Press release-cooking and wine courses in Asti Piedmont

THE FIRST COURSES OF THE INTERNATIONAL PROJECT ICE FOR SCANDINAVIAN CHEFS AND SOMMELIERS ARE CONCLUDED

On Tuesday 19 April, 26 Chefs and sommeliers, in the presence of Regional authorities and ICE, received at the historic ICIF head office at the Castle of Castiglione d'Asti, the highly prized certificate of specialization in wine and cuisine of the Italian regions. The project promoted by ICE (the Institute for Foreign Trade), called "The real flavors and cultures of the Italian regions", is a collaboration between five regions: Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Tuscany and Piedmont.

The program carried out by Scandinavian professionals consists of two phases: theoretical and practical training in the laboratories of the castle and visits to production companies of the 5 regions involved. The operators visited some productions of Italian excellence and understood the importance of their nutritional value and their use in Italian cuisine, which makes it so unique and inimitable.

The Sommeliers, in the charming enoteca of the castle, attended a training course on enology of the 5 regions, matching food with wine and increasing their knowledge of the factories with visits to wineries in the territories involved.

In June, these courses will be held again with 30 other Scandinavian professionals chosen by the ICE office in Scandinavia.

The project will end in autumn, with 4 cooking shows, called Region's Day, aimed at the general public, importers and distributors of the 4 countries involved: Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Among the participant’s comments we can mention:

- Rose Hall Burgay, the Danish chef who also writes articles on local food and wine magazine. She indicates that her goal in participating in this course was to learn the culinary peculiarities of different Italian regions, learning how to use herbs and spices that create the magic of Mediterranean flavor. She said to have fully achieved her goal.

- Ylva Grip Röst the Swedish teacher of the Bastad Aakademi praised the choice of the learning program that included not only practical cooking lessons, but also demonstrations and tastings of regional recipes made by the chef instructor, who focused on merchandise aspects of the basic ingredients of Italian cuisine, which were supported by visits in the major production areas of the 5 regions involved in the project. The teacher is grateful to ICE that gave her this great educational opportunity.

-Jakobus Spillekom, Norwegian teacher said "I was impressed and excited about the professionalism of the Italian producers, who put the passion in carrying out their work, their words gave us the spirit of sacrifice and pride for the products of their land."

-Aki Summanen, Finnish sommelier of the restaurant "Chez Dominique” in Helsinki refers to the methodology used during the various tests of matching food and wine and graphical display of organoleptic sensations derived from these. He said that he found it very interesting and that he never found anything similar in Finnish schools for sommeliers.

Press Office ICIF 19 April 2011

Published 8 Jun 11