“Women feed the world” said Maria Canabal, one of the “Most Influential Women in Gastronomy”

“Just like Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest, women have long been acknowledged and celebrated for the essential role they play as custodians of the earth and biodiversity as well as their indispensable contribution to the past, present and future of food. It is women who feed the world”, said Maria Canabal, one of the “Most Influential Women in Gastronomy”, who each year, brings together 400 women from all over the world to create empowerment at her “Forum Parabere”. The “Gourmand Cookbooks Awards” has awarded her cookbooks as the best in the world. She is definitely one of the most charismatic personalities in the female world of food & wine. She recently received the “Casato Prime Donne International Award” 2024, in Montalcino, as “Prima Donna”, alongside, in various categories, Alessandro Regoli and Irene Chiari, founders of WineNews, “one of the major portals of National enology”, Loredana Sottile and Gianluca Atzeni, writers of “Tre Bicchieri”, the Gambero Rosso economic weekly, and the historic Italian Rai 1 program, “Linea Verde” that won the Special Jury Prize for the episode dedicated to “The gems of the Siena territory”, aired on January 14, 2024 (directed by Luciano Sabatini and written by Carlo Cambi, which will be donated to charity).
Alessandro Regoli and Irene Chiari dedicated the award to women who represent the family - at home and at work (in other words, all our staff). Women are the basis of the sense of belonging in communities, which, in turn, are the “soul” of the territories of our agriculture, of which wine is, today, the “medium” that communicates to the world, as they explained, because of the ties it has with their history, culture and nature. These are the values that have carried forward the traditions of the territories, Peppone Calabrese, host of “Linea Verde”, together with Livio Beshir and Margherita Granbassi (the new season started a few days ago, ed.), just like the excellent products that are exported all over the world and are the economic, social and cultural engine of our country, as Loredana Sottile and Gianluca Atzeni recalled. Last but not least, these values must be transmitted to the new generations through education as well as communication, said Donatella Cinelli Colombini, producer of Casato Prime Donne, a “female” winery of Brunello di Montalcino, and Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda, one of Orcia DOC vineyards, promoter of the Award, and president of the jury. The jury was composed of Rosy Bindi, Anselma Dell’Olio, Anna Pesenti, Stefania Rossini, Anna Scafuri and Daniela Viglione, who awarded young talents from various sectors, including students of agriculture and foreign languages, communicators, artisans and artists. The award also acts as an incubator for young talents.
This is the 23rd edition of one of the longest-running awards in the Italian wine world. It is dedicated to Carlo Gardini, husband of Donatella Cinelli Colombini, who recently passed away (the family donated a new, ultramodern ambulance for the Misericordia di Sinalunga), and to Francesca Cinelli Colombini, the “Lady of Brunello” at the historic family winery, Fattoria dei Barbi, founder, in 1981, of the Barbi Colombini Award that brought to Montalcino, which was not yet as famous as it is today thanks to its wine, celebrities of the caliber of the maestro Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, Saul Bellow, Nobel Prize for Literature, as well as the poet Mario Luzi, and journalists such as Enzo Biagi, Giorgio Bocca and Sergio Zavoli, to name just a few, Violante Gardini Cinelli Colombini has said. Over the years, the award has been presented to names such as the star ballerina, Carla Fracci, the activists, Kerry Kennedy and Chaimaa Fatihi, the virologist, Ilaria Capua, the astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti, the stylist, Carla Fendi, the Mayor of Monasterace, Maria Carmela Lanzetta and the Mayor of Lampedusa, Giuseppina Maria Nicolini, the astrophysicist, Sandra Savaglio, the molecular biologist, Federica Bertocchini, and many others.