Two fine events have been organized by the Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute during the 4th Italian Cuisine Week, to promote abroad Italian cuisine and food products.
On November 19th, a grand opening with a gastronomic-musical event on traditional Jewish culinary culture in Italy. “In Vino VeryTanz” celebrated the link between wine and Jewish music and traditions: alcohol at different latitudes has often characterized the relationship with the Sacred, perhaps because the intoxicating power of wine can have the ability to elevate men, depriving them of the reaons’s inhibitory restraint and bringing them into a higher spiritual dimension, which more closely approaches the nature of the Sacred itself.
And the wine greatly characterizes Jewish life, both in rituals and in holiday celebrations even if wine, just because it is very much linked to pagan customs, has always been considered a controversial drink, due to the fact that it can easily either raise spiritually or lead towards pagan uses.
The show was a journey into traditional Jewish music related to wine, enriched with stories and illustrations narrating this theme. Songs in Hebrew, Ladin, Yiddish, Aramaic and in Italian Jewish dialects, in English and Russian, accompanied by the engaging rhythms of the Hasidic and Sephardic traditions made the numerous public attenging the event sing, dance and even toast. The show was followed by the tasting of products and dishes of the Italian Jewish culinary tradition by chef Giovanni Terracina.
On November 21st an evening “The taste of Italy” was organized to illustrate Italian food and wine tradition to the Norwegian public. The evening opened with a virtual journey from Piedmont – the Piedmont vineyard landscape is now UNESCO world heritage sites – to Tuscany, then making a jump also in Sicily.
A professional Norwegian sommelier told with images, videos and words about the Italian wine regions and various wines, all enriched by numerous anecdotes about wine producers. A tasting journey through Italy: a taste of wines and other products concluded the lively evening.
