They have become a consistent reality of Italian catering and are enjoying great success: they are the peasant cooks who work in the agritourisms of Campagna Amica and in the kitchen they use the products they themselves grow on their own farm where hospitality becomes a fundamental moment for the promotion of the territory and good food. At the moment there are about 1000 cooks in all regions of Italy who have attended courses organized by Coldiretti and have received the certificate with the inclusion in the national register of agrichefs of Campagna Amica.
They represent a new professional figure who is an expression of the new agriculture and practically plays a double role: on the one hand a farmer and on the other a promoter of local food that he cooks and offers in agritourisms. All of this is a consequence of the fact that in just a few years a network that is unique at an international level in terms of size and characteristics has been born and grown in Italy and has extended its presence from farms to markets, from restaurants to street food, from holiday farms to urban gardens. Overall, the Campagna Amica network is, in fact, made up of over eleven thousand points where local products of the territory are found, put up for sale directly by the farmer in compliance with precise rules of conduct and an environmental code of ethics, under the verification of a system of control by a third party.
And the number of peasant cooks, given the consensus found among consumers, seems destined to increase and even significantly. Their feature? Pay maximum attention to the enhancement of local products and traditional recipes by following three fundamental rules: quality, traceability and distinctiveness with the offer of zero-kilometre dishes and the guarantee of transparency and sustainability.
"The link with the territory in the choice of ingredients to be used in the kitchen has become a determining element of success for catering, with the agritourism that has led the way to a real cultural revolution in the sector", comments Diego Scaramuzza, agrichef and national president of Terranostra, the agritourism association of Campagna Amica, underlining that this is a turning point that "must be accompanied by revolutionary legislative choices such as the extension to all restaurants of the obligation to indicate the origin of agricultural products on menus used in recipes".
A flagship of a sector, the agritourism sector, which today has 23.4000 structures in Italy which – according to Coldiretti – are able to offer a potential of more than 253 beds and over 441 seats. But the presence of agrichefs is also important in the farmers' markets of Campagna Amica which have transformed over time from places of commerce to moments of aggregation, leisure, socialization and training with the performance of varied activities, from cooking shows to shopping tutorials up to educational workshops for children.
