Storia della Cucina Italiana
Prof. Massimo Montanari
LIVE FROM ITALY
Saturday, December 11th, 12:00 - 1:00 PM CDT via Zoom
Conversations will be in English
Why are prosciutto and melon paired in a famous Italian appetizer? What did people eat in the Middle Ages? Who invented sorbet?
Join us for a series of educational workshops that will make you feel as if you have graduated from an Italian culinary history class! This amazing introduction to the famous Italian cuisine will be led by Italian Professor, Massimo Montanari. Professor Montanari is an internationally-known leading expert in Italian cuisine and has been featured in the culinary documentary “Food on the go” by Mercedes Cordova.
Saturday, December 11th, 12:00 PM
THE CENTURIES OLD CHARACTERISTICS OF ITALIAN CUISINE.
The distinctive and "identity" features of Italian cuisine are the use of vegetables, pasta, cold cuts, and cheeses. There are specific characteristics that distinguish the Italian cuisine in all its extraordinary biodiversity of local cultures. A biodiversity reinforced by the strong relationship between court cuisine and popular cuisine, which provides the basis for the development of the former and its richness in local diversity.
Massimo Montanari is professor of Food History at the University of Bologna, Department of History, where he founded the Master on Food History and Culture. He has authored and coauthored more than a dozen books on the history of cuisine and the cultural values of food including (in English translation) Italian Cuisine, A Cultural History; Food Is Culture; Cheese, Pears, and History in a Proverb; Let the Meatballs Rest, And Other Stories About Food and Culture; Medieval Tastes; Food: A Culinary History; The Culture of Food; Italian Identity in the Kitchen. He has been invited as visiting professor to a number of leading universities in Europe, Japan, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Canada. He has been one of the founders and editor of the international review "Food & History", published by the Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation. He is member of a number of scientific societies (IEHCA, Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo di Spoleto, Académie Royale de Belgique, Academia Marinha du Portugal, Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna), founder and president of the "Centro di studi per la storia delle campagne e del lavoro contadino" in Montalcino (Siena).
In 2002 Azeglio Ciampi, the President of Italy Republic, assigned him the title of "Ufficiale all'onore della Repubblica" (Honorary Officer of the Republic) for scientific merits.
In 2012 he won the Rabelais Prized, conferred by the Institut de France for special distinction in the study, diffusion and promotion of food culture.
Massimo Montanari will lead us in a fine tour of the history of the ingredients, dishes, techniques and social customs behind the Italian food we know and love today in 3 lessons.
Coming next...
Saturday January 22 at 12 pm
PELLEGRINO ARTUSI AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN ITALIAN CUISINE.
Thirty years after the political unity of the country, Artusi and his celebrated cookbook made a fundamental contribution to the widening of the "network" of the Italian gastronomic culture. For centuries, the Italian cuisine had remained limited to the aristocratic courts, but thanks to Artusi's book, it became a collective heritage of the nation.
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