In the country that can boast of having invented the Mediterranean diet in its most complete expression, the economy of eating and drinking represents 15% of the national GDP. The Italian agri-food industry – from the most sought-after products to high quality industrial production – is in fact one of the pillars of the national economy, a cornerstone in which tradition and experimentation, familism and competition, sustainability and territory are inextricably linked to form a model virtuous, that the whole world envies us.
Fernanda Roggero has selected and collected eleven stories of excellence, from the heart of the Dolomites to Pantelleria, with a surprising variety of tastes and flavors to compose an impressive national portrait: the Italian bubbles of Ferrari, Mutti tomato sauce, Illy coffee, spaghetti from Pastificio Felicetti, the Mieli Thun company, the wines of the Donnafugata cellar, Parmesan from the Gennari Dairy, Loison artisanal panettone, Cherasco method snail, Nonino family grappa,Acquerello rice. Off the menu by Fernanda Roggero, published by Luiss in the "Bellissima" series directed by Nicoletta Picchio, journalist of the Sole 24 Ore, and in bookshops from March 18, is a surprising itinerary through Italy, a great choral story of how different companies - by vocation , strategy and products – can all be traced back to a single great mission: to project the taste for the future into the future Made in Italy.
"Made in Italy - Marino Niola writes in the preface - tells what changes and what remains of our country better than any history book. Because it restores the living plot of history, the one embodied in doing and knowing how to do it, the one that makes us who we are, which daily and silently nourishes our identity and our taste for the beautiful and the good. This is why it would be wrong to consider the world of Italian food a matter for gourmets alone, or for gastromaniacs. Because, in reality, it photographs that ability to transfigure poverty into typicality that has made Italian Food a planetary legend, the very image of the gastronomy of the future. Able to feed the planet without plundering its resources”.
Fernanda Roggero is a journalist of Sun 24 Hours, where he deals with Food & Wine and directed the monthly magazine for five years Twenty four. Off the menu it is his debut book.
