Italian Cultural and Culinary week to promoted food and culinary traditions

A total of 22 Chefs are to benefit from a cooking Masterclass organized by the Italian Embassy in Kampala as part of activities to mark the Italian Cultural and Culinary week.

The week is set to run from 22nd to 26 November 2021.

It  is an annual celebration that aims to promote Italian food and culinary traditions, and will be held under the theme “Dante the Italian”.

The embassy will host a range of events dedicated to Dante Alighieri the founding father of the Italian language.

Speaking during the launch of the week, Italy’s Ambassador to Uganda Masimiliano Mazzanti said chefs will be trained at Uganda Hotel and tourism institute in Jinja during the weeklong event.

 Italian Chef Liliana Novellino will deliver curated lessons on Florentine cuisine to culinary students.  She will also conduct the “From Chefs for Chefs” cooking master class at Sheraton Kampala Hotel. This class will give chefs an opportunity to master the Italian tastes in the preparation of their food.

 She will illustrate the use of Italian products grown and produced in Uganda to experienced chefs selected by the Ugandan Hotel Owners Association.

 On 24th November an Italian Uganda fusion masterclass will be offered to selected chefs in collaboration with Uganda Culinary association at Stone haven Winery and Restaurant.

This masterclass will be delivered by renowned Kenyan chef Rajab Mwitu who will merge Italian and  Uganda cuisines to create a unique and delectable equatorial taste

 “Training and skilling is the future of any exercise you can think about. It is useless if we just present Italian cuisine and we just somehow limit the exercise to testing something. We need to skill youth. Youth are very active in Uganda especially on the cuisine side. So we want to take this post-pandemic time to increase skilling of the people” the ambassador noted.

Suzan Kabonero Muhwezi the vice chairperson Board of Directors UTB and senior Presidential advisor on AGOA and other trade related matters, launched the week on Monday at the ambassador’s residence in Kololo.

“Last year as well  through the Italian embassy you were able to train 20 chefs by Italian chefs. The hotel sector, the tourism sector, and the Uganda government are happy for your participation in skills development for the young people and our chefs” Mrs Muhwezi said.

 She noted that there is a need for good services in the tourism sector. “We’ve put up very good hotels but we need good services. So we are very proud that you are starting in a very important area which is the kitchen” she said.

 Lilly Ajarova the Chief Executive Officer Uganda Tourism Board-UTB noted that “the annual From Chefs for chefs’ masterclass in collaboration with the Ugandan Hotel Owners association is critical to maintaining the unique and historical bonding between Italy and Uganda”.

Other activities during the week include a digital art competition dubbed “Draw me Dante” where Ugandans will showcase their skills through digital comic style impressions of Dante.

 There will be a Gala evening on “Florentine Poetry, Fellinesque Fantasy & Fragrant Cuisine”. This will commemorate 100 years since the birth of Federico Fellini, the most awarded Italian film director.