“We work with and for food; and for us [this event] is one of the highest artistic expressions that involves the five senses.”
Every year in September, the impressive Hanging Gardens at the Parco della Musica Auditorium becomes the venue for the Taste of Roma food festival. Over four days, the city’s top chefs preside over eighteen pop-up restaurants, each tempting festival goers with a unique and innovative four-course meal. With Rome’s gourmet reputation already renowned worldwide, how would you even begin to choose where to start? The first rule is arriving hungry!
This year was the seventh festival to take place. It has continued to grow from strength to strength with ever-increasing numbers of visitors and some of the most high profile chefs from not only Rome, but Italy and the rest of the world taking part in the event. It was organized by be.it events, whose General Manager, Mauro Dorigo, said, “We work with and for food; and for us [this event] is one of the highest artistic expressions that involves the five senses.”
Certainly, the passion, drive, imagination, and flare of the organizers and the participants were unmistakeable. The challenge faced by the chefs was to create a menu that used the best Italian produce, maintained a sense of tradition, but pushed the boundaries of typical Italian cuisine and lit up the taste buds of those eating it.
Alongside the pop-up restaurants were cookery demonstrations, question and answer sessions, sponsorship stands and seminars – and all buzzing with interest and excitement from the public who could not get enough of the delicious treats and insider expert tips. To complement the exquisite food were some choice selections of wines, champagnes, spirits, and cocktails carefully chosen and concocted by the best wine experts and mixologists in Rome. Just take a look at some of the social media surrounding the event (for an example, use the hashtag #tasteofroma2018) to see what I mean!
The famous names of the chefs and restaurants were: Acquolina with Angelo Troiani, All’Oro with Riccardo di Giacinto, Barrique with Oliver Glowing, Bistrot 64 with Kotaro Noda, Enoteca Achilli al Parlamento with Massimo Viglietti, Finger’s with Roberto Okabe, Glass Hostaria with Cristina Bowerman, Il Convivio Troiani with Daniele Lippi, Imàgo all’Hassler with Francesco Apreda, La Pergola – Hotel Rome Cavalieri with Heinz Beck, La Terrazza Hotel Eden with Fabio Ciervo, Magnolia with Franco Madama, Metamorfosi with Roy Caceres, Mirabelle Hotel Splendide Royal with Stefano Marzetti, Per Me with Giulio Terrinoni, Ristorante Il Tino with Daniele ‘Lele’ Usai, Tordomatto with Adriano Baldassarre and Maestri in Cucina Ferrarelle with a combination of a chef and pizzaiolo.
After gorging on Francesco Apreda’s succulent buffalo mozzarella and bruschetta (for me, the simpler dishes were the stand out ones), I found myself at the Johnnie Walker Highball experience stand – not completely accidentally, I will admit. The space was reminiscent of the iconic grocery store in nineteenth century America (saloon doors swinging, John Wayne whistling etc.) and you were invited to choose between a smoky, creamy, tropical, or fruit-based cocktail, specially created for the Taste of Roma festival and for the very reasonable price of €6. I had two: the smoky and the fruit-based ones, and they were delicious!
At this point, I was completely full and ready to collapse. My pre-paid card and my ability to eat another thing were exhausted. There are two types of tickets for this event – standard or VIP. The standard ticket suited me (as I know what I like, but I am not a gourmand by any means!) and I was then able to load my ticket/card with multiples of €5 to use at the different stalls.
It is easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of restaurants, osterias, trattorias, street food, pizzerias, etc., when walking around Rome. This festival helped re-set my taste buds and to remind me of the sheer joy of really exquisitely prepared food. I will be making more careful choices in future – balancing style with substance, location with atmosphere; and it is fair to say that the restaurants represented at this festival are a good place to start. I look forward to investigating some new places and revisiting some old favorites as the nights begin to draw in. Keep reading for other year-round suggestions, and I hope to see you at the Taste of Roma 2019 festival.
How to get there:
Nearest tram: Line 2 (stop: De Coubertin/Corso Francia)
Nearest bus: 53, 168, 910, 982 (stop: De Courbertin/Auditorium)
