Party in Vico 2024 between food and “feelings” (also) with us – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

«Festa a Vico is one of those places where anyone who loves food or works in the food world should go sooner or later. I have always thought this and when, two days ago, the maître d’ of a starred restaurant told me this phrase, I had the confirmation that even the professionals are convinced of it. Because the three days dedicated to gastronomy, meetings and charity organized every year by Gennaro Esposito, two Michelin stars at the Torre del Saracino in Vico Equenseis always everyone’s party: a meeting of pop and top, of popular and gourmet food, of traditional products and great novelties, to be discovered in the square, in the streets and in the great restaurants, simultaneously contributing to the many noble causes of which chef Esposito has always acts as a spokesperson.

Festa a Vico, the “feeling” edition

This year, the 21st edition, the appointment is from 10 to 12 June with the evocative title There is feeling and a program capable of embracing every nuance of food and that universal emotion that it is able to evoke. «Because where everything makes sense there is feeling to put it in the words of Pino Daniele.

Party in Vico e The Italian kitchen

Sentiment, therefore, but also a lot of concreteness, because Festa a Vico generates large numbers: this year 50 thousand attendees are expected, over 300 Italian and foreign chefs and more than 100 thousand food and wine delicacies. Among the news there is one that concerns us: this year we will also be there, in one of the most anticipated events.

Together with chef Gennaro Esposito, The Italian kitchen has thought of a new format for the traditional Festa a Vico gala dinner: a dinner with a title Bites of Italy, the celebration of Italian cuisine to support the candidacy of “Italian cuisine between sustainability and biocultural diversity” as a UNESCO intangible heritage promoted by our magazine. It will be an evening with a parterre of international chefs who will compete with Italian ingredients to propose dishes never proposed before. Among foreigners, for example, Narda Lepesbest female chef in Latin America in 2020 according to the international ranking 50 Best Restaurants; and then Christophe Peleexecutive chef Le Clarence Parigi (two Michelin Stars), Katsu Nakaji, two stars at Hatsune Sushi in Tokyo, and Antonio Iacoviello, head chef of Gucci Osteria in Tokyo (one Michelin star). Among the many Italians, Pino Cuttaia, two Michelin stars at La Madia (Licata) and the brothers Chicco and Bobo Cerea, three Michelin stars with Da Vittorio in Brusaporto (Bergamo) and seven overall in their restaurants around the world. A dinner for 240 people of which the entire proceeds will go to charities that operate at a local level, in the province of Naples and Campania, and nationally, such as the Umberto Veronesi Foundation.

The Festa a Vico program

The tastings of the dishes that chefs from all over Italy will create on 11 June, on the day dedicated to Republic of Food, among the streets, gardens, buildings and shops of Vico, which will be transformed into an open-air restaurant. Finally, on June 12th there will be the traditional one Sejanus Way in the fishing village where Gennaro Esposito’s Torre del Saracino restaurant is also located, which will transform into a haute cuisine experimentation hub with events dedicated to professionals bringing together young and promising chefs and sommeliers among the most appreciated in the world.

Last but not least, on each of the three days there will be parties, workshops, dances, songs, concerts and shows everywhere. All this in one of the most beautiful places in the world: la Sorrento Coast. In short, if you were looking for an idea to get started, here it is.

For the entire program, and to book places for the various events (including our dinner), click on www.festavico.com

A vegetarian delight for the palate: savory strudel – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Like any good self-respecting puff pastry dessert, strudel also has its savory version. This is a recipe that combines flavors and textures in a surprising way. The vegetarian strudel with vegetables and sweet and sour sauce it is a dish that stands out for its simplicity and elegance, perfect for enriching your table with taste and health. In this culinary proposal, we will explore together the irresistible combination between crunchy vegetables and the delicate browseaccompanied by a sweet and sour sauce which adds a touch of liveliness to the dish, thus creating a memorable and satisfying dining experience for you and your diners.

Influencer farmers and digital agriculture – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Influencer farmers who prune branches and plant turnips, digital shepherds who milk the goats. Influencers who show off luxurious homes and seemingly glossy lives spent without working have lost their appeal. While content creators who live in the countryside and in the mountains gain more and more popularity, they get their hands dirty and talk about ancient knowledge that we have forgotten in the cities.

The break between city and countryside

Since the nineteenth century and with industrialization, millions of Italians have escaped poverty. From isolation to small urban centres, from the countryside to the cities, from the South to the North, from Italy to the Americas, millions of people moved house and this was a global phenomenon which at different times affected Europe and then the rest of the world. From a rural society we became an industrial economy in the space of a few decades, and then evolved into the tertiary sector. At the beginning of the twentieth century, agricultural workers still represented 60%, today they are around 1 million. In Italy there are 62 million of us, and 51 live in urban areas. We are Marcovaldo’s army, citizens in spite of themselves who have forgotten what nature is and who risk picking “mushrooms, real mushrooms, which were sprouting right in the heart of the city” from a flowerbed. Poisonous. We have lost contact with the rhythms of the seasons, wild animals, the woods, but also with agriculture, so much so that we look at the hills of the Langhe vineyards or tidy fields of sunflowers and call it Nature. We know a lot – almost everything – about how the food we eat is produced and what happens in a tomato field or on a dairy farm. The cheese arrives in the city ready, portioned, the vegetables in boxes, the fruit selected and polished. And so it becomes increasingly difficult to give a value to the food we eat, learning how it is made and how we want to invest our money.

A not very bucolic countryside

From the city, the campaign appears bucolic as in advertising, as in the memories of grandparents of bygone eras, or as frightening as a journalistic investigation on Reports. But thanks to the media, a new movement of peasant influencers, farmers, shepherds and cheesemakers is coming forward who have decided to use social networks and not only to stay and know what is happening “downstream”, but to tell their own story. first-person reality. Waking up at dawn, milking the cows, spending the summer in the pasture, sowing, fishing, harvesting. It is a flourishing of “old” professions that have found a new way to tell their story and enhance themselves. Ultimately, it is not clear why make-up and skincare enthusiasts can spend hours applying make-up on TikTok and a boy of the same age could not use Instagram to talk about a sheep transhumance, bringing their peers closer to a reality that, statistically, is unlikely they know.

A path (also) to economic sustainability

Digital communication through the use of social media is part of our lives, whatever work we do, but it is also clear that in addition to the desire to talk about ourselves, the use of tools such as social networks is a way to advertise, to raise awareness its services, but also to give added value to a sector that needs it to be economically sustainable. To escape the logic of intensive agriculture and livestock farming, truly understanding the work behind a wheel of cheese or a radicchio from the garden. Of course, the cross-section of these new influencers does not tell of the vast majority of what we find on the supermarket shelves, but of small realities, which perhaps we should stop calling excellence and which instead we should consider a new standard of life for them, for us of consumption.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes

Party in Vico 2024 between food and “feelings” (also) with us – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Festa a Vico, the “feeling” edition

Party in Vico e The Italian kitchen

The Festa a Vico program

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A vegetarian delight for the palate: savory strudel – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay