RIMINI: Al Meni, the food festival created by Massimo Bottura and his Osteria Francescana team in Rimini returned at the end of September for its seventh edition.
But unlike previous editions that were held in June in the world famous 8 1/2 circus tent in front of the Grand Hotel in Rimini where film director Federico Fellini spent a lot of his time, this year’s edition was not just held in September but also also moved to the city centre from just in front of the sea.
Originally intended to be a big food festival to celebrate the 100 years from Fellini’s birth, this year’s event took place in a smaller format because of the uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was not an easy task,” said Enrico Vignoli, the man behind the organisation of the event and one of Massimo Bottura’s right hand men. “The COVID-19 pandemic created a lot of uncertainties. There was always the risk that we would have to cancel the event but we worked as if it would take place. And it finally happened,” he told Food and Wine Gazette.
Al Meni is the name of a poem written by Tonino Guerra, a poet, writer and screen writer who worked with many famous film directors including Fellini. It means ‘with your hands’ in the Emilia Romagna dialect and is the perfect representation of the event which brings together chefs and food producers from across the region that has so much to offer in terms of quality from parmiggiano reggiano to prosciutto di Parma, from balsamic vinegar to olive oil and wine.
Bottura, the most recognisable Italian chef in the world spoke proudly about the region saying he believes Emilia Romagna was the most beautiful place in the world. “There is no other place like Emilia Romagna and I travel a lot. In these dark times, we have something to say for the future. We should be focusing on quality not quantity,” said Bottura who has also been appointed as the newest United Nations Environment Programme goodwill ambassador.
With travel limited because of COVID-19, this year’s edition of Al Meni next to the newly inaugurated contemporary art museum in the Cavour square of Rimini, this year’s event brought together 12 chefs from the region together with 12 young Italian chefs which featured among others Jessica Rosval, chef of Casa Maria Luigia, Giuliano Baldessarri of Aquacrua who stunned those who braved the heavy rain everyone with a spectacular dish of seaweed tagliatelle with ginger, squid ink and parmeggiano reggiano.
The curator of the event Andrea Petrini also brought chefs from around Italy such as Antonio Zaccardi, formerly sous chef of Enrico Crippa who moved to Puglia and the Giglio trio, Rullo, Stefanini and Terigi whose restaurant in Lucca has become the talk of the town.
Lorenzo Lunghi, who for many years was right hand man of Fulvio Pierangelini has returned to Milan, Italy after a long stint in France. His dish was ravioli stuffed with tripe on an eggplant base with sugo nero. An uncompromising but winning combination of ingredients.
Representing the Emilia Romagna region were three of the leading contemporary figures from Gianluca Gorini, of Da Gorini restaurant, fast becoming one of the must visit restaurants in Italy and Takahiko Kondo of the Ooops I dropped the lemon tart fame at Osteria Francescana.
Takahiko told Food and Wine Gazette that the dish he prepared was inspired by travel. “People cannot travel much at the moment so we wanted to bring exotic flavours from Japan to Rimini.”
The Japanese chef created a Japanese style pasta with an intense shrimp broth from Rimini together with different vegetables and ‘mushrooms called ‘Jews ears”. “The dish was called fireworks because it is an explosion of flavours, an explosion of colours,” he said.
The Japanese chef created a Japanese style pasta with an intense shrimp broth from Rimini together with different vegetables and ‘mushrooms called ‘Jews ears”. “The dish was called fireworks because it is an explosion of flavours, an explosion of colours,” he said.
“It is the same philosophy of what we are trying to do at Osteria Francescana giving our guests the possibility to travel through our dishes,” he said.
The first on stage under the circus tent was Jessica Rosval, the head chef at Casa Maria Luigia. As soon as Taka and his team finished service, he and his wife Karime Lopez, chef of Gucci Osteria in Florence went to help Jessica finish her dish.
“I feel very relaxed now having just finished the service,” she told Food and Wine Gazette. “I think it is great that we can come back together as a community of chef and work together once again. Working in a kitchen is all about the team. It is all about working with friends, creating a support system. Seeing everyone come together after the difficulties of the past months was great,” Jessica said.
“My dish (and what a dish it was) was in yellow because yellow is the colour of hope, the colour of future, the colour of brightness. Hope is what we need at this moment when everything is coming back to life again,” she said.
Rimini and Massimo Bottura’s team who organised the festival together with the commune of Rimini have given a message of hope with Al Meni. And despite the rain on Sunday, the event, maybe less ambitious than usual was a resounding success.
Convivial, the food festival offered a message of hope. And that message is needed at this very particular moment.
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