Italian Food Week awakens Jordanians’ taste buds

AMMAN — The Italian embassy is offering Jordanians a taste of their traditional cookery at the 2nd edition of the World Week of Italian Cuisine, launched on Monday by Italian Ambassador Giovanni Brauzzi, with the aim of promoting Italian culinary traditions as a “distinctive trait of the Italian identity and culture”.

The celebrations will run through November 25, under the umbrella of quality, sustainability, culture, food security, the right to food, education, identity, territory and biodiversity, according to a press release by the Italian embassy. 

The event will also serve as an opportunity to promote the Mediterranean diet, aiming to internationalise the training programmes offered in this sector and to attract foreign talents in order to reinforce customer retention for high-quality Italian products. 

“The pleasure of sitting at a table is a shared tradition, not only in the Italian way of life, but also all over the Mediterranean. For Italians, quality and nutrition are important and we would like to share these values with our partners here in Jordan,” Brauzzi said at the launching of the event. 

An Italian cooking workshop with Syrian women was held on Tuesday at the UN Women Oasis at Zaatari Refugee Camp, where 100 lunchboxes were prepared and handed to Syrian children as part of the World Week of the Italian Cuisine, according to the statement by the organisers. 

The activity was organised by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in collaboration with the World Foods Programme, UN Women, UNHCR and the Instituto Polispecialistico “San Paolo” Sorrento. 

A cooking show with famous Italian chef Filippo de Maio will be hosted by the Spago restaurant on Wednesday, and a second Italian cooking workshop with Syrian women will be held on Thursday in Azraq Refugee Camp. 

The Jordanian Italian Forum for Cooperation (JIFCO) will also be hosting the Italian Pizza Weekend, where the best pizza makers across the Kingdom will showcase the “real Italian pizza” to their customers. 

Canto, Casereccio, La Gemelle, Little Italy, Luna Rossa, Mar Yousef, Tre Pazzi and Pizzaiolo are the pizzerias selected by JIFCO, which will join the Italian Pizza Weekend. 

Representative of JIFCO Ariana Barilaro thanked all restaurants taking part in the event, stressing that “the Italian cuisine represents a big part of the cultural relation between Italy and Jordan, and, by cooking our traditional food, you are bringing our culture and our heritage to your customers.”