Italian Wine and Food Festival 2017
The Cutaway, Barangaroo Reserve
Sydney, AU
August 28, 2017
The origin of the festival goes back to Lara Caraturo, a sommelier who in 2013 thought that an occasion needed to be created to shed light on Italian wine and food culture in Australia.
It is produced by Lara and the team at Progetto Panevino, an events company obsessed with all things wine and food, and especially all things Italian.
Their mission is to create engaging and informative events with artisans, quality wineries, renowned chefs and personalities, allowing guests to discover industry luminaries as well as rising stars, and deepen their love for authentic Italian wine and food.
In a bid to capture the spirit of Italy’s rich gastronomic culture and the diversity of its many regions, they give guests an opportunity to explore Italian wines region by region, taste food, coffee and beer, plus feast on authentic Italian pizza, pasta and snacks.
Held at The Cutaway and Barangaroo Reserve, the Sydney incarnation of the festival found an appropriate backdrop to celebrate its fifth year anniversary to appease an audience ranging from spaghetti-loving kids to the most engaged Italian-speaking wine connoisseur Sydney’s top Italian chefs were turning out in force to make it a day to remember, with much-loved locals Giovanni Pilu (Pilu at Freshwater), Lucio Galletto (Lucio’s), Federico Zanellato (LuMi), Stefano Manfredi and Gianluca Donzelli (Pizzaperta), Nino Zoccali (Pendolino), Richard Ptacnik (Otto Ristorante), Gabriele Taddeucci (Balla), Lucio de Falco (Lucio Pizzeria) and Youssef Touati (Salt Meats Cheese) showed their skills in terms of preparing authentic Italian cuisine, be it with key ingredients like salami, cheese, pasta, bread, coffee, olive oil, pastries or more exotic fare and desserts like gelato featuring Vannella Cheese, That’s Amore Cheese, Arancini Art, Molecola, Truffle Traders, Rivareno Gelato, Drink in Style, Cellar V, Vinotopia, Botella, plus a Nutella Pop-up.
Vino played of course a more than instrumental role and over two hundred region specific fine drops were proffered, backed by masterclasses and Q & As with the makers.
Coffee had its very own place, as did Italian beer and aperitifs, e.g. Negronis and Venetian Spritzers and proceedings were framed by an engaging entertainment program ranging from pizza acrobatics
and the performance of traditional music from Southern Italy.
A perfectly curated festival that is all about celebrating wine, food and culture together in inimitable Italian style.
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Photos by KAVV
