There will be cooking, of course, but combined with themes such as sustainability, health and solidarity at the table: to (re)confirm that food is much more than simply something to eat, the program of the eighth edition of «Italian cuisine in the world»the annual thematic review dedicated to the promotion of quality Italian cuisine and agri-food products, with many events organized all over the world to tell the story of our great culinary tradition, recently also nominated as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage Site.
Our dishes, our gastronomic philosophy, our chefs will be the protagonists from 13 to 19 November of appointments in all the offices of the Italian consulates and embassies of the United States of America, including a prestigious dinner organized by the Italian ambassador in Washington Mariangela Zappia, which invited seventy-five select guests from America’s political elite. In the past, great names of Italian cuisine have cooked for its guests: Massimo Bottura, Carlo Cracco, the Cerea family. This year, for an edition dedicated to sustainability, the choice fell on a less high-sounding name but strongly representative of Italian excellence in the field of sustainability in the kitchen. It’s about Stefano Pinciarolichef of PS Restaurant, Cerreto Guidi restaurant in Tuscany, Michelin green star and part of the ambitious sustainability project Villa Petriolo, which just a year ago received a GSTC certification as the first totally sustainable agritourism in the world.
The menu designed for the embassy’s gala dinner includes some of the chef’s signature dishes such as Fregola with lamb ragout, fresh goat cheese, pomegranate and thyme and the revisitation of Caterina de’ Medici’s historic recipe Duck with apple orange, duck breast, apple cream in oil, orange powder and stewed spring onion. «What we passionately promote every day in the United States is Italy, a leader in sustainability, an Italy that combines tradition and innovation in harmony in all sectors», said Ambassador Zappia. «Ours is a diplomacy of growth and culture, a symbol of Italianness».
Chef Pinciaroli, how does it feel to be an ambassador of Italian cuisine, at a moment that seems to be crucial, with the candidacy for Unesco Heritage?
«Very honored and at the same time aware of this stimulating responsibility. It is a recognition for all those who work in the world of cooking and good food in general. All of us who do this job are ambassadors of our culinary culture every day: often it is the world that comes to visit us, while this time, with enormous pleasure, it is us who talk about our country far from home.”
How do you bring Italian cuisine to the world?
«With pride, joy, awareness: the pride of representing not only yourself, not only your restaurant, but your entire country. The joy of travelling, learning and doing what you love to tell your country to other cultures. The awareness of the great responsibility that all this entails.”
What added value can it give to the international scene?
«The synergistic action of our thousand-year-old tradition and the uniqueness of the all-Italian creativity, imagination and taste that the world recognizes in us».
How is Italian style in the kitchen evolving over the years?
«I see the openness and desire to explore that has always characterized my work and that of my colleagues, but with one foot firmly at home, perhaps in this period more than in others».
How much does tradition still matter, and how much is a new concept of Italian cuisine making its way?
«In my opinion still very much so, if tradition wasn’t well rooted in every chef it would be impossible to create new concepts and new ideas. It is our new creations that make people talk about a new creative and innovative concept, but this only happens thanks to the solid foundations of tradition that we all have within us.”
How important is sustainability in the kitchen?
«For us a lot. Since the birth of PS in 2010, with Lorenzo (my partner and restaurant manager), we have focused on the development of a network of small local producers, to enhance a concept of territoriality in a fine dining context. In those years the value of sustainability and “territorial fine dining” were not so widespread, but for us the principle of proximity in sourcing raw materials was already central, like the challenge of doing fine dining in a small provincial village.”
What should we do in Italy to achieve a more sustainable cuisine?
«Having the courage to go in that direction, persuading yourself that it is not a commercial trend that will pass, but rather a moral ethical imperative of life and business management. Our chefs are creative and excellent entrepreneurs: if they convince themselves that being sustainable is in no way a limit, but an area of new inspiration, there won’t be much else to do.”
What do you specifically do at PS Ristorante in this sense, so much so that you have obtained the green star?
«We have embraced the principle of proximity, so we use first of all what we produce ourselves in the countryside at Villa Petriolo: different types of ancient grain flours, vegetables, fruit, meat from our goats, sheep and Cinta Senese pigs, legumes , wines, oil, beer. The rest comes from other farms in our area. The fish comes from sustainable fishing and only from our Tyrrhenian Sea. All our staff is also local, our collaborators live within a narrow radius of fifteen km maximum, and are continuously trained on the value of sustainability and the behaviors to adopt to achieve it. We have a virtuous regime of water that we purify and reuse for watering, we only use energy from renewable sources even when our photovoltaic and solar thermal panels are not sufficient. We work daily to optimize processes and minimize waste.”
Source: Vanity Fair
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