For nine weeks, Alba and all its territory will come alive from Saturday 8 October to Sunday 4 December with the 92nd edition of the International Alba White Truffle Fair 2022 which from year to year develops more and more environmental issues of world projections.
This year's theme "Time is up" refers to a transversal concept, returning to the focus on sustainability (environmental, social and economic), “Connected with nature”, introduced last year, with reference both to the need to intervene to stop climate change, and to the economic and social responsibility choices of companies and individuals.
“The challenge that the International Alba White Truffle Fair aims to collect is to always be contemporary: we realize that due to the urgency of climate change issues we need to face and stimulate a cultural change that must necessarily involve the new generations more and more. Because young people are not the future, but the present – affirms the president of the Fair Authority Liliana Allena –. With the Fair we would like to intercept the tourists of tomorrow, who today perhaps do not travel yet and live immersed in the digital world, of social networks and gaming, but who will soon be the protagonists of the tourist flows, and will do so by looking for more and more 'phigital' experiences on horseback between the real and the virtual. In the 92 edition we will deal with many themes with great transversality, the same transversality that characterizes our audience, proposing a program that is both pop and sophisticated, obviously without distorting our identity, which maintains its focus on the White Truffle of Alba and haute cuisine, but taking advantage of the opportunities that each phase of change brings with it”.
The intense program of initiatives will kick off Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October with the cycle of meetings "Sustainability crossed", bringing together characters from the world of high finance, digital innovation, excellent craftsmanship, high fashion, art, music, design and of culture and, of course, signature cuisine, called to think about the urgency of a change of course, at all levels, suggested by young people who, from spectators, will become active "players".
Another big news this year will come from the renewed collaboration with Microsoft Italy, which together with the golden partner for Mixed Reality "Hevolus" will offer visitors to the Fair a unique experience. In Alba, the future becomes present thanks to a taste of what could be the way to use a tourist destination over a medium-term time horizon, in a hybrid form between fiction and physical presence. The Fair thus overlooks the Metaverse, working to intercept trends and phenomena of the moment and involving more, with this edition, the Generation Z and the tourists of tomorrow. Young people who today perhaps still do not travel so much - also thanks to the two years of the pandemic - and live immersed in the digital world, of social networks and gaming, but who will soon be protagonists of tourist flows, and will do so by looking for more and more experiences between the real and the virtual.
And, remaining on the subject, this year the Fair will also see the partnership with theTabUi app, which will propose a digital search for truffles through QR Codes scattered throughout the City of Alba.
Dawn to Earth: highlighting projects with an ethical background on food and sustainability
Also this year Alba will then find its connection with the rest of the planet through Dawn to Earth, the project that involves the use of White Truffle of Alba as ambassador and its annual fair as a shared house to be made available to highlight the most valid projects with an ethical background in the world panorama of food, biodiversity, high finance and ICT: after chef Norbert Niederkofler, the The "game changers" identified for this year are the chefs Chiara Pavan and Francesco Brutto, of the Venissa restaurant in Mazorbo, by virtue of their commitment to "environmental cuisine". In the Venice lagoon, the chefs offer a sustainable and avant-garde cuisine which describes, on the one hand, a dependence and a great coherence between the dishes proposed and the surrounding environment. On the other hand, it denotes an almost maniacal attention to the "environmental question", and therefore to the more topical themes such as waste reduction, self-production, local procurement, seasonality and recovery.
Alba White Truffle World Market: the cuisine at the centre
Heart of the Fair will remain the Alba White Truffle World Market, together with the Albaqualità review, inside the Cortile della Maddalena, which can be visited every weekend on Saturday and Sunday, with the extraordinary opening on Monday 31 October and Tuesday 1 November. It will be the place where to be able to buy magnificent specimens of Tuber magnatum Pico, accurately selected by the Truffle Sensory Analysis judges, trained by the National Center for Truffle Studies, to guarantee the quality of the products offered.
The intense program of the Fair therefore continues with i Cooking Show (in the Sala Beppe Fenoglio, accompanied by the "Alte Bollicine Piemontesi" of the Alta Langa Consortium and the welcome entrée of the Consortium for the Promotion and Protection of Prosciutto Crudo di Cuneo DOP), and the proposal of gourmet creations born from the inspiration of big names in national and international cuisine, as well as seminars Truffle sensory analysis – immersive experience which allows you to know the characteristics of the truffle in a simple but profound way.
Crossing the borders of the hills of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato, the White Truffle of Alba will also stop this year in Cuneo with the "Cena del Talento"), Milan (in the events planned for La Vendemmia, in collaboration with MonteNapoleone District, and at the House of BMW), Montecarlo (on the occasion of the Monaco Yacht Show 2022 and at CREM, the circle of foreign residents of Monaco) arriving as far as the United States, to participate in the VII Week of Italian Cuisine in the World at the Miami Culinary Institute.
Once again this year, the events that will see Alba – together with Bergamo and Parma, one of the three Unesco Creative Cities for Italian gastronomy – protagonist of the Creative Moments: through a twinning with the other cities that share this title all over the world, on 1 November the Fair will host the Unesco Creative Cities of Rouen (France), Cochabamba (Bolivia) and Bohicon (Benin), with foreign chefs who will lead show proposing a traditional dish of their country in combination with the White Truffle of Alba, for a cultural contamination with very high added value.
Roddi's Truffle Hub is once again central to this 92nd edition, hosting dinners and events as part of the enhancement project "Excellences of Piedmont in Showcase", created in collaboration with the Tourism Department of the Piedmont Region, the regional DMO Visit Piedmont and the Piedmontese ATLs.
The pertinence of the manor will also host, every Monday morning, iccooking bears taught by guest chefs which will allow the participants to live a unique experience, discovering the recipes with which to combine the Alba White Truffle and local wines, finally tasting what they have created with their own hands.
Sunday 13th November, in connection with the Grinzane Cavour Castle – headquarters of the Piedmontese Regional Enoteca Cavour -, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vienna e Qatar will compete, relaunch after relaunch, for the most prestigious lots of selected specimens of Tuber magnatum Pico, during the XXIII World Auction of the Alba White Truffle. It is in the context of this event that the promotion of local excellence and the exercise of solidarity in favor of important charitable causes come together perfectly, with over 5,7 million euros collected from 1999 to today. New this year, the connection with Qatar, with the “Alba by Enrico Crippa” restaurant, soon to open in Doha, inside the Katara Towers.
