Talk
Free
Social gestures, preservation and memory in the contemporary basin.
Sunday 15 November · 13:30–14:15
Piazza Verdi
The Mediterranean is a story of ingredients that travel, recipes that change and cultures that meet. A look at contemporary cooking through the relationships between territories, eating habits and new interpretations of taste.
With
Marco Ambrosino
Marco Ambrosino is an Italian chef from Procida, known for his anthropological, Mediterranean-inspired cooking. In Naples he blends cultural narrative, creativity and contemporary techniques born of international experience. At 23 he joined the kitchen of Il Melograno in Ischia, a formative experience that defined his vocation and introduced him to haute cuisine as a fusion of culture, philosophy, history and art. After five years he grew in several internationally renowned kitchens, with a decisive period in Copenhagen where he discovered the freedom and creativity possible in contemporary cooking. Back in Italy in 2014, he shaped his culinary identity at 28 Posti in Milan, grounding his cuisine in anthropological thought and the cultural fluidity of Mediterranean port cities. In 2023 he opened a new chapter in Naples with Sustanza, uniting tradition, research and personal narrative, drawing menus by hand and celebrating the ever-evolving multicultural soul of the Mediterranean; in 2024 Identità Golose named him Chef of the Year. In 2026 he will conclude the Neapolitan project, ready for new adventures. In 2018, with his wife Simona Castagliuolo, he founded the Collettivo Mediterraneo, a project of inclusion and sharing across the Mediterranean basin.
With
Martina Francesconi
Gelatina
Martina Francesconi, born in Trentino, trained in the visual arts and gradually moved towards gastronomy until she opened Gelatina in 2017. Gelatina is an artisan gelateria and at the same time a gastronomic bookshop: two tools that allow her to carry forward every day a vision of food deeply tied to awareness and ethics, in the choice of raw ingredients and in the conditions of those who work. For years Martina has been part of the Tempi di Recupero network – of which she has become secretary – and is active in the Slow Food convivium of Genoa. One of her most representative projects is that of “free fruit”: a mapping of the fruit that grows in urban areas as decoration or in the wild, harvested and turned into gelato or preserved with techniques such as probiotic fermentation, restoring its dignity as food. For Martina gastronomy is also a political act, which passes through recipes, projects and respect for those who work alongside her. Gelatina is recognised as a consistent and committed place; in 2020 Martina was named best newcomer gelato maker and the gelateria earned the Gambero Rosso Three Cones, confirming the strength of a philosophy that unites taste, culture and rights.
Hosted by
Rocco Moliterni
A journalist from Basilicata and Turinese by adoption, Rocco Moliterni writes about art and food and wine for the daily La Stampa. His books include Parlami d'amore ragù and Non so che pesci pigliare, both published by Mondadori.
Tasty are the festival's credit. Buy them as often as you like, picking the package you prefer — from your phone or at one of the tills — and then go from stand to stand without reaching for anything again.
One Tasty is worth one euro of gelato. But each package is an offer of its own: the bigger it is, the more Tasty we throw in. Keep an eye on the promotions.
At the stand you open your wallet and let them scan your Wallet QR code, or you read out your Code. The maker reads it, the Tasty move, and the gelato is yours.
The code lives in the bottom bar, under your thumb: keep it ready while you queue.
Every gelato you taste, you can review. Reviews count towards the audience prizes, and they earn you free Tasty.
And the more Tasty you gather, the more spins of the wheel you get — where you win more Tasty.
You can send Tasty to anyone, as many as you like, and receive them from anyone who sends you some. And if you are holding a receipt with Tasty on it, you load it and they land in your wallet: that works even for a receipt you did not buy yourself — anyone can hand it to you, the way a paper voucher is handed over.
Whatever is left stays where it is, and you can always hand some to whoever is with you.
Tastings, meetings with the master makers, award nights: you look at the programme, book your seat and turn up.
The ticket is a QR like the wallet one: show it at the door and you are in.
Who is taking part, which flavours they bring and where in the square their stand is: the map tells you in one tap, and each maker's page tells you the rest.
Favourite the ones you want to taste: you will find them together once you are there.
