Two euros for the populations struck by the earthquake for every plate of pasta ‘all’amatriciana’ consumed anywhere in the world. This is the campaign promoted by Slow Food, inviting all the Chefs of the world to include a plate of “pasta all’amatriciana”, the world-famous dish created precisely in Amatrice, on their menus for a year. This commendable initiative has also been favourably welcomed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which sensitized its overseas network of offices to spread the news and give adequate support to Slow Food’s campaign abroad.  

“Through this icon of Amatrice’s culinary tradition, we hope to also spread around the world the values of solidarity and sharing characteristic of the peasant culture which created it,” explained Carlo Petrini, the president of Terra Madre and Slow Food. He went on: “We joined the spontaneous initiatives launched in Italy in the past few hours and we topped them by calling into play restaurants the world over for a whole year. We hope that in this way attention won’t dim and will outlast the momentary wave of emotions: let us overcome the emergency and begin the reconstruction as of now. Whoever experienced this tragedy must be able to go back to his/her normal life as soon as possible, the allocation of funds must persist and fund-raising must be constant.” Mr Petrini continued: “With ‘A Future for Amatrice’ (#unfuturoperamatrice) we ask restaurant owners throughout the world to include in their menus the iconic dish of the city hit by the quake and to maintain it for at least one year. And we ask customers to order it. Two euros will be paid for every plate of “pasta all’amatriciana” consumed, one by the restaurant owner and one by the customer. The funds collected will be paid directly to the Municipality (Comune) of Amatrice.” In the meantime, starting from now, everyone is invited to choose “the food and agricultural products produced in the areas affected in order to support the local economy. Slow Food’s international network is already at work to raise public awareness and get as many people as possible to join the initiative”.