Parmigiano Reggiano has won the first prize in an ideal “contest among giants”, featuring Made-in-Italy culinary excellences. This is the result of a contest sponsored by the website I Love Italian Food, a non-profit organisation founded in 2013 with the mission of defending and disseminating the culture of quality Italian food among over 700 thousand Italian food enthusiasts worldwide.
Asked to choose the icons of Italian cuisine from a list of typical products and recipes of our country, the visitors of the website made their choice. The web-based consultation, held in November, elected Parmigiano Reggiano with 20% of the overall vote. Completing the podium, in order of merit, were pasta and Parma ham. Followed by extra-virgin olive oil and pizza. And there were a few surprises. For example, two symbols of Italianness, such as cappuccino and tomato puree, didn’t even make the top ten.
And the initiative doesn’t stop there: the 12 most voted products and recipes will be included in the project: “2015: a 100% Italian Year”. Bringing the best out of them will be as many maestros of Italian cuisine, including Heinz Beck, Cristina Bowerman, Moreno Cedroni and Antonella Ricci. Each I Love Italian Food chef will be asked to interpret, in the form of a recipe, a symbolic product, giving rise to the visual of a non-profit communications campaign to promote Italian culinary excellences worldwide.
“This contest has shown us which are the true ambassadors of made-in-Italy taste abroad. And also which treasures of our cuisine need to be promoted since they still are struggling to enter the hearts of foreign foodies – said Alessandro Schiatti, founder of I Love Italian Food -. We are convinced that food represents the true oil of Italy, an important driver for our economy. This motivates us every day to disseminate and defend the culture and values of the Italian agrifood system”.
The campaign “2015: a 100% Italian Year” will also accompany the I Love Italian Food project, “100% Italian”, that aims to present to foreigners our products, traditional recipes and companies that today are involved in producing food with a 100% Italian supply chain. The project will be officially launched in January 2015.
