Celebrations of food from every corner of Italy are held in Italy’s major cities each year in a food event called “Taste,” which was recently held in Florence over 3 days.


It attracted many producers again this year offering high quality uncured hams, salamis, cheeses, craft beers, wines, teas, coffees, juices, olive oils, canned and bottled products, as well as premium foods such as truffles and caviar, seafood, pastas, and sweets from all parts of Italy, along with products from other countries like Germany, Croatia and Spain.


There were also all manner of somewhat novel foods, with freeze dried fruit, flowers and sauces used as decorations by restaurants and patisseries, Asian vegetables and herbs grown in Italy, such as shiso and edible chrysanthemum as well as other interesting items including ketchup made from vegetables other than tomatoes.

Apart from the food producers’ booths, a variety of events were held at the venue at certain time slots each day, with gourmet guidebook presentations, bartender championships, and many other events.

In the mornings, entry was limited to the press, allowing them to talk business and taste samples in a quieter atmosphere, before entry for the general public opened from 14:30 allowing in restaura-teurs to sample lots of high-quality gourmet foods, and gourmands to buy foodstuffs that are diffi-cult to get in Florence, filling the venue.


You could also buy small quantities of many of the items on display inside the venue from a shop set up at the venue exit, so there were a lot of people there shopping as well.

Another event, Fuori di Taste (“outside Taste”), is held at various places around Florence, in res-taurants, bars, wine shops and hotels, outside the Taste venue, from 2 days before the 3-day Taste event until its end. I also tried exploring Fuori di Taste over the duration of Taste from the day before.

The producers who bring their foods from afar for Taste specially prepare dinners and appetizers using those foods in collaboration with the various restaurants, giving diners the opportunity, for a limited time, to eat and drink items that normally don’t appear on the menu, and creating a buzz around the restaurants in Florence for the period of the event.

I go to Taste and Fuori di Taste each year because it’s a great opportunity to extend my knowledge of Italian food, to find out from the source about all sorts of things, such as how they have created this event, an event that lets you actually talk face-to-face with the people who produce the food, and hear from the actual producers themselves.