-Australian families Carmela has a beautiful parting sentiment: ‘The richness of our heritage is not one to be forgotten. It’s up to us to continue with our rich roots into the future, giving hope to our children and strengthening our communities with our heritage. We are in a new era today, where once we were labelled for being ‘different’, today we are celebrated for being unique.

Sweet Moments Sicilian artisan desserts made in Melbourne just for you • cannoli • • • • • • •

cassatine pasta di mandorle crostoli kit cannoli macallé cassata torciglioni

0490 098 484 dolcimomentimelbourne dolcimomentimelbourne@gmail.com

7

Cantina Ferrari: a sparkling history of success The history of ‘Italy’s best champagne’ is also the history of Cantina Ferrari in the Northern city of Trento.

This company adventure started back in 1902 and has been paved with a number of remarkable stories of success. Two families, the Ferraris and the Lunellis, are entangled in an intriguing business relation that continues to produce outstanding results. Jesper Storgaard Jensen has been to Trento for Segmento to visit one of Italy’s most legendary cantinas.

The legendary Cantina Ferrarri

At the entrance of the Ferrari cantina, in Trento, North Italy, you’ll find a huge poster size image with a joyful couple that seems to be dancing. It’s all fun and laughter and unconcern … just as we all want life to be. Actually, you can almost sense the music in this contemporary image which shows a couple that is clearly part of the unworried so-called aperitivo generation. Well, perhaps you should say ‘sparkling’ aperitivo generation, because nowadays there should be no aperitivo without bollicine, bubbles.

The trend is clear. In recent years the Italians are falling more and more in love with the bollicine, sparkling wine, prosecco and champagne. The consumption has been steadily increasing in recent years. And so has the quality. And … speaking about quality, if you tend to want only the best, second to none, the king bubbles and all that … you should turn your eyes towards a particular brand that strange enough carries the same name as the king of cars: Ferrari.

The list of achievements and recognitions obtained by the Cantina Ferrari in Trento is starting to be quite long.

In 2017, at the yearly “Champagne&Sparkling Wine World Championships”, the Trento DOC Ferrari Perlé from 1971 was chosen as the world’s best sparkling wine. Last year the same Trento DOC Ferrari Perlé, vintage 2011, received a surprising 98/100 points from the famous Wine Advocate Magazine.

From one country to another Such a success, of course, doesn’t come from one day to another. In the case of Cantina Ferrari, in fact, it’s

anchored not only in the soil of Trentino but also in the history books where two different families seem to be entangled in one another in a surprisingly proficuous manner.

In 1895 a young man called Giulio Ferrari has just completed compulsory school in Trentino. After that he starts to attend the prestigious Agricultural High school San Michele where he has his first experiences of how to deal with the soil of the Trentino vineyards.

Here he studies and gets mud on his hands out in the fields … apparently a perfect combination when you want to learn about wine making.

These are just some of Giulio’s first steps in the wine world. However, it soon becomes clear that future important keywords in the Ferrari history will be ‘curiosity, new achievements and constant conquests.’

Giulio wants to know more, so in 1897 he takes off to France, to a specialized wine-school in Montpellier which he attends for three years.

After that Giulio, at the age of only 21 years, goes on to Germany, to the Rheinland where he, in Geisenheim, starts to attend the Botanisches Institut. Here, his studies are first and foremost concentrated on the fermentation of wines using the same methods that are used in the Champagne-district.

After Germany the young Giulio goes back to France, this time to the Epernay-district where some of France’s most prestigious champagnes are made. And again, working in the Pierlot cantina, he gets to know quite a number of secrets as regards soli, fermentation and production of champagne.

After a short period spent in Tunisia Giulio then

bubbles that are splashed into the face and mouth of the players are, of course, Ferrari.

The modern chapter of Ferrari consists of the third generation of the Lunelli family. In the second generation they were three brothers, while the third generation consists of three brothers and one sister, Marcello, Alessandro, Camilla and Matteo, with the latter as president.

In 2018 the turnover of the company increased to 100 mil. euro, and just recently Italy’s perhaps the most prestigious food and wine guide “Il Gambero Rosso” elected Cantina Ferrari to be the “Best Cantina in Italy in 2019”.

Quite a tempting hilltop

Marcello Lunelli

returns to his hometown Calcerranica in Trentino. The year is 1902, Giulio Ferrari is only 23-years-old, and a great story is about to begin.

The famous and mysterious wine cellar When you enter the Cantina Ferrari in the outskirts of Trento, quite rapidly you get a sense of history. The company is definitely modern and so are the production methods. But the history is somehow floating in the air. In the taste area various bottles of many different vintages are lined up, and you’ll receive explanations on production methods and peculiarities about the various wines. Crackers and different kinds of cheese, each with a different intensity of taste, are being served, to accompany the pleasant bubbles. It’s all balanced.

If you go one floor down, you’ll now find yourself in the famous and historic wine cellar, one of the most famous of its kind in the whole Italy. And also, here, in this slightly dark and ‘mysterious’ ambience, you’ll definitely sense not only history but also of the characteristic smell of wine must that comes from an impressing number of the approximately 24 million stored bottles.

Over the years, the wine cellar has become such an attraction that Ferrari now arranges guided tours through its corridors.

In fact, as you meander through the cellar’s dark corridors you are totally surrounded by bottles of many different vintages. It’s a magic atmosphere, and the magic increases when you once in a while hear a strange and mechanic sound. This happens when some the most prestigious wines, that can be stored for several years, are mechanically turned around to avoid that the yeast sticks to the inside of the bottle.

The Ferrari-chapter that regards storage is remarkable: during the Second World War Giulio Ferrari was quite worried about his production and his cantina in the middle of Trento. So, in order to protect his vintages from 1937-1939, in 1943 he decides to wall up the entrance of his wine cellar. No one could get access for a period of two years, and when he, in 1945, decides to reopen his cellar, he discovers that the quality of the wine, after two years of storage, has improved noticeably. Actually, the vintages from 1937-39 become his first production of riserva!

Into a bright future When Giulio starts his company in 1902 many people were sceptic. ‘It’s impossible to make champagne outside the Champagne area.’ This was how the classical sermon sounded like. But Giulio surprised them. He had an intuition: The Cabernet and Chardonnay-vines brought back to Italy from France would perfectly be able to adapt to Italian soil. And he was right.

Very slowly sceptics turned into enthusiasts! The production was modest (only some 2,000 bottles a year) but the quality was surprisingly good. But, of course,

not good … enough! Over the years, Giulio keeps on working on quality and in 1937 the first big and important recognition arrives in Paris, when this ‘Italian champagne’ receives the highest of all appreciations: “Diplome de Grand Prix” in the international champagne competition.

And this will be, as a matter of fact, only the first of a long line of prizes and recognitions to come over the years.

In the period between the two world wars Giulio Ferrari gets in contact with another wine entrepreneur, Bruno Lunelli. He has stated a huge activity in wine commerce. Their business relationship is interrupted by the Second World War, but right after the war they start to do business again. Time passes, however, and Giulio Ferrari doesn’t get any younger. His business increases by the year, and since he has no heirs, he ends up choosing Bruno Lunelli to whom he turns over his company in 1952.

Time has shown that this was a wise choice. Although Bruno Lunelli did not have a specific knowhow on wine making, he did have an extremely developed sense of business. He decides to keep the high quality of the product, but at the same time increase production, from only a couple of thousands on a yearly basis up to 20,000. And when Giulio passes away in 1965, at the age of 85 years, production has been boosted to an impressive 60,000 bottles a year.

Later on Bruno passes on the company to his three children Franco, Gino e Mauro. Meanwhile the popularity of the Ferrari is rapidly growing. Andy Warhol asks for Ferrari in a disco in Milan, former president Ciampi serves Ferrari to the British Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to Italy, and when Italy becomes world champion in football in 1982 the

So, it is quite clear that everything is done wholeheartedly in Cantina Ferrari. A proof of this is also the fact that the Lunelli-family has strived to couple the best Cantina Ferrari has to offer together with a superior food experience. For that reason, in 2007 the Locanda Margon-restaurant was opened. It’s sited on a hilltop in the outskirts of Trento where you have a beautiful view to the valley below and to parts of the city.

The turning point of the restaurant occurred in 2010, when the young talented chef, Alfio Ghezzi, was hired.

He used to be pupil of the legendary chef Gualtiero Marchesi, who was perhaps the person who ‘invented’ modern Italian cuisine. The skills and ambitions of

Labelling Ferraris’ bottles

Ghezzi immediately paid off, because only one year later, in 2011, Alfio conquers the first Michelin-star.

Then, in 2016, the second star arrives in the kitchen.

You can choose between two different mixed menus: Suggestione Bollicine where the food is carefully selected to accompany the most prestigious Ferrari wines, and Suggestione Terroir which is a culinary journey in what the soil of Trentino has to offer.

Yes, this hilltop might probably be one of the most tempting in the whole Trentino region.

From left: Alessandro, Marcello, Matteo and Camilla. Third generation of the Lunelli family.

A success story: blending Italian traditions with Italo-Australian business practices

Polenta was my childhood staple on Sundays… I have visions of my mother in her bib apron stirring the pot. Baccala’, or rather stoccafisso for the Veneti, was eaten at Easter and so this signalled celebrations and school holidays. This dish, now certified by the Consorzio, is specific to the skills and shared knowledge of all mamme venete… my nonna added cinnamon sticks, while my mother was more of a traditionalist.

John Hajek

Managing Director at Beretta Australia and Beretta New Zealand & President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Melbourne

Antipasto of Mullet bottarga Tagliolini with white truffle from Alba - Risotto with Castraure Homemade pappardelle with rigorously Italian porcini mushrooms - Spaghetti with clams - Sea bass in a salt crust Arrosticini d’Abruzzo with Olio santo - Grilled scampi - Mixed fried fish - Puntarelle alla romana, dressed with garlic, oil, vinegar and anchovies - Artichokes from the Jewish quarter in Rome - The Millefoglie! I’m not a great lover of sweets, but in the name of comprehensiveness, here I will make an exception.

With the step into the 21st century the Australian food landscape has become widely diverse, with this vast nation’s food industry also heavily influenced by foreign values and trends – particularly in the urban areas. Melbourne and Sydney, especially, are cities with a refined and blended food culture influenced by styles and traditions from Asia, South East Asia, India, Greece, etc. The Australian food industry is also to a large extent boosted by Italian migration and settlement; a steady process of culinary enrichment, colour and zest that began during the post-war period, when the first wave of Italians arrived on Australian shores. Today, Sydney/NSW and Melbourne/Victoria count on three important companies who specialise on particular foods and cater for the Australian market. These are “Arancini Art” (based in Epping, Melbourne) “Puopolo Artisan Salumi” (based in Laverton, Melbourne), and “Vannella Cheese” (operating from Sydney), which are all represented by “Food Art Distribution” as a main distributor in Victoria of these three important brands.

What do these individual companies focusing on the production of Italian food within and for the Australian market have in common?

Professor of Italian Studies Director, RUMACCC, University of Melbourne

National Festivals Director at Palace Cinema

a meal made up of 12 courses

polenta and crauti It would be preceded by an entree of chicken and vegetable broth with home-made egg noodles, and the main would then be followed by a nice serve of apple strudel. The polenta would be made in a large pot and then served directly on your plate. The crauti or sauerkraut would already have been cooking for hours on the stove with smoked pork and sausage. The egg noodles would dry for days in the dining room before being used, while the dough for the strudel would be kneaded and left to rise early in the morning, before being buttered and rolled with apple.

This is one of my favourite family meals. It’s simple hearty food and traditionally only involved ingredients a family grew on their farm: nothing was shop bought with everything instead made by hand at home.

Secretary General, Italian Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Queensland

baccalá alla vicentina

Luca Scribani Rossi

Mariangela Stagnitti

Founder at Italian Business Women’s Network Australia & President at Committee for Italians Abroad Owner at Borsato e Merriden P/L

Musician, Composer, Conductor

Mirko Guerrini

To take me back where everything started and the end becomes a new beginning.

“Arancini Art” “Puopolo Artisan Salumi” and “Vannella Cheese”

10

my mother’s breast milk

anything homemade by a Nonna!

Federica Marinatto

...with lots of celery, carrots and potatoes (and eventually also some sweet potatoes). In the Italian tradition, eating lentils at midnight on New Year’s Eve is supposed to bring you wealth all year long..... so, I never say ‘no’ to a nice lentil soup, NYE or else... you never know!

pasta with fried cauliflower My mother’s Sicilian recipe.

Has to be made by someone who knows what they are doing as this dish is simply unbeatable.

Caterina Borsato

Trade Commissioner at Italian Trade Agency in Sydney

Paola De Faveri

lentil soup

spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and freshly picked basil

ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor at Monash University

pesche ripiene A dessert one of my Nonne used to make. Delicious peaches cooked in the oven with a filling of cocoa and amaretti, and a bit of rum. Quite a mouthwatering way to wrap it up!

Fabio Capitanio

SBS Radio Journalist

Magica Fossati

Our choices count and define who we are, even if they are the last ones we make. Daniele Curto has posed the following question to some members of the Italian community: If you could choose, what would you have for your last meal?

Elysia Zeccola

To the last breath and bite

fettuccine with ragout

• They are proud of their Italian culture and heritage and passionate about introducing their food traditions to Australia; • They have a common business background and vision, outlook and strategy: all companies are founded

by Italian migrants to Australia, they all produce Italian food, and all three companies respect the traditional food-making process, with their aim to offer healthy, high quality food to the Australian market and its consumers; • They have shaped the Australian food industry and strongly influenced the introduction of new culinary habits within the broader multicultural Australian population.

This comparative study looks at how each company contributes to the growth of the Australian economy and also shapes and influences it, steeping Australia in Italian culinary traditions while at the same time stressing the importance of family and the collective, shared values and an appreciation of food also from an aesthetic and artistic point of view.

Jytte Holmqvist meets the CEO’s of the three companies

Bringing fresh cheese closer to you product, perception has changed and imported is not always better. For this reason, there is still some scope for locally-made Italian products and the demand is only increasing.

The only company of the three based in Sydney, “Vannella Cheese” originated in Conversano, Puglia, in 1983, and now collaborates with local Australian dairy farmers at Leppington Pastoral Company for cow’s milk and Shaw River for buffalo milk to create its tasty cheese. As highlighted by “Vannella Cheese” General Manager and second-generation cheesemaker Giuseppe Minoia, ‘our contribution to the Australian market comes from an insistence on only using fresh Australian milk for all our cheese by supporting the farmers and the farming communities’. Likewise, the “Vannella Cheese” company website declares, metaphorically and solidarically, that ‘We embraced Australia and Australia embraced us.’ According to Giuseppe, ‘the Australian economy benefits by keeping people employed in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. Italian food in Australia has never been stronger than it currently is.

Most importantly, though, consumers are now wanting Italian products that are grown and made locally rather than imported products. Whether it be dairy, smallgoods or any other artisanal

In addition to pointing out this important and interesting new ‘glocal’ trend, Giuseppe as a family member in the “Vannella Cheese” company also compares producers to educators. He argues that consumers are better informed, well-travelled and well-educated these days, understanding and appreciative of all the hard work that goes into producing artisanal products.

Mindful of this and that they are dealing with intelligent consumers that eat also with their eyes, Giuseppe sees it as his job to ‘inform them of the quality of locally made but also being able to trace the origin, which is not always easy to do with anything that is imported.’ In other words, Australian consumers and companies with an appreciation for art, artisanal products and foreign culinary heritage traditions mixed in with the Australian culture, increasingly embrace and welcome the presence of readily available Italian-made products that do not need to be imported. In this way extra costs are avoided and the food products can be savoured by consumers who will immediately be able to discern the freshness of nutritious products that are healthy and also attractive to look at – as is, most definitely, artisan cheese made the traditional way. As summarised by Giuseppe in a reflective statement that pays homage to the company’s comparatively humble Italian beginnings, ‘We have moved our lives around our cheeses; first to Cairns, to be close to the dairy herds, and later moving to the city, to bring the fresh cheese closer to you.’

”Vannella Cheese” is most definitely embraced by the Australian market, contributes to the local economy and food industry and is successfully moving into the global future. The company has secured a strong position on the market and collaborates well with local Australian farmers, perfectly blending local Australian dairy products with Italian traditions, designs and practices.

“Vannella Cheese” keeps the Italian heritage alive by producing stretched curd cheese, keeping to the same techniques and practices already developed in their native Italy but using local milk from Australia. That way the two cultures meet without either having to make compromises. Giuseppe concludes

PERFECTION BEHIND EVERY BATCH. 6152 R3 2020.01.28 VCA Vannella Ad for Italian Melbourne Magazine.indd 1

by stressing that ‘The heritage continues, and the Australian economy benefits by keeping everything local’. On the company website, skilled cheesemaker Giuseppe Minoia keeps the Italian tradition alive in an embedded video where he shows us the beauty of this craft, stressing that the company name pays homage to his mother with the same Vannella surname and that cheesemaking has always been ‘a lifelong affair’ for his father, who is entranced by this art. “Vannella Cheese” produces strictly quality-controlled ricotta, bocconcini, buffalo mozzarella, burratastyle cheese, etc., and offers a wide range of delicacies to their Australia-based customers. It is Giuseppe’s hope that ‘the public out there believes in what we do and embraces the way we make our cheese’.

VANNELLACHEESE.COM.AU

@VANNELLACHEESE

28/1/20 12:29 pm

11

An artistic creation incorporated into the Australian culinary DNA Who doesn’t love arancini? An artistic creation within themselves, these delicacies are the perfect accompaniment to greens and a salad but can also be readily enjoyed on their own. And who doesn’t know “Arancini Art” who counts as its faithful followers and clientele the Melbourne-wide market and community, with its many iconic restaurants respectful of Italian tastes and traditions and including these delicious creations on their eclectic menus? “Arancini Art” also supplies ‘renowned businesses across Australia’ and advises organisations nationwide to submit an enquiry online or request a visit from a sales representative. The company caters to nationwide food events, which reflects further business insight and an overall sense of cultural sensitivity and inclusiveness.

It all started in the mid-1990s when “Arancini Art” founder Riccardo Siligato opened an increasingly busy restaurant near the cinematically significant Fontana di Trevi in Rome (made even more famous by Roberto Rossellini in one of the most iconic, sensual scenes of 1960s classic La Dolce Vita, featuring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg and where Italian and international cinematography meet). By 2009 the Siligato family moved to Melbourne bringing their local Italian traditions with them. As soon as they arrived, they immediately saw the business potential in making and selling handcrafted arancini to Australian cafes and retailers.

Riccardo currently runs his company here in Melbourne with wife Josanne Rizzo and Massimo Minutoli - loyal friend and indispensable partner since 2016. They started without ostentation, very humbly, working hard and with the dedicated support of Adrian Lo Giudice from the Teren Group, lifetime friend and owner of the premises where they settled. The business has since experienced significant growth and it now counts as part of their staff professionals and hard-working employees who in a collaborative spirit have managed to keep up ‘the pace of the demand’ and market needs. This has also been achieved through new

cutting-edge equipment that, under the expert supervision of Gerry, Production Coordinator at “Arancini Art”, has helped increase production speed, quantity and quality consistency of products.

Commenting on the changes from past to present, Riccardo and Massimo say that the Australian market and economy have deeply changed in the last 10 years. ‘When we came here, a lot of Italian products, specialties and traditional meals were strictly confined to family habits, among them arancini.

Today you can find arancini nearly in any pub! They are not necessarily our arancini, but they are on the menu: they are part of the Australian culinary life-style.’

We can easily say that what happened is not just due to their efforts and activity, it’s more a combined effect of several factors, but still it’s worth more than a consideration.

As explained by the company owners, and to provide comparative insights, ‘in the last 10 years a second wave of Italian immigrants – in which Riccardo, Josanne and Massimo perfectly fit – arrived in Australia and started to bring fresh, renewed and more contemporary ideas from the Italian cuisine; not only the old recipes of nonna, but the new wave of the most updated Italian life-style. Think of the Aperol and Campari Spritz, the Italian aperitivo (quite different from the Anglo-Saxon happy hour), pizza made in the very traditional Italian way baked in a wood pizza oven, gnocchi and tortellini and many other things like arancini, olive ascolane and our polpette di melanzane.’

Flowing with the stream and somehow directing it, Arancini Art introduced a series of products other than arancini. They also started to import and distribute Italian quality food and ingredients through a new business arm called Food Art Distribution. Every product they make or distribute aims at simplifying the life of chefs from all nationalities to prepare properly done Italian dishes. More specifically, the company

mission with the combined offer of the two business units, is to ‘assist and support other businesses to enhance their productivity optimising their resources in terms of space, staff and time offering consistency in quality and prompt response whenever Italian food is concerned’.

From a different perspective, another amazing trend pushed by Italian habits is taking the scene: cooking at home. And here again, like Arancini Art and Food Art Distribution, many Italian companies are flourishing, helping those families that want to eat well but struggle with their cooking abilities and/or time.

Flattering the Australian market and its customers with their culinary skills and creations, “Arancini Art” serves both the local and wider community offering quality food with steadfast professionalism, exquisite attention, and a deep awareness of current trends and tastes. Always mindful of its own company mission and vision, “Arancini Art” not only loves what they do – as declared on the company website but seduces individual customers in Australia, businesses and the market as a whole into ‘loving that they do” and what they offer us, in turn. The company shapes and influences Australia by bringing fresh new and more contemporary ideas drawing from the Italian cuisine.

Leaving us with some famous last words while at the same reflecting on the future, “Arancini Art” and its company directors declare that ‘We believe that what “Segmento” is doing with this special issue of the magazine is great: it gives us pride for our efforts and gives people the opportunity to know more about the strong impact that the Italian cuisine – one of the healthiest in the world – is having on the Australian economy.’

Make your pizza the best in town with the best ingredients flour fresh yeast tomato sauce mozzarella salumi toppings olives il faggetto d foo

service & hospitali

ty

your business will fly with our products 12

ph. 03.9408.0499 contact@foodartdistribution.com.au www.foodartdistribution.com.au

Catering artisan salumi for increasingly health oriented consumers a small retail butcher shop selling fresh meat and hand-made smallgoods made by the brothers. They worked tirelessly to create a successful business by focusing on smallgoods for the Victoria’s foodservice industry. After Nick’s premature retirement, it was his sons, Vito and Michael, that have taken the reins of Puopolo Smallgoods. They both share the same passion for creating traditional Italian smallgoods using time-honoured recipes and artisan methods, the way they were created centuries ago. Because of this, they have expanded their business with their Puopolo Artisan Salumi label, which produces artisanal salami, dry cured meats, and cooked products like Mortadella and Prosciutto cotto.

With a main webpage featuring an exuberant meat display that brings to mind the vivid food paintings by 16th-century Renaissance painter Vincenzo Campi, hyperrealist Luigi Benedicenti, or Sicilian painter Renato Guttuso (or even a palatial scene from Gabriel Axel’s drama/romance movie Babette’s Feast, 1987) “Puopolo Artisan Salumi” offers meats that are a veritable feast to the eye. Focusing on ‘gourmet handcrafted salami and air-dried cured meats,’ this individual producer – like the other two, cheese and arancini-producing, companies also marketed and promoted by Food Art Distribution - has been around since 1978. It has since emerged as a new business unit under the same company name honouring family traditions and caters for ‘Melbourne’s best restaurants and delicatessens’.

A family-owned company that produces and distributes Australia-wide, ‘Puopolo Smallgoods’ is the brainchild of Vitangelo who in the 1960s emigrated to Australia and with that ‘brought with him centuries-old recipes, unique to southern Italy and the art of traditional food making’. In 1978, Nick Puopolo founded Puopolo Smallgoods located in Geelong, with his brother Chris later joining the business. Back then it was only

In a huge market of $4 billion that has been consistently growing for the last five years and it’s likely to see this positive trend to continue for the next five ones, the new business arm Puopolo Artisan Salumi is making a significant impact on the Victorian segment of gourmet food retailers and high end restaurants.

The new company directors Vito and Michael proudly emphasise that they not only support the local economy thanks to a strict purchase policy that gives exclusive priority to Australian farmers and producers, but work in such a fashion that they help increase the demand for traditional and artisan made Italian products. As a key point within their marketing strategy there is this idea to provide training to retailers educating them about the difference between industrial and handmade products. Giving the right information, producing healthy and high-quality products, teaching people about the differences in ingredients selection and natural aging methods compared to heat-treated products is a real help for setting good standards within the Australian market and shaping positively the culinary habits of the Australians.

Michael and Vito believe the Australian government, in turn, could do more to rely less on imported products and goods: ‘We believe that the Australian government should support the local manufacturing industry more. We can import know-how, technology and machinery, but importing a ready to be sold product made overseas with pork imported there from here

OK When business, family and joy come altogether

does not help reduce our impact on the environment’ hence why ‘producing locally is better for the economy, for the earth and for future generations’. To further demonstrate their commitment to producing locally, their Artisan Salumi range have a minimum of 98% Australian ingredients declared on their packaging.

Local production, add the owners, has raised quality levels by knowing exactly where raw materials come from such as pork and beef which are all primarily sourced from Victoria and processed in house. Therefore the quality of products made are on par, if not better than few products that are imported.

Importantly and by way of explanation, ‘In the smallgoods industry, import is very strict and limited. This is an additional reason why the quality of locally produced smallgoods must be higher and higher’.

In short, there is now an increased demand for healthy, high quality gourmet foods in Australia, with customers becoming increasingly health-oriented and discerning. In this climate of more conscious eating and food choices, the Italian food industry has carved out an important space for itself as a leader that knows what customers want and that is now also influencing other companies and enterprises. Catering for an increasingly diverse market here in Australia, “Puopolo Artisan Salumi” always protects and respects the Italian heritage and the Italian ways and traditions.

With this in mind and by way of conclusion, Vito and Michael, as representatives for “Puololo Artisan Salumi” today, stress that they are genuinely bringing into Australia the culture of new products (they are one of the few producing “Speck”, “Bresaola”, “Prosciutto Cotto”, and “Mortadella” the Italian way) and they teach consumers how to use, taste, enjoy them.

As an additional effort to enhance the legacy of their Italian heritage linked to an incredibly knowledge about the endless variety of Italian salumi, Vito and Michael have accepted to give their contribution featuring on Channel 31 with a series of 10 episodes from the Regional Italian Cuisine show ‘in which we will be describing the history and the origins of our most renowned products. We must remember that the production of some of the Italian salami and cured meats dates back at before the rise of the Roman Empire! We are talking of more than 3000 years ago when the Etrurians were living and flourishing in Tuscany.’

The ultimate aim of this important, environmentally aware Italian food company operating within an Australian market context is ‘to inform people and allow them to make better and healthier choices for themselves, their family and the planet.’

We create gourmet handcrafted salami and air-dried cured meats exclusively from Australian pork and beef

www.puopolo.com.au retail@puopolo.com.au (03) 9369 3977

13

Nine questions about your food habits Chefs Silvia Colloca, Giovanni Pilu & Stefano Pingue in conversation with Daniele Curto

Stefano Pingue Is the Head Chef at Garum, Perth What was your favourite food as a child and what is it now?

As a child I always loved mussels. Today I do tend to favour those foods and flavours that take me back to my childhood and offer that sense of nostalgia like fresh blackberries, bluberries and mushrooms.

The U.S News & World’s Report has classified the Mediterranean Diet as the best diet overall. Do you agree?

Yes, I do. I believe this is due to the great influence of so many different countries. Olive oil, fish, local meat, legumes, fresh fruit and vegetables make up the cornerstones of this diet, so it’s hard to beat.

Omnivorism, Vegetarianism, Beeganism, Pescatarianism, Fructarianism, Breatharianism, Veganism, Veganism before 6pm... the list goes on.

What type of diet do you follow? And why?

I do not follow a particular diet. I think it is important to eat a little bit of everything without overdoing it. I avoid unnecessary commercial products.

Giovanni Pilu Is the Executive Chef & Owner of Pilu at Freshwater, Sydney What was your favourite food as a child and what is it now?

As a child it was my mum’s lasagne and it still is today!

The U.S News & World’s Report has classified the Mediterranean Diet as the best diet overall. Do you agree?

Yes - it’s a very balanced way to eat, not difficult to achieve and is reliant on fresh, seasonal produce.

Omnivorism, Vegetarianism, Beeganism, Pescatarianism, Fructarianism, Breatharianism, Veganism, Veganism before 6pm... the list goes on.

What type of diet do you follow? And why?

I follow a balanced diet - nothing extreme - I guess you could call it Mediterranean.

What is your preference, wholemeal or refined white flour?

Wholemeal.

What is your preference, English breakfast or Cappuccino and Cornetto (Croissant)?

Depends where I am - in Australia English Breakfast but in Italy definitely cappuccino e cornetto.

What is the most unusual/strangest type of food you had ever eaten?

Cazu Marzu - Sardinian cheese with maggots!

What is the dish that you prepare and you believe is best?

Risotto.

What do you consider “your personal” super food?

Bottarga. Salted, cured fish roe, typically of the grey mullet.

If you could choose, what would you have for your “last” meal?

My wife’s pasta with meatballs.

14

What is your preference, wholemeal or refined white flour?

Wholemeal. Unfortunately, refined white flour is completely stripped of its nutrient value.

What is your preference, English breakfast or Cappuccino and Cornetto (Croissant)?

Will always be cappuccino and cornetto, I’m Italian!

However, I don’t dislike having an English breakfast tea every now and then for something different.

What is the most unusual/strangest type of food you had ever eaten?

Monkey and ants’ soup in Thailand; crocodile and kangaroo in Australia; the sperm of the sturgeon in Europe.

What is the dish that you prepare and you believe is best?

Florentine steak accompanied by Amarone della Valpollicella red wine.

What do you consider “your personal” super food?

Fruit and legumes.

If you could choose, what would you have for your “last” meal?

A panino called Michetta, a very typical dish from Milan with Prosciutto cotto.

Silvia Colloca Is the Food blogger at Silvia’s Cucina, Cook book author, TV Host, Writer for Delicious Australia and for Sunday Telegraph What was your favourite food as a child and what is it now?

My favourite food as a child was pizza! May favourite food now is pizza. And my favourite food in the future is going to be pizza.

The U.S News & World’s Report has classified the Mediterranean Diet as the best diet overall. Do you agree?

I agree 100%. I am a big advocate for following the Mediterranean diet; eat everything in moderation including fresh fruit and veggies and, of course, extravergin olive oil.

Omnivorism, Vegetarianism, Beeganism, Pescatarianism, Fructarianism, Breatharianism, Veganism, Veganism before 6pm... the list goes on.

What type of diet do you follow? And why?

I do not think I ever followed any diet. I simply eat well, try not skip meals. That’s does not mean to have a big meal every day; sometimes I am happy with just some tomatoes and extra-vergin olive oil.

What is your preference, wholemeal or refined white flour?

I prefer wholemeal, it’s got more texture, more flavour as the white flour just not have enough taste.

What is your preference, English breakfast or Cappuccino and Cornetto (Croissant)?

Cappuccino e cornetto, tutta la vita.

What is the most unusual/strangest type of food you had ever eaten?

It’s a Southeast Asia fruit called Durian. It is very smelly. Pretty full-on.

What is the dish that you prepare and you believe is best?

My meatballs make a lot of people happy.

What do you consider “your personal” super food?

Extra-Vergin Olive Oil. If you could choose, what would you have for your “last” meal?

Spaghetti with vongole. It ticks all the boxes: is got the saltiness, the texture, the heat from the garlic and chilli.

It is definitely my last-meal-scenario.

Making a mediterranean diet work down under Barbecued, stir-fried or roasted, there’s no doubt that Aussies love their meat.

Consuming on average nearly 100 kilograms of meat per person per year, Australians are among the top meat consumers worldwide.

But with statistics showing that most Australians suffer from a poor diet, and red meat production is adding to greenhouse-gas emissions, finding a balance between taste preferences, environmental protection, and health benefits is becoming critical.

Now, researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) can reveal that Aussies can have their health and eat meat too with a new version of the Mediterranean diet adapted for Australian palates.

The typical Mediterranean diet includes extra virgin olive oil, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, wholegrain breads, pastas and cereals, moderate consumption of fish and red wine, as well as low consumption of red meat, sweet and processed foods.

The new Mediterranean-Pork (MedPork) diet incorporates 2-3 serves (250g) of fresh lean pork each week, which delivers cognitive benefits, while also catering to Australian tastes, and ensuring much lower greenhouse-gas emissions than beef production.

This study compared the cognitive effects of people aged 45-80 years and at risk of cardiovascular disease following a Med-Pork or a low-fat diet (often prescribed to negate risk factors for cardiovascular disease), finding that the Med-Pork intervention outperformed the low-fat diet, delivering higher cognitive processing speeds and emotional functioning, both of which are markers of good mental health.

UniSA researcher Dr Alexandra Wade says the new Med-Pork diet will provide multiple benefits for everyday Australians.

‘The Mediterranean diet is widely accepted as the world’s healthiest diet and is renowned for delivering improved cardiovascular and cognitive health, but in Western cultures, the red

meat restrictions of the diet could make it hard for people to stick to,’ Dr Wade says.

‘By adding pork to the Mediterranean diet, we’re broadening the appeal of the diet, while also delivering improved cognitive function.

This bodes well for our aging population, where age-associated diseases, such as dementia, are on the rise.

Improving people’s processing speed shows the brain is working well. So, in Australia, the Med-Pork diet is an excellent lifestyle intervention where dementia is one of the leading causes of disability and the second leading cause of death.

‘Then, when you add the fact that pork production emits only a fraction of the greenhouse gases compared to beef, and the Med-Pork diet is really ticking all boxes – taste, health and environment.’

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2050, the number of people aged 60 years and older will outnumber children younger than five years old, bringing common

health concerns associated with ageing into the fore. Further WHO statistics shows that cardiovascular disease is the number 1 cause of death globally and that dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide.

Dr Wade says the Mediterranean diet with lean pork is an effective adaption of a successful eating plan.

‘Put simply, a Mediterranean diet encourages healthy eating. It’s a foodbased eating pattern that, with pork, still delivers significant health benefits,’ Dr Wade says.

‘We’re hoping that more people will find this dietary pattern to be more in line with their accustomed eating patterns and therefore more adoptable.

Making a Mediterranean Diet work down under is just one step in a bigger picture for better health.’

by Editorial Staff

Original Italian Porketta made in Melbourne

orke p s

tta

ye

WE SUPPLY FOOD SERVICES AND CONSUMERS

0424 929 smallgoods by868 Matteo YESPORKETTA.COM.AU

15

Caught with a finger in the Gorgonzola The North Italian Gorgonzola cheese can be traced back to the 9th Century. This creamy characterful cheese is one of Italy’s finest. And you’ll find plenty of elegance and taste in the Gorgonzola cheeses from the award-winning company Arrigoni, which has won numerous gold medals in international cheese competitions. Jesper Storgaard Jensen went for Segmento for a finger-licking visit.

‘The main concern for us gorgonzola producers is the welfare of our animals. Nothing is more important than this, not only for the animals themselves, but also because healthy, well-groomed animals will, quite simply, produce a higher volume and of higher quality milk.’

Gian Battista Arrigoni holds my gaze to make sure I’ve understood the concept. His old white pick-up van jerks back and forth on a bumpy road, just outside the small northern Italian town of Pagazzano, south of Bergamo, in Lombardy. We are on our way to the Arrigoni farm, which from the outside looks like any other of the thousands of small, non-industrial agricultural farms in this area.

But this one is different. Here something special is going on. In addition to ‘animal welfare’, another buzzword is ‘quality’. Gian Battista Arrigoni says it again and again ... la qualità. And in fact, the quality of the cows’ milk is so high that it constitutes the basis for Italy’s number one gorgonzola cheese. It is right here that you find Italy’s finest, mould-delicious titbit, capable of making any cheese lover ecstatic. As a matter of fact, several of Arrigoni’s gorgonzolas have won gold medals at international cheese competitions in recent years. We’ll get back to that later.

The “King’s Cheese” of Northern Italy The gorgonzola is known around the world. And if you ignore the Grana Padano, which is used like a parmesan cheese and produced in gigantic quantities in the regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Trentino Alto-Adige, then the gorgonzola is considered the most widely consumed cheese in Northern Italy. Today, production takes place in the areas around Milan, Como, Pavia, Bergamo and Novara, and the final product is so tasty and delicate that its nickname has become the “King’s Cheese” of Northern Italy’.

The gorgonzola cheese is one of the oldest blue mold cheeses in the world and its origins date back to the 9th century, ie. about the same time period when the French Roquefort was discovered. The history of the cheese’s origin relates to the transhumance, the seasonal change in grazing area that cows often pass through.

This means, even to this day, that the cows have to walk for long distances to reach new and more fertile fields.

When the transhumance took place in the past, a break were often held in the small town of Gorgonzola. The cows had gone for a long way and were tired, which would give their milk a higher fat content. And this was actually perfect for the production of the creamy cheese. Since it was milked at Gorgonzola, this, of course, should also be the name of the final product.

Perfect fodder and happy animals ‘The Arrigoni-family has been present here in the Bergamo-area since the mid-18th-Century’, says, showing me a family tree he just printed. He himself is the third generation in a business that started in 1914, when founder Battista Arrigoni returned to his Italian home region after a stay in Texas. From focusing on another North Italian cheese, Talleggio, for several decades, the shift occurred in the 1980s when focus was put on to the gorgonzola, which began to gain significant market potential. This decision was taken as a result of the establishment of the “Gorgonzola Consortium” in 1975. Today, the consortium has a total of 37 member companies producing the moldy cheese, which today is protected by EU’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) predicate.

16

Gian Battista takes me to the stables. His pride is big and his passion strong which I especially feel, when he speaks about the animals.

‘What you see here is a category of top cattle. Here we have about 400 cows. This is our eccellenza, ie the very best. The cows’ DNA is completely scheduled, and we in this way we are able to breed cows with a milk production that is perfect for the gorgonzola. Notice the small ribbon they have around their hoofs. Inside it there is a small computer that gives us any kind of information about the cow and its health. How much is has eaten etc. They eat three times a day and they are weighed three times a day, and through this small computer we are able to analyze the quality of the milk.

A cow that does not move and lose weight, is a problem, and we’ll need to intervene to provide a treatment’, he explains.

It almost seems that Gian Battista has a personal knowledge of each of the 400 cows. He then delves into an almost scientific explanation of how a US computer-controlled program analyzes the milk and makes a calculation of what types of crops, and in what quantities, must be put together to give the cows the optimal fodder mix. As he explains: ‘Only through animal welfare, a perfect fodder blend and technological know-how you’ll be able to create a topquality product’.

Seven different gorgonzolas The next day, at six in the morning, I meet another member of the Arrigoni family. His first name is Alberto, and he is responsible of the entire production apparatus and the fourth generation of the Arrigoni-family.

We are both wearing a semi-comical hair net, a thin hygiene suit as well as plastic bags around our shoes, as though we were heading towards a birthing room.

Hygiene measures are taken very seriously, and before entering into the production area, we need to wash our hands and shoe soles.

‘Here we make seven different types of gorgonzola, as the Rossini with marc from pressed grapes and Lucifero with chili. But also, the BerghemBlu Riserva which is our new Gold Medal cheese. Today the market mostly requires sweet gorgonzola which accounts for 95% of the entire consumption. The fact that we produce seven different kinds of gorgonzola means that we have differentiated ourselves in relation to the different markets,’ Alberto explains.

From a quantitative point of view Arrigoni’s production is not huge. Only nine employees are involved in the production cycle, from the milk enters until the final product is put onto trucks for distribution. Alberto takes me to a large tank full of milk. A few employees are in the process of adding the blue mold bacterial cultures, the substance that in the ripening process creates the blue-green shades of the gorgonzola and gives it the tasty flavor.

‘Here we add penicillium roqueforti, the ‘bacterium’ that gives color and flavor to the cheese. It has an incredible power. For every 3,000 liters of milk, just 50 ml of penicillium roqueforti is added. We have a daily production of about 700 entities of the round gorgonzola, which is significantly smaller compared to a typical industrial production, which often manages to reach a daily production level of four to five thousand pieces.

But obviously we are speaking about two different products from a quality point of view,’ Antonio says.

As we move from one hall to another, down through the production apparatus, the product becomes more and more complete. And finally, in the last big cold

Marco Arrigoni, Arrigoni CEO

storage room that we enter, before even the packing begins, I can finally feel the classical gorgonzola scent, coming from hundreds of piled up gorgonzola forms, which tickles my nostrils in such a pleasant way.

A finger in the gorgonzola The last stage of my visit is an interview with the Arrigoni-CEO, Marco Arrigoni, who once again underlines what I have already experienced, that ‘quality’ is the only thing that matters to Arrigoni.

‘There is a lot of competition on the gorgonzola market.

We only have a market share of 3%, so we have had to choose the most competitive market parameter, which is … la qualità. Fortunately, this choice has been reflected in the many international cheese competitions in which we have participated over the years,’ says Marco and looks at me in quite a proud manner.

And his proudness is perfectly understandable. For the past three years, at the annual World Cheese Awards, Arrigoni has been rewarded with the prize given to the world’s best gorgonzola cheese. In the latest edition, in October 2019, Arrigoni received a gold medal for the “BerghemBlu Riserva” cheese and another five medals, among more than 3,800 competing companies.

Today, the gorgonzola consortium’s marketing testimonial is the popular chef Antonio Cannavacciuolo, who is a judge in the Italian Masterchef-program and at the helm of the two Michelin-starred restaurant Villa Crespi. But years before him quite a sensational figure, former seven-times prime minister Giulio Andreotti, was photographed caught with a finger in the gorgonzola.

And … if you would get a chance to taste the world’s best gorgonzola, I bet you would do just as Andreotti once did!

From the rich soil of Tuscia to the Australian table

Etruscan Import is the first food operator that imports from one single area in Italy

‘We are really passionate about the area,’ says Natalie.

‘The idea for our business was born from our love of the area and our love of food.’

Also entrenched in the concept, is a long, ancient history, one that Simone is proud of.

‘Not many people know about the Etruscans, because they were invaded and completely destroyed by the Romans. They were a very advanced society in terms of food culture and the social status of women, but unfortunately we know very little about them.’

A stone’s throw from Rome and Tuscany, the province of Viterbo boasts three of the largest volcanic lakes in Europe. The ancient volcano complexes in the region also mean that the soil is incredibly rich in minerals, conducive to organic cultivation of olives, grapes and wheat. Etruscan Imports are giving Australian foodies the opportunity to discover this remarkable region through their products. Olive Oil, Wine, and Pasta made from the region’s wheat carry these precious minerals from the quality soil of the area.

‘What is really important to me, is that people understand that it is the soil that makes the product unique,’ says Simone.

‘It really is an incredible area that needs to be discovered,’ adds Natalie.

The couple are uniquely placed to shake up Melbourne’s Italian food scene, with a history in imports, marketing, and a deep understanding of the food culture in both Australia and Italy.

A glimpse of Viterbo’s area

Melbournians are spoiled for choice for Italian food, but for those concerned with provenance, quality and authenticity, there is something new on the menu.

Etruscan Imports is the brainchild of husband and wife team Simone Marini and Natalie Sarau, and the concept is bringing one of Italy’s best kept culinary secrets into Australia, the country the couple now call home.

‘The idea was born 2 or 3 years ago, and it came when we discovered that there is a real lack of knowledge about the area I come from in Italy,’ Simone says.

He comes from Cura di Vetralla in the province of Viterbo, a beautiful but seldom visited area of Lazio, corresponding to the ancient Etruscan civilization.

‘I’ve been living (in Australia) for 10 years, this is my country,’ says Simone. ‘When I finished Uni in Perugia, I followed by dream and came out to Australia. I’d always had this dream of a far away place with so many animals. I came with a Working Holiday Visa and I’m sill here today. Natalie and I met here in Australia 7 years ago.’

Of their love story Natalie says, ‘We met through food.

I happened to go to DOC for the first time, and Simone was working there. There’s a bit of a joke. We’ve got a lot of friends who have met and married at DOC! That was 7 years ago, and I think we’ve eaten and drunk our way around most of Europe since then. Now we have a one-year old baby, Julian. Simone wanted to name him ‘Francesco Totti’ but I put my foot down on that one!’

Estruscan Imports have started importing a few products already, including pasta, olive oil and

Natalie and Simone, Founders of Etruscan Imports

hazelnut spread, but Simone and Natalie have a few exciting new products up their sleeve as well.

‘We’ll increase the quantity as we go,’ says Simone, ‘for now we are most concerned with quality. No-one else is doing imports concentrated from one single area in Italy.’

‘People know about Puglia for Olive oil, Naples for Pasta, Chianti for wine, but we have all that in our region,’ Natalie adds. ‘The business is growing, but it’s growing organically which is really nice. Eventually the idea is to take Australian tourists to the area, and let Australians fully experience its beauty for themselves.’

Simone is determined to share his love and experience of his homeland with his new country. ‘We will be working closely with travel agencies and the tourism department of Viterbo. Hopefully in summer 2021 we’ll have the first group of Australian tourists visiting our region.’

by Hayley J. Egan

17

Pausa pranzo: the paninoteca that became a Melbournian institution It’s the quality that keeps them coming back. Panini at Pausa Pranzo are made with high quality ciabatta, a style of bread that is crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. Mauro is determined that all ingredients used are of the highest quality.

‘We use authentic prosciutto di Parma. We make our own polpette, and we are well-known for coffee too. We use Allpress. We did our research, because for us what is important is the standard. We want our products to be simple but good.’

Pausa Pranzo is about quality and authenticity, but Mauro is certainly open to compromise.

‘We try to be flexible,’ he says. ‘For example, we know Australians love their bacon and eggs, and I’ve come to love it too, so we give that a bit of a twist. Instead of a bacon and egg roll, we have pancetta and frittata on our breakfast panini.’

In general though, the idea is to stick with tradition.

Pausa Pranzo’s concept is focused on fresh panini made to order

When the world thinks of Italians at lunchtime, most of us picture a long table, a carafe of wine in the centre, multiple courses and a limoncello at the end just to really send us into a deep afternoon sleep. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But, according to Mauro Sanna from Pausa Pranzo in Preston, the stereotype is outdated.

Pausa Pranzo means ‘lunch break’. In the world’s major cities, including Rome and Milan, a lunch break is around half an hour, if you’re lucky.

‘When you are in a small town, if you have a break, you go home,’ says Mauro. ‘But in big cities, you don’t have time to go home. Life is changing, and the concept of the lunch break is really changing. Italy is becoming international. Going home, cooking, sitting down and going off to have a pennichella – that doesn’t work anymore. It’s an outdated idea.’

That’s not to say that Italians are willing to compromise on the deliciousness of their midday meal. Lunch should contain all the elements of the Mediterranean diet; high quality extra virgin olive oil, vegetables, perhaps some cheese or cured meats. To avoid the need for plates and Mauro e Diana partners in business and in life

cutlery, all of this is tucked into a crusty ciabatta.

‘Our focus is on freshly made-to-order Panini’, says Mauro, who, in his 8 years living in Melbourne, saw a gap in our celebrated food scene for a classic paninoteca.

‘We try to keep it more like the real Italy. We try to give our customers a little taste of what Italy is like, for example, we don’t have chicken. We do have ham, but we explain that we prefer to use prosciutto crudo. We try to educate our customers, not because there are any rules, but we just want to show them what we know.

We try to stick with what is Italian, and also what is regional. I’m from Sardinia and I’m proud of my culture and our food.’

This approach is working. What was once a tiny holein-the-wall paninoteca, a secret of the Italian community,

‘The business is inspired by my student days in Florence, where there are many tiny little places to grab something quick, made on the spot, from fresh, high quality ingredients. Tiny hole-in-the-wall shops, where you can even have a glass of wine on the spot.

Sometimes you’re standing up, or you might sit down just for a minute on a stool. That is what I wanted to replicate here. ‘ Pausa Pranzo began in just 30 square metres, on High St, Preston, near the train station amongst apartments and office buildings. It has recently expanded to include a seating area, which allows for mix of locals enjoying a coffee and the newspaper on their day off, and workers on their lunch break.

Pausa Pranzo also has a brand new kitchen, which will allow the chefs to offer a rotating selection of freshly made pasta options for lunch.

‘The kitchen will allow our chefs the opportunity to express their creativity,’ says Mauro. ‘We look forward to highlighting traditional dishes from our homeland, Sardinia.’

The new menu will commence in March. The focus remains however, on Panini and encouraging customers to get out of the office and take a short but enjoyable break ‘During the day, it’s all regular customers, and you start to get to know their faces,’ says Mauro. ‘They are people who become friends. The place where we are in Preston is growing a lot. It’s a new area, there are new apartments coming up and a lot of people buying their first home. Plus there are so many offices around, and shops on Bell Street. So many of our customers come in groups of four or five and they have their regular. They know they can be in and out in 20 minutes.’

has evolved into a culinary institution for Melbournians, that people from all backgrounds can step into daily for an immersive Italian experience.

‘Once a woman came into the shop and exclaimed “I have goosebumps! This is just like being in Italy!”’ says Mauro. ‘That was the biggest compliment a customer has given me.’

by Hayley J. Egan

At Sassy.x Asian cuisine influences Italian traditions If you’re eating in my restaurant, you must say hello, shake my hand, hug me.

should worry about. Before anything else, what you need to worry about is making sure that the team you pick are the same as what you are; they are positive, energetic, healthy and want to produce really good things and they work with love and passion, that’s it.

Love and passion is everything; if you can put that into whatever you do you’ll have a beautiful outcome.

Melbourne has a heavy presence of Italian restaurants.

How do you stand out from the rest?

My philosophy here was that I wanted to do something that was just a little bit different and open up an Italiantheme restaurant but create something different, inspired by my experience in South America and Asia.

My business partner is influenced by Asian cooking so my thought was that we could do Italian-style cooking with a modern touch but with old traditional recipes.

My grandfather was a chef so for me to still do pasta and sauce and cooking lamb and fish the way he taught me, the old-style way, is bringing that into the 21st century but also adding a little bit of Asian influence that creates a bit of a difference. This approach has inspired people and given us a good rating. People have really embrace it.

Ele reminds us not to forget ‘without being too biased, that Italians have done beautiful dishes for such a long time and the Asians have learnt a lot from the Italians and created their own style of cooking as well. It is now our time to learn from the Asians; creating a sense of Ying and Yang.’

You are of Calabrian background. Do any of your dishes specifically honour that part of Italy?

Yes, very close to my heart is the lasagne, and my gnocchi is the way I was taught by my grandfather.

And he mentions the Napoli and the ragù sauce: this is a very slow method of cooking but with fresh spices to enhance the flavour. I don’t put any sugar or any salts: I get the sugar and salt from the herbs and spices I put in. It is very organic.

What skills as a pastry chef do you draw from in your work running Sassy.x?

Why did you shift from the CBD to setting up business in West Melbourne?

Pastry Chef & Owner of Sassy.x Ele Troise

Sassy.x is a highly successful fusion-type restaurant - modern and funky but still steeped in traditional Italian culinary traditions, and where the range of panettoni ordered straight from Italy are a visual and sensorial delight. Popular sister restaurant Sassy Buns provides organic buns in a range of psychedelic colours where the inventive chef magically enhances the red in the beetroot, the green nuances of the chickpeas, and the Porky Pig burger on the menu caters for more traditional tastebuds while containing extra flavours: slow-cooked pulled pork, cabbage and apple slaw, coriander, chipotle aioli - all temptingly served in a charcoal bun.

What does food mean to you?

Enjoyment and laughter. Having a good time around food is what sitting around a table is all about: it’s as simple as a simple pasta.

Why the name Sassy.x?

‘Sassy’ can mean anything and that’s what we’re about; with our food and the type of people we are. Sassy can mean love, something inspiring, sassy can be passion, flavours can be anything so that’s what it’s about: enjoying, being happy. That’s being sassy!

Did you know when you set out that these would be such successful eateries and what is your recipe for success?

I had a loyal following in the CBD where I was for some 25 years. I thought it was time to move and take it to the next level. West Melbourne is very close to the CBD. It is a good spot to create something to the next level, it has a good skyline and attracts a range of customers.

As mentioned earlier, your rich and far-reaching career and background as a pastry chef has taken you to Latin America, South East Asia, and Europe. Do you adapt your menu to each market you operate in?

I think being a pastry chef is closer to my heart than cheffing because I am such a perfectionist. I bring the perfection required for making a cake into the cooking.

When I cook, I make it 100% correct.

Yes, but once again because I’m a person who likes to be a bit different I would still like to include little bits of other countries with dishes with different infusions, also for these markets to feel inspired.

If you could choose four plates from your eclectic menu, which would they be and why?

From first plates I’d say the way we do the kingfish; infused and curated by ourselves. The second plate would be my lasagne. The way we do the paella is amazing and customers say our steaks match the cuts they’ve had anywhere around the world. From sweets; well I am very simple so something like the tiramisu or the panna cotta; very simple and classical. I’ve always taught people that the things you think are the easiest to make are actually the hardest. It’s the flavours and the creaminess, whatever you get on the palate. The simplest things are the hardest. … and let’s not forget my homemade salamis.

Any famous last words for our readers?

Enjoy life, be happy, help people and talk to people to help yourself grow. Enjoy life: it’s too short. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got or not. Just enjoy it, you can’t take it with you so enjoy it!

by Jytte Holmqvist

I don’t believe there’s a recipe for success per se. I believe it’s within you. If you have the passion inside and you do things with passion and love and you’re positive and you know that things are going to work within that positive energy and that love, that’s all you

19

“Tasty news from the world” Street food and the cultural openness to unfamiliar flavours

by Giuseppe Santoro

Evolution

Arancini, olive all’ascolana, french fries. Then there’s hot dogs, turkey legs, falafel, kebab, tacos, burritos, empanadas and gyros. If the names in this glorious list are familiar to you, it means that you are a connoisseur and lover, let us imagine, of street food. ‘Street food’ (the English term used commonly today has also contributed to its acceptance) has become fashionable and one of many gastrominic trends, that for a decade now, has poured into areas outside of the culinary sphere - investing culture, communication, economy and politics. At the opposite end of the universe of ‘starred’ chefs and the inaccessible prices of degustation menus, street food is characterized instead by accessibility of consumption and price, ease of preparation, ease of use: forget tablecloths and napkins, refined and detailed menus, shiny cutlery and long presentations by the dining room staff. In the street you eat with your hands, you get dirty, the proximity to those who prepare is often a few tens of centimeters and the food selection points to strong recipes of a region or a part of it. Certainly, there are food festivals, grand events, and occasions to taste dishes from different backgrounds -

but the advice is, where possible, to try street food in its best form, in its country of origin, perhaps while on holiday. Flavours, aromas and the preparation will give it a different taste that will leave an impression on you.

History Despite the recent trend, street food actually has ancient and widespread origins. History buffs will certainly find interesting material reading the texts of the Greek and Roman authors (incidentally, pizza, street food par excellence, is nothing more than the evolution of a simple flat bread or focaccia that took the shape we know only after the advent of and diffusion of tomato), to all the others it will suffice to remember that among the poorest, the absence of a kitchen and the narrow size of early dwellings often made it impossible to cook at home, therefore it was easier and even necessary to buy econimical prepared food. Melbourne in this sense has much to teach us on the matter, with its Queen Victoria Market offering food carts and street vendors since 1860 - populating then and still today one of the largest areas of fast food service in the Southern Hemisphere.

Today things have changed slightly, and according to the definition offered by the the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) street food includes food and drinks sold and often also prepared in the street or in other public places (such as markets or fairs), at festivals, on vans or carts, a version of street food that has recently become slightly distorted with respect to its origins. Finding it fashionable they transform street food into an event rather than a mode of consumption, often bringing it all together in a single context or in a single event, untieding it from the territorial component that should remain fundamental. Starred chefs, seizing its popularity, offer a “street” version of some of their dishes, obviously at more competitive prices compared to those in the restaurants (and in a context certainly less formal), but still high and with a spirit different from that of the origins. The breadth of the food phenomenon, highlighted by the FAO statistics, is linked to other anthropological aspects, such as the important role played in human economy, as well as putting into play important cultural, identity and ethnic values. In fact, the foods consumed on the street are often local or regional specialties. In other cases, however, the foods do not have a particular cultural link with the territory in which they are offered, or, even if they have one in the past, they do not preserve it as it has now been lost as a result of their diffusion outside the areas of origin (as in the case of pizza and kebab). In some cases, however, the diffusion outside the original cultural boundaries, even broad, has not erased the connotations of ethnicity and identity.

Worldwide Worldwide consumption of food on the street generally makes it possible to eat more informally, more quickly, and more econimically than eating food in a restaurant or other place for that purpose; for this reason, this form of food is often preferred compared to more formal methods of consumption, so as to make it occupy an important place in human nutrition: FAO estimates that 2.5 billion people are fed in this way a day. Street food is part of the wider informal food sector, a sector which, in developing countries, represents one of the strategies adopted to provide for food needs. Some street foods fall into the category of finger food and fast food. In other cases, street food consumption is aimed at foods that, due to their low food and cultural value, are classified in the junk food category. Street food is closely linked to the phenomenon of takeaway food, and to other informal food consumption phenomena, such as snacks, fast food, and packed lunches.

The best way to taste street food is therefore to taste it in its infinite variations around the world: to have the courage to get away from the familiar and western tastes to experience (or at least observe!) decidedly unconventional dishes, such as: crocodile and kangaroo (Australia), roasted guinea pig (Peru and Argentina), grasshoppers, tarantulas and crickets, offered on skewers on display in carts (Burma, China, Vietnam, Cambodia), sweet pancakes dipped in caramelised sugar (India), small buns stuffed with vegetables, meat, rice and spices and deep fried (from South America to the Far East: the principle is the same, though the names change), bundles stuffed with steamed meat and vegetables, pork rind fried and sold as a snack on the run ... The list goes on and on and the variants have not only a national dimension, but also regional and urban ones. Raw materials and knowledge, ingredients and experience, in addition to an almost hereditary dexterity are what makes the long list of street food worthy of being tasted and worthily compete with the finest kitchens. The keys here are curiosity, the absence of prejudice and cultural openness, which bring those who eat and those who cook (and chefs of all levels, even the stars, have well understood the lesson) to want to know and not stop at familiar flavors.