Our knowledge of Italian cuisine is constantly improving in the UK. While we know that the food you find in northern Piedmont is very different to what you’d see in southern Calabrian restaurants, it’s clear that pasta is the one food that brings Italy together as a country. That’s why the Barilla Pasta World Championship is one of the most exciting cooking competitions in Europe; it takes one of the most traditional, beloved foods on the planet and proves chefs can still innovate, experiment with and reinvent the simple combination of durum wheat and water after hundreds of years. I’d attended the championships in 2016 as a judge, but this time I was able to relax and enjoy the event from the stands. This year’s contest was bigger than ever before, so I had the chance to talk to some of the world’s leading chefs, food writers and bloggers over the three-day event, which included talks and demonstrations concerning everything wonderful about pasta. Of particular interest was Pietro Leemann’s speech about how well-suited pasta is to a vegetarian diet – see what we talked about afterwards here.
The scale of the competition is, quite frankly, massive. Hosted across Milan and Parma, a purpose-built amphitheatre was set up to house all the press and competing chefs. Barilla put so much time and energy into this event because they believe that chefs are the key to the future of food, looking to them for innovation and new ideas. It’s no surprise that this year’s theme was the future of pasta, which meant there were some seriously inventive dishes on show throughout the competition and even some 3D printed pasta (but that is a story for another day)! On day one, the competing chefs created their signature dish; on day two, they were tasked with recreating the iconic classic spaghetti al pomodoro, and the final day saw the three finalists cook for a very special panel of judges. The whole competition proved just how versatile pasta can be; the same packet of linguine can be used to create a simple midweek dinner in under fifteen minutes, or incorporated into a complex, avant-garde dish that pushes the boundaries of contemporary Italian cooking.
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Barilla Pasta World Championship 2017: the world cup of pasta