If you’re planning to spend this weekend away from Florence, I highly recommend you cancel: those who consider themselves ‘gastronauts’ shouldn’t dare leave the city during the Taste food fair and its companion FuoriDiTaste event.
Taste has grown up, and today, in its fifth year, we foodies believe that, for the city of Florence, the fair has turned into a ‘little’ Pitti for food. Running from March 13 to 15 at the Stazione Leopolda (www.tastefirenze.com), this edition of Taste will feature more exhibitors (approximately 200) and more events than ever before. Gourmands can go to the Taste-ring to take part in food-inspired debates and discussions (three debates have been organized by Davide Paolini: the origins of gastronomic products, the disappearance of traditional food shops and the new regulations on the use of food additives and liquid nitrogen). If that’s not enough to pique your interest, the new cinema theatre might: Cinema-Taste will screen advertisements for food products from the 1950s to today.
Friday, March 12. The first meat-cutting lesson at the Luca Menoni Butcher shop in the Sant’Ambrogio Market starts at 11.30am. The lesson is followed by a tasting of peposo (peppery beef stew) at L’Trippaio di Stefania e Fabrizio. From 4 to 6pm, kids can have a special afternoon snack at Lungarno 23 (on Lungarno Torrigiani 23): mini-hamburgers made with Chianina beef from the restaurant’s own farm, the Tenuta la Fratta. At 5pm every day of the fair, pop over to the Savoy Hotel for an aperitif and a tasting of some of the foods and wines featured at the fair, prepared by famed chef Fulvio Pierangelini. For dinner, go to Ganzo, on via dei Macci 85r, to savour some of the foods presented at Taste.
Saturday, March 13. Nibble on Sardinian specialties all day long at Obikà, in Palazzo Tornabuoni. At 2pm at Cordon Bleu, a culinary arts school, on via di Mezzo 55, the magazine Vogue Bambini offers sandwiches for kids 6 to 10, who can also learn to bake their own bread. From 6 to 8 pm at the new Hotel L’Orologio in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, there is a tasting of Castello di Ama wines and confections by the Biscottificio Mattei. Do not miss the party celebrating the inauguration of the Société Anonyme, a new clothing concept store, on via Niccolini 3/f; the party starts at 6:30pm with Scherzerino sausages and Baladin Beer. If you are in mood to experiment, you can either learn how to make ‘craft beers on the banks of the Arno’ at 9pm at the Circolo Canottieri Firenze or attend in wine journalist Leonardo Romanelli’s lesson, ‘How to Become a Sommelier in 50 minutes’ at the Teatro Puccini (in Italian).
Sunday, March 14. Go to Ortobello, from 9am to 4pm, on via dei Serragli 234r, where Riccardo Barthel will gather farmers from the Florentine countryside for a special event to support local agriculture. Just a few steps away is Poetry: From Sweet to Savory at the Cuculia, from 4:30pm on, a tasting of sweet and savory biscuits from the Biscotteria Bettina.
Monday, March 15. At 8pm at Villa Bardini Restaurant is Taste and Women: Beatrice Segoni (Borgo San Jacopo), Benedetta Vitali (Zibibbo) and Giovanna Iorio (Alle Murate) jointly prepare a special menu exclusively with foods supplied by the exhibitors at Taste; the event is held in conjunction with the Donne del Vino Association and Pandolea.
