TuttoFood will host the first International Forum of Italian Cuisine
Notwithstanding the difficulties linked to the war in Iran, the fair that kicked off on 11 May grew to 5,000 exhibitors, 4,000 buyers and over 100,000 trade visitors from 80 countries
by Food Editor
The first International Forum of Italian Cuisine will be held on 11 May, on the opening day of TuttoFood at the Fiera di Milano. This was announced at the press conference for the 2026 edition of the fair by Maddalena Fossati, president of the committee promoting the candidature of Italian cuisine as a Unesco intangible heritage site, who helped to conceive the forum together with Silvia Sassone, a member of the scientific committee for the candidature, realised in collaboration and with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture.
"The forum is the next step after that victory on 10 December in New Delhi," said Fossati, "because the one to Italian cuisine is an award that speaks of the future. The forum will be a place for conversation and reflection in which people with a creative and ambitious vision will participate: we will talk about our diaspora together with Professor Simone Cinotto, about restaurants with Alessandro Borghese and then there will be Massimo Bottura and the largest food distributor in China. I think it will be an important moment because we will end up with a charter of values and actions and we will talk about the economic development that we deserve and that we have earned since the Renaissance'.
Among the concrete initiatives that the promoting committee is working on after the recognition of Italian cuisine as a Unesco Heritage Site that Itaia has committed to protect is that of 'bringing Italian cuisine into schools as a school subject,' said Fossati, 'it is a way to prepare for awareness, the value of the supply chain, and the culture that derives from it.
On the occasion of the forum, the administrator of Fiere di Parma, Antonio Cellie, will officially present to exhibitors and visitors the Food Manifesto, the Charter of the values of the future of food inspired by the principles of our made-in-Italy agro-food industry that Fiere di Parma will ask to share and sign as an operational platform for the coming years to the international food&beverage protagonists that will crowd the halls of Rho Fiera Milano from 11 to 14 May. "Because," said Cellie, "a trade fair must not only be a place for trade exchanges, but must also be able to transmit values linked to what it represents"
A month from its opening, Tuttofood is showing strong growth: 10 halls and 85 thousand square metres net sold out for about 5 thousand exhibitors, 4 thousand buyers and over 100 thousand trade visitors expected from 80 countries. In spite of geopolitical tensions and critical issues in international transport, to which the exhibition is obviously not immune and which still cause concern - "We have lost over 2 thousand square metres of international exhibitors, limited to the Gulf area", said Cellie (see Il Sole 24 Ore of 8 April) - the exhibition confirms its strategic role for the agro-food system.
