Tag: Campania

Gennaro Esposito opens a cooking school for “special” kids – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

In the new kitchen of Casa Mehari there is everything: it is like that of a restaurant, with all the necessary and safe equipment for the kids to work with, alongside professionals who will guide them with courses designed for starters. They will give lessons on pbaking, pastry making as well as actual cooking, but also dining. «Seeing the enthusiasm for all these new tools was exciting. We’re giving him a push, we’re telling him “you put yours, we give you the space to move forward” he says, his voice full of emotion Maria Trapanese, for everyone the beloved Mariolinasoul of La Bottega dei Semplici Pensieri, who on this project will work with the social enterprise La Scheggia, which is instead dedicated to supporting young people who are victims of addictions.

The new “Casa Mehari restaurant”

In the kitchen of Casa Mehari they will be together and the kids involved, all around 20/30 years old, will immediately put the teachings into practice: both to be employed outside and to create a real restaurant inside the boss’s former villa, which has a beautiful garden complete with a swimming pool. Small convivial moments are already being organized alongside the many cultural events of the associations it hosts, but the aim is to have a real Casa Mehari menu, like in a restaurant. «All this has made the kids very responsible. They feel they have the tools to build a future, to make it”continues Mariolina.

Inclusion and «motivation

«Cooking is one of those jobs that can stimulate all the senses, says Gennaro Esposito when we ask him why cooking, in his opinion, is proving to be a privileged tool for redemption with many other highly successful projects – above all PizzaAut – involving children with disabilities. «We need to stimulate their sensitivity, show them that there is a job in which what counts is creativity, and not disability. There is a lot of talk about inclusion, but in reality there are always few concrete attempts. I would rather talk about motivation: you have to give people motivation to make sure that they come out, that they show talents that you would never have thought of. But they are useful patience, feeling, love, to show a new path to those who often live in the belief that they have no right to access the dynamics of real life: for this reason we will never work hard enough. We must not give up: we must continue to explore with them, to believe in ourselves first. Everyone: institutions, schools, private individuals, citizens. No one excluded.”

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

Buon Ricordi turns 60, 100 chefs celebrate it in Vietri – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

The entire Italian culinary tradition met in Vietri sul Mare (Salerno, Amalfi Coast) to celebrate the 60th birthday ofUnion of Restaurants of Good Memory. “100 chefs for one evening” is the title of the memorable event which began in the heart of the city of ceramics – on Corso Umberto I – with a long table made of delicacies from every region ofItalyand ended on the Rosa dei Venti seafront with a gala dinner washed down with excellent Franciacorta, in which the trait d’union was the team spirit and true friendship of the chefs of Buon Ricordi, proud to be the standard-bearers of the more authentic quality Italian cuisine.

Vietri and its ceramics: the cradle of Good Memory

The location was not chosen by chance: the oldest restaurateurs’ association in Italy is linked to Vietri sul Mare by the fact that – since 1964 – they are produced there, in the historic Ceramica Solimene the famous dishes which depict the symbolic dish of each restaurant, given as a gift as a “BuonRicordo”, of an unforgettable culinary experience. “For us restaurateurs at Buon Ricordi it is a dream that has come true. Celebrating 60 years of activity in the place from which everything started in 1964 with the famous hand-decorated plates from Ceramica Solimene it has finally become reality”, underlined the president Cesare Carbone and the general secretary Luciano Spigaroli.

The Good Memory dinner, good twice

Venetian-style creamed cod with pearl white corn polenta and cereal bread crouton, “Matte” Trofie with Genoese pesto with DOP basil and 60-month DOP Parmigiano Reggiano, Darna of seared fish with citrus fruits from the two Coasts, Lemon delight (edited of the Academy of Masters of Mother Yeast and Italian Panettone); paired with Franciacorta Brut and Franciacorta Satèn Brut, whose perlage enhanced every single dish. This is the menu for the sea view dinner, the proceeds of which went to charity, in favor of two local associations: L’Abbraccio OdV and OPEN-Pediatric Oncology and Neuroblastoma Onlus. Furthermore, the chefs provided their work for free. As per the Good Memory tradition, all the guests received a I remember the 60th anniversary dish from the evening lovingly painted by the artisans of Ceramica Solimene of Vietri sul Mare, made in a special dated and numbered edition.

The entire event enjoyed the patronage of the Campania Region, the Province of Salerno, the Municipality of Vietri sul Mare, the Amalfi Coast Tourist District and was created with the contribution of the Chamber of Commerce and the CNA of Salerno and the support of the Restaurateurs Association and of the Pro Loco of Vietri.

What is the Union of Restaurants of Good Memory?

L’Union of Restaurants of Good Memory it was the first association of restaurateurs born in Italy and is still the most widespread and well-known today. 60 years of age, 112 brands, of which 11 abroad: since 1964 the URBR has safeguarded and valorised the many Italian gastronomic traditions and cultures, uniting countryside and city restaurants and trattorias under the aegis of local cuisine, from North to South. To characterize each restaurantand to create a trait d’union between them, is today as in the past the symbolic plate hand-painted by the artisans of Solimene Artistic Ceramics of Vietri sul Mare where the restaurant’s specialty is depicted, which is given to guests in memory of a pleasant gastronomic experience to remember. Taken together, the associated restaurants represent, with the extraordinary variety of their cuisines, the very rich mosaic of Italian gastronomy.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes