Dolce & Salato Fest finally happened.
It literally took weeks to prepare. Born from the passion and full dedication of our MODALiTA Team together with our top Gelato Chef and partner Sabrina Mancin, the event has been an ambitious project since its concept.
NYC has always had a strong Italian influence, which has grown year after year since the first Italian immigrants started to massively set foot on American soil. Over the last century the Italian community has become in fact a living part of the City. Italian culture has deepened its roots in several areas of New York – the so-called Little Italy – and has greatly inspired its pop culture and lore.
Over the decades, the first generations of Italian immigrants have been melting with the locals. Italian traditions have blended together with the local ones, but they somehow managed to preserve themselves.
Especially through food. Because food has always been for Italians a way to connect to each other and proudly defend their identity and home vibes. Today, a huge number of great chefs, gelato and pizza makers, and food artisans lead highly successful businesses based on Italian culinary excellence.
For this reason, dealing with Italian food is no easy task.
It’s not just about eating: it means instead dealing with identity, recognition and cultural significance. But also with the future of our Italian community.
That’s why we absolutely didn’t want to mess it up while setting up the event. Dolce & Salato Fest, in our vision, shouldn’t have been just an event to celebrate our traditions among ourselves. We didn’t want to make a whole event just to be self-referential about our own home country.
Our goal was rather to honor our secular culinary tradition by nurturing the entire movement of Italian culinary excellence in New York, laying the foundation for a sustainable growth.
Dolce & Salato Fest made us proud and thankful
During the weeks before the event, we strived to make it perfect. Which means carefully selecting some of the best partners and Italian chefs in the City, ensuring the presence of the leading Italian equipment brands, and advertising the Fest to grant the attendees a flourishing environment to learn, develop their know-how, and establish partnerships with other professionals and entrepreneurs.
Our final live demonstration schedule was the following:
10am-10:30am: Gelato – Sabrina Mancin
10:30am-11am: Maritozzi – Massimo Laveglia
11am-12pm: Panettone – Nicola Olivieri
11am-12pm: Bread – Massimo Laveglia
11am-2pm: Fresh Pasta – Luigi Speranza
11am-2pm: Fresh Mozzarella – Vito Linsalata
12pm-1pm: Pizza NY Style – Massimo Laveglia
1pm-2pm: Neapolitan Pizza – Ciro Iovine
2pm-3pm: Gnocchi – Michele Luliano
2pm-7pm: Fresh Pasta – Vito Linsalata
3pm-4pm: Neapolitan Pizza – Ciro Iovine
4pm-5pm: Gelato – Sabrina Mancin
4pm-5pm: Meringue Cake – Raffaele Solinas
5pm-6pm: Roman Style Pizza – Giovanni Barbieri
all day: Coffee – Bristot Caffé
Happy hour 5pm: Wine – The Orange Fox Wine
We were super excited to host all of these Superstar Chefs. Unfortunately, some of them had to drop out at the eleventh hour because of some personal or health issue. Also, at the time we didn’t know how many people would show up on November 14th. What if after all the effort we put in, the event hadn’t come out as we expected?
At the end of the day, the Fest actually didn’t come out as we expected.
Because it exceeded our expectations! A crowd of hundreds of people packed our showroom, attending all the – incredibly informative and inspiring – live cooking demos.
The level of the culinary masterpieces introduced and shown during the event was mesmerizing and the whole Fest has been a huge success both in terms of participation and quality showcased.
And for this wonderful foodie day of networking we have to say a wholehearted THANK YOU for all of you. Attendants, chefs, brands and sponsors who believe in Dolce & Salato Fest since the beginning.
You all have been a precious part of this pleasant day of sharing and connection.
Our Sponsors
Of course, in particular this event wouldn’t have been possible without all of its sponsors.
Among them, our Platinum Sponsors:
And our Gold Sponsors:
Also, a huge thank you goes to the Italian Trade Agency for its precious Patronage:
See you next year!
Of course, this First Edition of Dolce & Salato Fest is just the beginning.
Promoting the Italian food culture in NYC – and in the whole US – is a mission that requires effort and dedication, but also gives us motivation and long term vision.
Showcasing excellence and nurturing know-how will certainly raise the quality bar and will help more and more Italian food professionals to achieve extraordinary business results. That’s why we always put all our effort into selecting only the very best Italian equipment brands.
If you need help to bring your restaurant or shop to a new high, just contact us here.
You can also follow our blog and social media profiles for useful business tips.
Otherwise, stay tuned next year for the next Edition of Dolce and Salato Fest!