Food&Book, the event with writers and authors who talk about food in their books and chefs who present food with their recipes and often in successful books, returns to Montecatini Terme from 26 to 29 October. The fascinating Art Nouveau setting of the Tuscan city will host the ninth edition of the festival which this year will take place in several locations: the Terme Tettuccio, traditional venue for Food&Book; the Terme Tamerici and the Palazzo del Turismo, a building from the last century which after years of unused was recovered by the Municipal Administration.
In this edition the focus will be on young people, in particular on students from hotel and agricultural institutes, who once graduated will be engaged in valorising the great agri-food heritage of our country: numerous meetings and workshops aimed at them, organized by experts such as Valentina Tepedino (fish production), Duccio Caccioni (fruit and vegetables), Fabiola Pulieri (oil).
Employment in the agri-food and hotel sector will be the theme on which a conference scheduled for Friday 27 October will be developed in which we will talk about the future of work in this sector, of catering and what the most requested professional skills will be, with arguments on the difficulties of finding adequate staff, a factor that risks slowing down growth, and a parenthesis dedicated to innovations and artificial intelligence.
Discussing these issues will be an exceptional audience moderated by Rai journalist Paola Guarnieri: in fact Riccardo Monti, head teacher of the Martini Hotel Institute of Montecatini Terme will take part and will do the honours; Licia Cianfriglia, institutional relations of ANP; Chiara Rivella, head of human resources at Autogrill; Gabriele Belsito, head of human resources at Eataly; Alessandro Porzio and Dario Balestriere, respectively hotel manager and recruiting manager of Grimaldi Lines, and representatives of the hotel and agricultural institutes.... read more»
On Friday evening, a gala dinner is scheduled at Castello La Querceta, home of the Martin Hotel Institute, in homage to Eduardo De Filippo who with his company, just formed together with the brothers Peppino and Titina, in Montecatini in 1931 , at just 31 years old, he staged one of his first shows at the Palazzo Theatre.
Everyone knows Eduardo as a protagonist of theatrical scenes, less so for his poetry and interest in good food. So chef Marcello Leoni and chef Pietro Parisi from Palma Campania will propose a dinner taking up some of the famous playwright's recipes.
During the banquet the actor Gino Manfredi will illustrate this little-known aspect of De Filippo and will recite the poem 'O Rraù while the singer-songwriter Patrizia Cirulli, who recently launched an album in which she set Eduardo's poems to music, will preview a piece from the show which will be held on Saturday evening at Terme Tettuccio.
On Sunday 29 October, the final day of the festival will be opened by a meeting on the theme "Italian extra virgin olive oils: how to enhance them at the table and in the company" aimed at olive growing companies (and not only) to develop tourist activities.
With Fabiola Pulieri and Senator Dario Stefàno, promoter of the law on wine tourism, authors of the book Oleotourism - Opportunities for businesses and territories, the undersecretary of Agriculture Patrizio Giacomo La Pietra, the president of the Frantoio Cooperativo di Montecatini Alessandro Benedetti, the professor Antonello Senni who will talk about nutrigenomics and nutritional aspects of extra virgin olive oil. The meeting will be chaired by the deputy mayor and councilor for culture of the Municipality of Montecatini Terme, Alessandro Sartoni.
During the day, Valdinievole oil tasting stands and guided tastings will be organised.
Many meetings and events are scheduled at Food&Book, such as the Chef's Dish with Simone Malucchi, dinners with writers, book presentations that will be held in the various venues of the Festival with the authors Adriana Assini, Francesca Romana Barberini, Ernesto Di Renzo, Anna Maria Gehnyei, Leonardo Gori, Marianna Jajac, Alice Lupi, Fabiola Pulieri, Silvia Scapinelli, Antonello Senni, Dario Stefàno, Marco Vichi, Stefania Viti, Giampaolo Zuliani.
Finally, among the collateral initiatives, two free guided visits will be organized on Saturday 28 October to the exhibition at the Mo.C.A dedicated to Galileo Chini, a multifaceted artist, a true master of liberty with oriental influences due to his stay in Bangkok where he created the decorations of the Imperial Palace of King Rama V.
Food&Book - Festival of books and gastronomic culture directed by Sergio Auricchio and Stefano Carboni is organized by the Eureka Association in collaboration with Agra Editrice and Leggere:tutti with the support of the Municipality of Montecatini Terme and the patronage of the Tuscany Region and the ANP-Association national school leaders.
