Territory, gastronomy, wine: pillars of Italian culture and driving force of economic growth

The richness and the history of food and wine of the territories are not only a fundamental cornerstone of Italian culture around the world, but also an extraordinary economic driving force, comprised of excellent products, great wines, and, of course, know-how shared by winemakers, producers, and chefs, in a value construction chain that connects land and table. This is also the case in Franciacorta, the ideal geographical meeting point between Brescia and Bergamo, together “Italian Capital of Culture” 2023, with Lake Iseo in the background. A project which, obviously, cannot ignore food and wine, an integral part of our culture, and at the centre of the talk “Terra, the roots of culture” by Consortium Franciacorta, on stage today in Milan, with the protagonists of the local restaurant industry, from chefs Enrico Bartolini, Andrea Berton, Enrico Cerea, Stefano Cerveni, Carlo Cracco, Davide Oldani, Nadia Santini and Riccardo Scalvinoni to Silvano Brescianini, president of Franciacorta Consortium, Marco Do, Matteo Zoppas, president of Ice, Maddalena Fossati, director of “ Italian Cuisine”, and the blogger Chiara Maci.
“The wine culture in Franciacorta is based on the need and desire to preserve the beauty of a territory, halfway between Brescia and Bergamo, that shares a lot, from the accent to the cuisine, passing through the vineyards that continue in Valcalepio. The land is our most important heritage, and we must now focus on research to raise the quality bar. Brescia and Bergamo, the Italian Capital of Culture, provide us with the opportunity to enhance and promote what is beautiful in our region: castles, monasteries, abbeys, towers, residences, natural treasures such as Lake Iseo”, says Silvano Brescianini, president of the Franciacorta Consortium, highlighting how producers are, first and foremost “farmers, and thus custodians of the land and biodiversity, to be known and valorised, because it is from the land that the products that make us recognizable in the world are born, interpreted today by great chefs, protagonists of that universally recognized heritage that is Italian cuisine”, comments Brescianini who, together with the director of Michelin Italia, Marco Do, anticipated the presentation of the “Michelin Italia” Guide 2024 Italy, on 14 November, in the Teatro Grande of Brescia, with the Franciacorta Consortium, which will support the “Michelin Sommelier Award” (until 2022 signed by the Brunello di Montalcino Consortium, ed.). A heritage that must be able to adapt to change, as told by Davide Oldani, two Michelin star chef with the D’O of Cornaredo. “In twenty years, the world has changed, but seasonality continues to guide us, paying even more attention than before and hoping that the climatic conditions will help us. I am convinced that in the future, we will no longer require land. I am thinking of hydroponics and aeroponics, technologies that now allow us to have tomatoes that are still edible after September 21st and to produce herbs with 95% of the water lost during free fall recovered. These are difficult innovations to accept - continues Oldani - but things change, and new technologies, in this sense, are inevitable, even in the kitchen, and we must be able to exploit everything that can make our work easier. Innovations shouldn’t scare us: after all, Robuchon was advertising cockroaches 40 years ago, and now we’ve come to use insect flour. It is not necessarily a bad thing, and it is no coincidence that life expectancy has increased so much over the years”, says Oldani, before recalling that the guiding star is sustainability, “first and foremost human”.
Nadia Santini, the historic chef of the three Michelin-starred “Dal Pescatore” restaurant in Canneto sull’Oglio, also speaks of humanism: “cooking is goodness that becomes trust, affection that becomes friendship, values that transcend all boundaries, and they communicate in a language that is universal to the entire world. Italian cuisine is exactly this; it is simple, the essence of the flavour reaches everyone immediately, and it is a part of our diverse country’s culture. President Ciampi once stated that Italy is a very rich country with a valuable cultural and gastronomic heritage that must be preserved religiously because losing it would force future generations to live in a colourless limbo. Our task - adds Nadia Santini - is to transmit ethics and respect for the land, because we do not inherit it from our fathers, but rather borrow it from our children”.
The culture of food, intertwining with art and architecture, reaches from the territories to large cities, such as Milan, a choice that is not random, nor simple, taken at different times by two iconic chefs of Italian cuisine such as Carlo Cracco and Enrico Bartolini. The first one, a student of the legendary Gualtiero Marchesi, “took up the challenge of opening the Cracco Restaurant in Galleria, the first shopping centre in the world, in the heart of Milan, in 2018, recovering a semi-abandoned place and making it beautiful and unique. Also hosting, together with Sky Arte, the works of a different artist every six months in the lunettes of the venue. We decided to do the same thing in the countryside with my wife, taking over a now-declining farm where we produce oil, vegetables, fruit, and wine”, Cracco says. Bartolini, the most-starred chef in Italy, with 12 Michelin stars in the various restaurants he heads, due to the shortage of available funds, in 2017 landed at the “Mudec”, the Museo delle Culture in Milan (where he soon earned the three stars, ed.): “opening in a place like this was a difficult decision: going to the city, while also being fascinated by a “cold” place like this that we could warm with our cuisine. In this context, seeing that it is visited daily by people from every corner of the world is very gratifying. As well as giving an opportunity for growth, in our kitchen, to young chefs, who should be welcomed into the brigades and integrated into the world of work, but also reassured: they must not feel at fault, it is right to be clumsy when you’re young. They shouldn’t be overloaded with notions, but the path must be taken, keeping in mind each person’s advantages”.
Italian cuisine, however, as Chicco Cerea, chef of the three Michelin star “Da Vittorio”, in Brusaporto, recalls, “can be a driving force for all Italian agri-food in the world, as well as transmitting our culture. Many countries close to us have recognised this possibility for years, seizing enormous opportunities, as France has done for decades, where the synergy between various investments abroad is decidedly better than ours, offering chefs the possibility of opening their premises in new destinations, from the Middle East to Australia, where they will then bring French gastronomic products and wines, spreading their culture and driving their economy”.
A message collected, shortly afterwards, by Ice president Matteo Zoppas: “let us begin with a fact: food and wine account for more than 10% of our total exports. We have been exporting Italian products and cuisine for decades, as a sublimation of what we do in our lands and territories. Our task is to accompany entrepreneurs abroad, and in the candidacy of Italian Cuisine for Unesco Heritage (nomination promoted, among others, by Maddalena Fossati, director of “La Cucina Italiana”, ed.) we manage to convey a communication of together, within a common path that will still be successful. The first export item in the sector is Italian wine, but there are many others, beginning with pizza and progressing upward. The USA is the point of reference, but Made in Italy can be found everywhere, from Germany to France, the United Kingdom to Spain, Russia to China to Japan”.