On last november, during the sixth edition of PizzaUp, at the headquarters of Molino Quaglia, we wrote the Manifesto della Pizza Italiana Contemporanea (Italian Contemporary Pizza Manifesto). That is, a list of “10 ethic and professional principles directed to all the pizza chefs to indicate the requirements of a pizza intended as a healthy and tasty product, on top of being the affordable entrance to fine Italian food”. It was signed by Francesca Romana Barberini, Eleonora Cozzella, Piero Gabrieli, Elena Maccone, Renato Malaman, Paolo Massobrio, Gianluca Mazzella, Davide Paolini, Luciano Pignataro, Monica Piscitelli, Chiara Quaglia and I.

These are the ten points:
1. Italian pizza valorises shapes, dough structures, baking and fillings that are born from local traditions.

2. Pizza must also be an expression of the pizza chef’s creativity, so that his level of culture and knowledge of the past can become the seeds of a continuous innovation.

3. Pizza must be born from ingredients and preparation, preserving and baking techniques that favour digestibility for the consumer’s final wellbeing.

4. Pizza reaches its highest quality levels when made with ingredients that are originally from Italy and are produced in Italy, stimulating the quality improvement of the entire food supply chain.

5. Among the ingredients used for the dough and the filling, preference must be given to those with a lesser degree of refining to enhance the original nutritional value of the product.

6. The pizza dough needs to respect the natural maturation and leavening times that depend on the raw materials and the techniques used.

7. Declaring the use of mother yeast must be exclusively refer to the result of a process of spontaneous fermentation of a mixture of water and flour acidified with lactic bacterial strains, and not dried mother yeast powder which doesn’t bestow the same digestibility and preservation characteristics that are typical of a “live” mother yeast.

8. The pizza menu must be updated according to the ingredients available that season to give consumers’ the chance to eat following the rhythm of nature.

9. The pizza chef and his collaborators need to maintain a good level of decorum with reference to their work and the location, working in view in order to transmit the value of their art with a dish that is respectful of both ingredients and consumers.

10. Italian pizza, therefore, must become an instrument to popularize Italian food and the richness of the Mediterranean Diet, originating from its products.

Complete, the programme of Identità di Pizza on Monday 11th February at Identità Milano 2013 is complete. There will be seven lessons, three in the morning, and four in the afternoon, and ten personalities will take turns on stage, starting from Simone Padoan and Corrado Assenza who will open the day like in 2012 (photo). Next, Franco Pepe, then Massimo Giovannini and Andrea Mattei. After the lunch break, it will be the turn of the brothers Salvatore and Francesco Salvo, followed by Gianfranco Iervolino, Stefano Callegari and Renato Bosco.

Not to mention what will happen the day before, when, on Sunday 10th February, not only will the congress have, for its opening, Massimiliano Alajmo talking also about pizza, but at 11.15 am Simone Padoan and Franco Pepe will get on stage together, to confront each other on “today’s Italian Pizza”. Talking, discussing and testing is, for us at Identità, the best way to go beyond the sterile argument linked to the eternal competition between North and South.

As for Monday’s programme, the news of these past few weeks comes from Tuscany, from the Versilia coast, thanks to Giovannini and Mattei. The former is the owner of Ipogeo in Pietrasanta, tel +39.0584.793394, the latter is the chef at Magnolia, the restaurant of the Lord Byron hotel in Forte dei Marmi, +39.0584.787052. Of course, they spend most of the time in front of their own stoves and ovens, but they often meet in Giovannini’s pizzeria – he, taking care of the dough, while Mattei tops it with goodness, a great and tasty two-man job they will describe in Milan. A nice Italian story.

Starting one month ago, our website www.identitagolose.com is bilingual: all the most important content is published in a double version. This is an obligatory step for those who produce content in Italian, given that its comprehension beyond our borders, at best, arrives at Canton Ticino or in some minuscule Italian-American community in Queens or the West End. A necessary choice, considering the majority of the topics covered is international and also the percentage of English speaking readers (13%).

Here you can find the links to most interesting articles we published in English so far. Enjoy.
Venice Hotel dining scene, by Claudio De Min;

Exceptional leftovers panino at Christmas , by chefs Christina Bowerman and Pierluigi Roscioli;

In the Scottish salmon’s den, a photo-tale by Gabriele Zanatta;

Sweet panettone, a great Christmas Italian speciality, by Giulia Corradetti;

Having fun before the end, 32 chefs choose the best dish and wine to enjoy one step away from the Apocalypse;

The Cape Town summer by Giovanna Sartor;

Ten Italian sparkling wines to celebrate, by Cinzia Benzi;

Several beer recipes and lots more… Click here to see it the English platform of our website.

One of the most brilliant news about Italian great chefs abroad in 2013 was the opening of Moreno at Baglioni in London, a new restaurant run by Moreno Cedroni at Hyde Park Gate, telephone +44.(0)20.73685700. All the Londoners are slowly getting to know the meaning of his susci collection, experiments that made him famous all over Italian gourmets.

He was born in Germany but he's actually Italian since 1994, when the Rome Cavalieri hotel entrusted the launch of Pergola, 3 Michelin stars gained in 2006. After that, Bavarian Heinz Beck collected restaurants all over Italy and far beyond. The picture is about his last conquest, Gusto at Conrad Algarve, in Portugal. But, just like Moreno Cedroni (see above), Beck runs a successful restaurant in London as well, named Apsleys (1 Michelin star). Plus Cafè Les Paillotes in Pescara and Castello di Fighine in Tuscany.

I have chosen this photo to say “happy new year” to all of you for the same reason of those who have taken it, Francesca Brambilla and Serena Serrani: “You may ask yourselves why we have chosen this photo. It doesn’t depict a chef, not even a kitchen activity. Then why this image in particular? We have thought of all the people who, every day, face difficulties of all kinds, of the restaurateurs who have waited with apprehension the results of the guides and who, with strength, determination and sacrifice, have reached the desired and yearned goal.
A rolling pin, a sign of victory... a smile that should always accompany our lives”. With optimism, ever.