sergio1972 wrote:

"A season for Italy"? Wow I had never thought of that, what a brilliant idea. Original and unheard of coming from Jamie.

Boring!   Same ol, same ol'...


P.S. - With all respect to you Mada 

good food cannot be boring, with all respect for you Sergio
  .......... and I think Italian food is for all seasons            I'm never so supponente age age old ... better pass on my pride to my nipotine

I know you are passionate about Portuguese cuisine Sergio but........

how can I put this ???

Italian food/cuisine has (for whatever reason) a world-wide reputation for it's variety, quality and regionality...

Portugal doesn't...... though it probably should have a much higher profile.

For instance I love many of their wines, which can be on a par with anything else in the world....yet you see only a handful of them over here (Excluding Port)

Yet Italian wines are readily available pretty much anywhere....

I think it's all down to clever marketing.........

Grandmadamada wrote:

ok ok ok it must be something related to what people around the world have in mind about Italy despite present very bad marketing images related to our most known chiefs ....... I would say better ambassadors are chefs food and feelings

I'll be honest, I dont know any italian chef. In fact, I think most of what we call "celebrity chefs" are british.
As to bad marketing images, I suppose that everything that is well spread around the world has pros and cons. And one of the cons is that there is indeed a lot of bad italian food and products around. Fortunately there are also good things!

Nice to see you posting, Sergio...

Nothing wrong with wanting to have a good moan and groan occasionally....especially when it's something you feel passionately about...

and when you feel like sharing a recipe...please do...we may not have the "Specific" ingredient...but can probably find something similar as a substitute...

sergio1972 wrote:

"A season for Italy"? Wow I had never thought of that, what a brilliant idea. Original and unheard of coming from Jamie.

Boring!   Same ol, same ol'...


P.S. - With all respect to you Mada 

I am sure that there will always be a celebration of Italy in Mr Oliver's food Calender .
Jamie's Italian is a chain of restaurants the he and Gennaro Contaldo set up  , Gennaro was Mr Olivers mentor and is a great friend of his.
Fifteen serves  wonderful Italian cuisine .
So it seems that Italian cuisine is something that features heavily in Mr Olivers life.

Also it has to be mentioned here that Mr Gennaro Contaldo has recently received a certificate of recognition from the Italian government for his contribution to Italian food .

We all know from the different TV shows that Mr Oliver makes that he is simply passionate about food and loves the discovery of something he has not seen or tried before. But Italian cuisine has always seemed to play a big part in his culinary life so it's only right it gets celebrated.

As wine-I says Italian cuisine is known about world wide and easily recognisable , most people know how to cook pasta , but if they don't cook it themselves , they eat it ! (Ok there are a few people who don't like pasta but they are in a definate minority ) .

outside of Portugal there seems to be little known about the cuisine .
I know if I think of Portugal , I think hills , beautiful dunshine , beaches and countryside , wine,  as I know portugese wine is good .. And fish ! As I know quite a lot of fish gets eaten !!!
But I know little else , sorry .