Hong Kong - Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver will open 30 Italian family-style restaurants in Asia, with the first one set to open its doors to his gastronomic followers in Hong Kong early in 2010. The move marks the first step in taking his chain Jamie's Italian - which now has five eateries in England - outside his hometown, to a region which takes pride in its rich diversity of international cuisine and where the economy is picking up faster than anywhere else in the world.

"Why Asia? Of all the markets, it has by far the fastest-growing economy," said Edward Pinshow, president of Tranic Franchising, which formed a venture with Jamie's Italian International for the Asia expansion. "The Chinese have become extremely fond of Italian food. In Japan, Jamie's become a household name," he said on Tuesday. They plan to roll out another 24 eateries in other parts of the region over the next five years, with China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea among the most likely candidates for location. He said the menu would offer a full-course meal with antipasti, main dish, dessert, plus a glass of Italian wine, for an average of 300 Hong Kong dollars (about 38USD) per head. "At Jamie's restaurants, you will often find a blue-collar worker, a student, and the chairman of a blue-chip company side by side having a meal," said Pinshow, while stressing that everything they served would be "natural and organic."

Bauli, the Italian firm based in Verona that produces the famous Pandoro and Panettone bought the historic brands Motta e Alemagna, from the Swiss multinational Nestlé, together with the factory of San Martino Buonalbergo. “The only true strategic plan of a family company as ours is to deliver a stronger and more solid business to the next generation”, Alberto Bauli, the Chairman of the firm, said in an interview with Stanislao Porzio, founder of Re Panettone and food historian. Porzio has a particular expertise on the history of Panettone, the Italian traditional Christmas sweet, born in the city of Milan. It was Angelo Motta, a pastry chef, that in 1919 began to change the history of Panettone production. He was soon followed by the business Gioacchino Alemagna, both brands were very successful for various decades. Bauli, the son of a former Italian migrant to Argentina, said also that Bauli has guaranteed the employment of former Nestlé workforce. More info on the Panettone history in La Vita è dolce

Happy cows aren’t on Facebook, The Lone Tuscan rides again, Splish Splash, are just some of the hilarious posts you may find on Italian Cooking in the loop, the blogspot run by Gvci’s and New York based Cesare Casella, Chef Patron of Salumeria Rosi in New York’s Upper West Side and Dean of Italian Culinary Insititute of the Big Apple.

There are several  Italian Cuisine Chef and Executive Sous Chef positions available in Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, Saudi Arabia. An expert Pizzaiolo is wanted in New York. For more information or to send your CV please write to us.

The producers located in Chianti Classico have agreed to sell only 80 % of this year’s production in an attempt to stabilize prices in the market. Chianti Classico Consorzio have taken this first-time-ever decision due to their concen for the falling bulk prices, which could tarnish the reputation of the Tuscan DOCG. Wineries will hold back 20 % of the wines produced with the 2009 harvest for a minimum of 24 months. "It’s an experiment. And it’s not too painful for the estates, especially for those who produce Riserva wines”, said a representative of the Consorzio. The Riserva category requires an extra 24 months of ageing. The main idea is to avoid speculation after bulk prices for Chianti Classico fell drastically during 2008 and early 2009.

Parade Magazine— with a readership of 33 million people—has just given the Mediterranean Diet the "Best Diet for Life" title. Only a few days before, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) announced new scientific studies, authored by Prof. Nikolaos Scarmeas (Columbia University), reconfirm the connection between the Mediterranean Diet and a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Scarmeas and colleagues found out that people who ate according to the Mediterranean Diet pattern (or a similar one) and regularly exersized moderately had a 48 % lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than those who did not follow this lifestyle.

Children’s Day, last Sunday in Chile, and GVCI Roberto Illari, chef patron of Bel Paese Restaurant, in Santiago, organized a special celebration. Games, fun, a cooking class and plenty of Italian food in entertaining shapes, for his little guests. Funny Pennette al sugo, hilarious lasagne and flying cotoletta alla Milanese. Children’s cusine of excellent quality. Watch the photos here.

Bel Paese Restaurant

The kids showing their final plates

“It seems to me that a study of Italian fish soups, of which there is a considerable variety, with ancient traditions, should have beneficial effects on our daily food”, wrote Elizabeth David, in her book Italian Food, since its first edition in 1954. It’s not sure if the organisers of the International Festival of Brodetto and fish soups were inspired by the great English food writer, but certainly their Event has been a success to date. The VII edition of the Festival will be held at Fano Lido (Ancona, Marche) from September 10^th thru 13^th, 2009. Brodetto is among the many Italian fish soups and is very common on the Adriatic coast. Elizabeth David, with her precision, included in her book the recipe of brodetto, with the traditional ingredients. “Two or three varieties of squid (seppie, calamaretti, calamaroni), eel, red mullet, spigola (sea bass), sole, and canocchie (squilla mantis), a flat-tailed Adriatic and Mediterranean crustacean with a delicate flavour and lilac marks on its white flesh. Also called pannocchie and cicala di mare”. But in the section dedicated to the Italian Fish soups gave also the recipes of Burrida, from Genoa, Cacciucco (Livorno), Zuppa di pesce alla Caprese, Zuppa di Cozze – e di peoci in Venezia.

After 5 years at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, in which he was also the Chef de Cuisine at the Italian Restaurant Carnevale, Andrea Strim is now the Executive Sous Chef of al Burj Al Arab, the 7-star super luxury Hotel. From September 1^st, Susy Massetti, after leaving the Sas Radisson Hotel in Bahrain, where she was Executive chef, will come back to the Sheraton Hotel and Resort.