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Week-long event focused on Italian cuisine showcases a taste of Rome
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From Rome with love: Italian celebrity chef Max Mariola hosted a cooking demo on Nov. 16-17 at The Dharmawangsa Jakarta hotel, as a part of The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World 2022 event promoting Roman food. (Courtesy of Italian Cultural Institute Jakarta)
T
he seventh edition of The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World includes a dinner by celebrity chef Max Mariola, highlighting Rome’s years-old recipes.
The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World returned for its seventh edition in Jakarta on Nov. 14-20. Organized by the Italian Cultural Institute (IIC) with the support of the Italian Embassy, this year’s event aims to promote traditional Roman food.
“[The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World 2022] aims to support Rome as a candidate to be the host city for the World Exhibition [Expo] in 2030,” stated Maria Battaglia, director of IIC Jakarta, in the event’s booklet.
This year’s theme is conviviality, sustainability and innovation, which the event states are the ingredients of Italian cuisine, aimed at health prosperity and safeguarding the planet.
The event featured a special dinner with Italian celebrity chef Max Mariola on Nov. 18 at Jakarta Restaurant in The Dharmawangsa Jakarta hotel.
The dinner served seven courses, each one highlighting Rome’s traditional recipes with Italian ingredients.
“We brought 80 kilograms of ingredients from Italy,” chef Mariola told The Jakarta Post through a translator on Nov. 18. “Some of the products we bring are frozen. So, one of the challenges is to make sure that those are not damaged once we get here. But fortunately, the [Jakarta Restaurant] team is very helpful.”
The dinner started with fried baccala (salted cod fish), tomato and basil suppli (fried rice balls) with tomato sauce from Vesuvius and anchovy bruschetta, using semi-whole wheat bread from Lariano with butter-infused lemon and Magno anchovy.
It was followed by main courses, which included “mezze maniche” cacio e pepe (pasta with cheese and pepper sauce), chicken with bell peppers and lamb “Alla Cacciatora” with Roman-style artichoke.
Mariola noted that local ingredients were incorporated in some dishes, but not many. “The lamb dish, for instance,” he said to the Post. “In Rome, [for this menu], we use lamb that only feeds on its mother’s milk [so the meat is tender]. [But tonight], we use local lamb, which is a bit old [for this recipe]. In Rome, we can cook this dish in one hour, but here, we cooked the meat for five hours to make it tender.”
The dinner ended with espresso tiramisu for dessert.
Chef Mariola also performed a cooking demo on Nov. 16 and 17 at Jakarta Restaurant.
The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World 2022 also collaborated with Gandaria City in hosting pizza acrobatic performances by chefs Danilo Pagano and Alessandro Coluccino from the Nazionale Acrobati Pizzaioli (National Association of Acrobatic Pizza Makers) and a pizza competition hosted by Christan Giacobbe, founder of Bali Comedy Club, on Nov. 18-20.
