The city of Prato is transformed in the coming week into a great stage for taste: from 4 to 6 June “EatPRATO Estate“, the food and wine event that offers great open-air cuisine with tastings, workshops, performances by local chefs and restaurateurs and much more. After a one-year stop due to the Covid-19 health emergency, the Prato taste festival is back in attendance with a rich calendar of appointments in the setting of the Buonamici Garden and in many places in the city of Prato. In reality, the Prato event opened in May with "Walking", an open-air version of the Tuscan event that marks the return to live events, with routes that cross the history and nature of this area. And with the arrival of summer, we rediscover the pleasure of feeling good, of sharing many different food and wine experiences together with chefs, bakers, pastry chefs, wine producers, all in complete safety.
The first weekend of June, Prato becomes a stage for taste that mixes food, art and wines with the most beautiful architecture of the historic centre. A big party immersed in the Tuscan landscape, where you can taste the best products of Prato food and wine: such as the mortadella with alchermes (which has obtained the PGI recognition), the stone-ground flour bread, the famous and appreciated almond biscuits and in the other declensions, the vermouth (it seems to have been invented in Prato), up to the prestigious wines produced by the ancient vineyards of carmignanor who boast of having obtained the first DOCG in history, recognized by Cosimo III° dei Medici in the now famous announcement of 1716.
Three full days full of appointments: starting with Friday June 4 with the usual launch of the new entry in the collection of pastry desserts made in Prato, which Master Pastry Chef Paolo Sacchetti launches at each edition. The presentation will take place in a limited number live and in streaming at 18.30 at the Nuovo Mondo pastry shop near the cathedral.
And from 5 June the event will get underway: presented throughout the weekend by well-known TV chef Cristiano Tomei. Headquarters the Buonamici Garden with the event “Dinners under the stars” Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 June signed by 12 chefs, 6 pastry chefs, 6 bakers. With open kitchen in the heart of the historic center nestled between the ancient city walls.
- cooking show, on the other hand, both on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 June will find a home in the Manifatture Digitali theatre, an advanced center of cinematographic culture in the ancient complex of Santa Caterina. As for the tastings (wine tasting and grappa), both on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 June, for the first time they will go "at high altitudes" and will be held in completely exclusive roof-level spaces that are not normally accessible.
In short, a city dedicated to food all year round but which in the three days of June becomes a real one taste festival. And as a common thread between the various events and spaces, the "fil rouge" of art and history told through narrating visits by expert guides around the city.
Saturday morning we start with an unusual journey into Japanese food culture through manga: MANGA and FOOD is at Manifatture Digitali on Saturday 5 June at 10.30. Scrolling through the program, among the cooking shows this year theWHITE ART with the complete transformation cycle, from Gran Prato flour to a finished product such as bread, pizza, Prato biscuits, and even a new product to act as a testimonial: all the baked specialties of a contemporary Tuscan bakery looking for new styles and tastes.
Furthermore, some of the exhibitions will have a symbolic reference to the cycle of frescoes by Filippo Lippi in the cathedral, where on the banquet table of the Dance of Salomè you can see the draft, the typical bread of the Prato peasant tradition. And the bread itself, a Prato-based excellence Great Meadow wheat produced according to the specifications of the short cereal supply chain project and transformed into Gran Prato flour by Molino Bardazzi, a historic mill active since 1919, it is one of the protagonists of eatPRATO 2021 which invites some of the historic bakers of the city to perform in the show cooking alongside the young masters of leavening. Bread and pairings such as the one with Mortadella di Prato IGP, Slow Food Presidium, fruit of the union of alchermes and spices; but also bread and recycling, reuse in the kitchen even in fine dining dishes with a strong tradition that has a lot to say on the subject.
Not only bread, but also Team Building who increasingly marries the kitchens of Prato and to explain the link between pizza and the territory and its products of choice, two artisan pizza makers. Finally, you cannot miss the appointment with thePASTRY ART. Among the scheduled cooking shows is also that of ALMA alumni trained in the laboratories of Master Pastry Chefs Luca Mannori and Paolo Sacchetti: who the interns are and what they do today and how they have brought the experience on haute patisserie around Italy Prato typicality.
And again, the most awaited performances by the youngest: the drink shows focused on food pairing. Two shows MIX & MATCH which see two chefs and two bartenders from Prato side by side. Old fashion and twist with local products and botanicals, but above all a mixology where the protagonist is the white Vermouth of Prato and the liqueurs produced in the city.
One of the novelties of this edition, since all the wine tastings at sunset and the tastings of local grappas under the stars paired with chocolate and Prato biscuits will take place "at high altitudes", i.e. privileged observation points from which to admire the city: the Walls and Bastions of the Emperor's Castle, the crenellated upper crowning of the Cassero and the Terrace of Palazzo Pretorio. In each space, before the tasting, the public will also enjoy a historical and artistic visit of the building and of that portion of the city seen from up there.
“The summer appointment of EatPRATO is the central event of this event that will accompany us throughout 2021. We are very satisfied to be able to propose it again after a year off, due to the pandemic, with a broader and renewed formula that enhances the the food and wine, artistic and cultural tradition of Prato in a more complete way. A way to restart together, in safety, investing once again in the promotion and tourist attraction of our area", he said. Gabriel Bosi, Councilor for Tourism of Prato.
