Conviviality, sustainability and innovation: the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World is back
If the soul of ALMA is Italian, with deep roots in the Food Valley, the School has an international vocation thanks to partnerships with the most authoritative training centers in the world dedicated to cuisine. The result is a network that involves more than twenty countries located on different continents. By collaborating with these Schools, ALMA organizes tailor-made courses and teaches international chefs to become ambassadors in the world of true Italian cuisine and made-in-Italy products.
In this worldwide perspective, the annual government-mandated event of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, sees ALMA supporting Italian Trade Association (ITA) with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation with workshops and showcooking around the world to promote Italian identity at the table, with one goal: to spread Made-in-Italy, Italian style and its agri-food heritage.
ALMA joins the project once again this year with a series of events and initiatives in 10 countries: Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia, USA and Thailand.
ALMA events
A competition to enhance the passion and talent of young up-and-comers in the world of catering: ALMA, in collaboration with ICE-Agency for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian companies in Chile, will offer 5 students from culinary schools in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Peru a high-level training course during which they will be able to learn about Italian food and wine culture and learn techniques and secrets of our cuisine. 3 weeks of theoretical and practical lessons, educational outings to discover territories, producers and local specialties, followed by 2 months of internship at prestigious restaurants.
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GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE
A partnership that has lasted for nearly two decades, that over time has trained young talents in world catering and offered dozens of aspiring chefs an international vision of cuisine. ALMA and George Brown College, two schools at the ends of the world that have been able to find in the culinary and cultural differences of their respective territories the reason to synergistically unite their educational paths and create tailor-made programs that could complete the training of Canadian students with a graft of Italian-ness. Thanks to this intent, there are now dozens and dozens of GBC students hosted by ALMA within a course focused on products, techniques and typicality of our gastronomic culture.
Today, this partnership continues and is renewed, and the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World is an opportunity to lay new foundations for future work.
The meetings has been enhanced by two events dedicated to Italian cuisine:
- The Cooking show by Chef Ruben Rapetti: An ALMA graduate, after joining the brigades of large establishments such as the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto and after assignments as corporate executive chef of large restaurant groups, he is now Multi Unit Executive Chef of the Terroni Group
- The aperitif made by Terroni Group: born in 1992 out of a small store of Italian immigrants in Toronto with the dream of bringing a bit of their land to Canadian culture and tables, Terroni Group is now an international reality, with locations all over the world, exporting Italian products, both in its various outlets and online, and has long since successfully entered the world of catering as well.
INSTITUT DE TOURISME ET D’HÔTELLERIE DU QUÉBEC
ALMA has been be present at the celebrations for the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, togheter with a special Cooking show made by Ruben Rapetti, an ALMA graduate, today Multi Unit Executive Chef of the Terroni Group.
Watch the video Reel
VANCOUVER COMMUNITY COLLEGE
A new partnership between Vancouver Community College (VCC) and ALMA, a memorandum of understanding to promote the education and culture of Italian cuisine, is the result of the events organized in the occasion of WICW.
The partnership signing also coincided with a competition on ”How to make a perfect Italian risotto”: some students from VCC’s Culinary Arts program had one hour to reproduce the beloved Italian rice dish, after seeing a video demonstration from ALMA ambassador, Chef Carlo-Maria Ricci. The winner, Kalvin Frid, received a scholarship to attend ALMA’s Italian Culinary Program Unit II program, valued at 15000 EUR ($20,000 CDN).
An italian aperitivo and a gala dinner, both with the aim of involving local and international institutions in the promotion of Italian Cuisine and products, had as their location Villa Italia, the residence of the Italian ambassador in Addis Ababa, and featured ALMA Chefs Alessandra Rubini and Daniela Antoniotti as banqueters. Two moments attended by representatives of local companies and communities, Ethiopian and international institutions, such as ICE, and some of the country’s exporters.
The event has represented an opportunity for ALMA to visit restaurateurs in the capital city in order to identify possible partners for some training courses that will take place at the beginning of the year, again as part of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, although in a later time location.
The ICE Agency in Ljubljana, in coordination with the Embassy of Italy in Slovenia, organized the second edition of the Competition for Slovenian students of hôtellerie and gastronomy. The students, pre-selected by the BIC-Biotechnical Educational Center in Ljubljana among the best elements, competed, facing each other on the preparation of an Italian dish, to win a two-month course at ALMA.
At the school’s teaching restaurant, Kult, the students created a surprise dish, illustrated by ALMA’s Chef Paco Zanobini – assisted by Sous Chef Elena Minari. They were judged by a technical jury consisting of Ambassador Carlo Campanile, Chef Zanobini, Chef Andrej Molk, B.I.C. culinary lecturer, Dada Jerovšek of Kaval Group, Urška Petelin, editor of Dober Tek magazine, and Candida D’Elia, ALMA External Relations Manager, who evaluated the contestants on a number of criteria such as presentation, creativity, taste and structure of the dish, and technique. The winner was Neli Policnik, whose risotto was unanimously judged a perfect risotto all’onda, balanced and well executed.
The event was an opportunity for ALMA to present to a large group of B.I.C. students the Climate Smart Chefs project, which garnered great interest and enthusiasm, but above all to seal the renewal of the agreement between ALMA and B.I.C. After the introductory speech by Ambassador Campanile, who emphasized the value of the synergy between institutions and private individuals and the strategic importance of renewing this collaboration, B.I.C. Director Jasna Kržin Stepišnik and Candida D’Elia, External Relations Manager of ALMA officially signed the MOU.
The day ended with a Gala Dinner at the Ambassador’s residence.
Chef Antonio De Ieso of Fiorentini Restaurant in Rutherford, New Jersey, will be the protagonist of the cooking show dedicated to Italian cuisine and its typicalities, which will be held at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, the institute of higher education with which ALMA has long had collaborative relationships by virtue of common educational, training and cultural visions.
Antonio De Iseo, founder with his wife Brenda of Ristorante Fiorentini in New York, arrived in the Big Apple from his native Florence in 2012. Here, after working in restaurants of recognized prestige such as Le Cirque, Sea Grill at Rockefeller Center and the Metropolitan Opera, he begins this new adventure, a world in which he embraces Italian cuisine and sustainability.
The lecture was introduced by a speech from Federico Tozzi, Director of the Italian American Chamber of Commerce, and a video message from an ALMA Diplomate, Kevin Keating, who trained in both the Italian Culinary Program and the Modern Baking Course and is now responsible for the entire baking segment of Eataly North America.
His menu, during the showcooking, consisted of:
- Spaghetto Carbonara
- Tortello di Carbonara, guanciale powder, Pecorino fondue
- Venison sirloin, chestnut cake, brussels sprouts, black garlic, mustard sauce
It has been a week of great excitement in Thailand. Already enlivened by master classes and one-on-one courses that are “warming up” the school before the start of training courses that will start in early 2023, The Food School opened its doors during SCIM to guests and institutions.
Moreno Cedroni and Mariella Organi, both patron and, respectively, Chef and Maitre of the Madonnina del Pescatore in Senigallia, were guests of the School’s board who took them on a tour of the premises and laboratories. They also met ALMA Chefs, now settled at TFS for months, Francesco De Rosa, Martina Sabbioni and Enrico Nativi. The majesty and modernity of the structure, the ambition of the project as a whole and the enthusiasm of the staff involved in its realization positively impressed the guests, who found on Floor 3, the area managed by ALMA, the same atmosphere and energy they have so often encountered in the Parma headquarters.
Italian food and wines, on the other hand, were the protagonists of the masterclasses that involved Chef Martina Sabbioni and a number of local sommeliers, celebrating our country’s typical products and telling the Thai public about them. In fact, the cooking shows were not only held live inside The Food School for a selected audience of spectators, but were also streamed at EmQuartier, one of the most prestigious and fashionable malls in the capital.
Finally, although not directly part of the events on the calendar for the celebration of WITW, the visit of the new Italian ambassador to Bangkok, Paolo Dionisi: an appointment with institutional contours, as it was the first official visit to the educational hub after the handover with former ambassador Lorenzo Galanti.
