Luxury Food Award presented to 32 chefs at the forefront of the evolution of the new food and wine culture

Thirty-two internationally renowned chefs have received the Luxury Food Award for ‘their significant contribution to the evolution of contemporary food and wine culture and to the establishment of a new concept of luxury, based on identity, culture, creativity, ethics, sustainability and the promotion of local areas’. Among the reasons cited for the award was their ‘ability to preserve and renew knowledge and traditions, to generate value through their work, and to leave a significant legacy for future generations’.

Now in its first edition, the Award – presented in Rome on 22 October in the Sala Zuccari of the Senate of the Republic – stems from an initiative by Annalisa Cavaleri (a journalist and university lecturer who also contributes to our publication Food24) with the support of the Vice-President of the Senate and Senator Gian Marco Centinaio and under the patronage of the Senate of the Republic and the Ministry for Made in Italy. The scientific committee comprises Sebastiano Grandi, lecturer in marketing at the Catholic University, Alberto Mattiacci of La Sapienza University in Rome, and Matteo Pauri, vice-president of the Barilla Foundation.

“We are used to thinking of luxury as a negative concept, as synonymous with excess, waste and conspicuous consumption,” said Annalisa Cavaleri. “Instead, these chefs, through their careers, demonstrate that it is the simple ingredients that become a source of wealth. In their dishes, an onion, a carrot or a broccoli leaf are not humble ingredients, but become exceptional through creativity. This concept of ‘New Luxury Made in Italy’ must become a positive cultural legacy for our young people.” A paradigm shift that views ‘true luxury’ as the celebration of local areas, human labour, creativity and Italian traditions, in the spirit of the book *Luxury Food. Key Words for Winning Strategies in Luxury Food and Wine*, written by Cavaleri herself and published two years ago.

“Italian cuisine has been recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO thanks to the quality of its ingredients, its ties to the local areas, the link between production processes and the protection of the environment and biodiversity, and the system of values it embodies,” said the Vice-President of the Senate and Senator Gian Marco Centinaio. All too often we forget these virtues, which are part of our cultural identity, and it falls to others to remind us of them, starting with the many visitors who come to our country, sometimes – and indeed, above all – for our culinary delights. This is why I have decided to support Dr Annalisa Cavaleri’s project and to host the first edition of this Award in the Senate, reserved for those who remind us every day, through the excellence of their work, of what luxury represents in the Italian food and wine sector.”