Academia Barilla just broadcasted another press release today, to announce Barilla’s sponsorship commitment to the 26th American Wine and Food Festival, and the participation of Academia Barilla to the event. 

As usual, we republish the entire press release here below; please find the press office contacts at the boilerplate - enjoy the reading!

Academia Barilla and Barilla at the 26th American Wine and Food Festival in Los Angeles

Academia Barilla participates in the 26th American Wine and Food Festival in Los Angeles sponsored by Barilla, featuring top gourmet Chefs and events to support the Los Angeles Chapter of Meals on Wheels charity organization.

PRWEB, September 24, 2008 - Academia Barilla and Barilla will be participating this weekend in the 26th American Wine and Food Festival in Los Angeles, California. The Beverly Hills wine and food festival is open to the public and features live music, a silent auction and an epicurean feast prepared by an array of the world’s greatest chefs.

Several gourmet events and Chefs dinners are scheduled each day in celebration of the festival – here follows the official program of gourmet events and dinner parties, but please refer to the American Wine and Food Festival website for more booking info.

SEPTEMBER 26 - Red Hot @ Red Seven in celebration of the 26th American Wine and Food Festival. Come meet the chefs at Wolfgang Puck’s Red Seven and celebrate an evening of fine wines and spirits, music and spectacular beef.

SEPTEMBER 27 - Back lot gourmet tasting at the Universal Studios in Los Angeles, where a line up of today’s most prominent chefs will converge for a culinary celebration at the American Wine and Food Festival. A star-studded gathering of internationally celebrated chefs and fine wine and spirit purveyors will serve in honor of the occasion.

SEPTEMBER 28 – 9th Annual Chef’s Grand Tasting Dinner at Spago Beverly Hills in celebration of the 26th American Wine and Food Festival, hosted by Wolfgang Puck, Lee Hefter and Barbara Lazaroff and featuring Guest Chefs such as Nobu of Matsuhisa, Eric Rioert of Le Bernardin, and Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, and Barilla Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni.

Since its inception in 1982, the Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation has supported the American Wine and Food Festival, raising more than $14 million for the Los Angeles Chapter of Meals On Wheels. This organization serves thousands of meals each day to Los Angeles’ homebound, senior and disabled citizens.

As Chef Lorenzo Boni said, “Cooking is always fun, and cooking with other top Chefs is even more fun and inspiring, especially when we are cooking for a good cause!”

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Academia Barilla Press contacts

In the USA: Stephanie Sette: Tel. +1 847-405-7564; ssette@barilla-usa.com
In Italy: Ilaria Rossi: Tel. +39 0521-2621; i.rossi@barilla.it
Barilla Press Office (Italy): Marco Magli; Tel. +39 0521-2621; m.magli@barilla.it

The Auditorium of the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma, Italy, will host Gusti d’Autore (Author’s Tastes), three-days of evening events opening today, April 7, 2007, and presenting daily events until Wednesday April 9.

Gusti d’Autore is promoted by Academia Barilla in partnership with the City of Parma, and with the support of BIGAB, Academia Barilla’s Gastronomic Library.

The event proposes three days dedicated to Italian gastronomic culture. Each evening will see the participation of several VIPs of the “Italian food scene” who will discuss stories, curiosities and new culinary tendencies while hands-on culinary demos will take place in front of the public.

The first evening will be dedicated to discussing “Cucina Low-cost” (Low-cost cuisine), Tuesday evening will be stage to a culinary round table on “Tradizione e Innovazione” (Tradition and Innovation), while Wednesday, the closing night, will be a soirée dedicated to “Parma ieri, oggi e domani” (Parma yesterday, today and tomorrow).

All the guests participating to the three days event are Italian gourmet experts, ranging from gastronomy experts to food journalists and top Chefs:

• Camillo Langone, who writes about restaurants and literiture for several Italian newspapers (”Il Foglio”, “Il Giornale”, “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, “Il Domenicale”, “Panorama”);
• Paolo Marchi (Cuisine), a chef “manqué” who has been writing food columns (”Cibi Divini”, “Affari di Gola”) for the daily newspaper “Il Giornale” in the last 12 years. Marchi is also founder and editor of “Identità Golose” (Gourmet Identities), an international congress of haute cuisine held in Milan every January.
• Luigi Cremona, a gastronomy lover from Cremona who cooperates with the italian Touring Club in the editing of many Restaurants and Wines Guides. Cremona is also the Director of the oenologic magazine “Spirito DiVino“, and has been awarded as “Journalist of the Year” at the 2007 Wine Oscars.
• Davide Cassi, a Professor a of Molecular Gastronomy and a member of the Italian Kitchen, is very keen on the science of cooking. Editor of several scientific texts in Statistical Mechanics, Cassi’s research concerns fractals, gastronomy and the scientific theory of graphs. In the last 15 years Cassi applied his research on physics of complex systems to gastronomy. Cassi directs the Laboratory of Food Science, the only facility of its kind in Italy, which develops and experiences, both scientifically and gastronomically, new cooking techniques. He also authored, with Chef Bocchia, the book “The estemporaneo ice cream and other inventions” (Il gelato estemporaneo e altre invenzioni gastronomiche), the first manual on molecular cooking.
• Andrea Grignaffini, cuisine academician, after working with Luigi Veronelli at L’Etichetta and being curator at Cose Buone Publishing for the last 10 years, today is the Creative Director at Spirito DiVino magazine. Italian pioneer in cigar journalism, he’s been part of the L’Espresso restaurant guidebook directive committee since 1998. He also works with Gazzetta di Parma newspaper and Tv Parma, while teaches Tasting methodology at Parma’s University of Gastronomic science.
• Massimo Bottura is the top Chef at Osteria La Francescana, a restaurant located in the historic center of downtown Modena. Awarded with 2 Michelin stars, Bottura makes large use of unusual flavors or ingredient combinations, creating recipes that are a journey through tradition, innovation and the unexpected. His formulas and dishes are made of classic and contemporary ingredients, let alone a combination of simple and complex cooking techniques. Always open to new interpretations of the Italian culinary art, he claims that “the important thing to me is to achieve a balance between form and color to captivate the eyes of the customers. Then comes the balance among texture, temperature and flavor to please the palate.”

The three gastronomic evenings will take place on April 7, 8 and 9, and will be open to the public between 9pm and 10.30pm with free entrance, and performed at the Auditorium of the Academia Barilla Culinary School at the Barilla Center, Largo Calamandrei, in Central Parma. Google Maps here below for easy driving directions.

Seating is limited, so reservations are highly recommended. Call +39 0521 264.060 or send an email at info@academiabarilla.it to book your seat at Gusti d’Autore.

Planning to be in Southern California this weekend? Then you shouldn’t miss the new event organized by Learn About Wine, the California-based organization dedicated to raise awareness on wine culture through tasting events, oenology workshops and other initiatives.

Academia Barilla has already joined Learn About Wine (LAW) in several gourmet occasions, and Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Francesco Zimone is already a “resident guest” at LAW events.

A couple of weeks ago Francesco Zimone hosted a gourmet food tasting demo at another LAW event at HD Buttercup, the hip Los Angeles furniture mall, where this picture has been taken.

Next Saturday April 5 Francesco Zimone and some of the top gourmet specialties from Academia Barilla will be also delighting the palates of the crowd of visitors of Malibu Wine Classic, another event promoted by Learn About Wine.

The 5th Annual Malibu Wine Classic Charity Event returns to Malibu on the grounds of the Malibu Civic Center, in the heart of Malibu, LA, California, Saturday, April 5, 2008.

The Malibu Wine Classic showcases the most highly regarded Californian wineries from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, combined with top Malibu and Los Angeles area restaurants. Academia Barilla and Italian Culinary Specialist Francesco Zimone will be offering free tasting samples of Italian gourmet food products from the Academia Barilla range of gastronomic specialties.

The Afternoon Grand Tasting featuring tasting portions from 60 top selected wineries and over a dozen restaurants and gourmet purveyors such as Academia Barilla, will take place in the courtyard setting of the Malibu Civic Center overlooking Santa Monica Bay, and benefits Childhelp®, an organization ranked by Town&Country Magazine as a Top 10 children’s charity in the USA. A portion of the purchase price ($50) is a tax-deductible charitable donation to Childhelp®, a national children’s charity.

Opening time is noon until 5pm, with public advance purchase tickets available for $79 per person calling +1 (310) 451-7600. More info is also available at the Malibu Wine Classic website.

The address to the Malibu Wine Classic event is: Malibu Civic Center, 23555 Civic Center Way - Malibu, California 90265. For full driving directions please refer to the Google Map here above.

On-site parking at the Malibu Civic Center is available for $5, Valet parking for $8. Remember that, by law, no children or minors are permitted at the event - sorry!

Academia Barilla and the NY-based epicurean company Alta Cucina recently agreed to partner in order to provide an easier access to their product and services to their reciprocal customers.

Academia Barilla customers and friends (this extends to all our Italian food Lovers readership - yes, we mean you reading this now) are now entitled to a good discount on the Alta Cucina membership fee.

With only 25$ per year (instead of the current 45$) the Alta Cucina membership will give you access to all the following benefits:

- monthly newsletter, available only to members, containing information on the latest products, trends, restaurants and recipes from famous Chefs, specially created for Alta Cucina Members;
- a welcome gift package of Gourmet Italian products (value $30);
- Nonna Genia, a classic Langhe recipes cookbook (value $18);
- member price discounts for four people to all the Alta Cucina events
- 10% discount to selected restaurants (check member restaurant list on Alta Cucina website for specific discount);
- 10% discount of all the product from the Alta Cucina shopping mall;
- a $30 discount on every Eurofly ticket from the USA to Italy (discount applies only on flight booked directly from the Alta Cucina or Eurofly websites);
- two $25 coupons (a value of $50 a year) for drinks and beverages, to be used twice a year, once every six months, at the Whaler Bar at the Jolly Hotel Madison Towers in New York;
- special discounts on selected events and trips.

Wow, that is a lot of value for a 25$ membership! In order to access this great offer just click this link or visit the membership page at the Alta Cucina website at www.altacucinasociety.com, and claim your discount by using the code academiabarilla.

Also, there is a great Academia Barilla offer for Alta Cucina members, who now get a 10% discount on any purchase at the Academia Barilla online store. Alta Cucina members will get their discount code with an Alta Cucina newsletter.

We’ll keep you updated on the upcoming initiatives between Academia Barilla and Alta Cucina. In the meantime, we suggest you get their membership!

Napa Valley in Los Angeles? You may think this is not possible, and certainly it would be impossible if it wasn’t for our friends at Learn About Wine, who have been promoting Wine Culture in the Los Angeles area for the last few years.

This is not the first time Academia Barilla partners Learn About Wine (LAW) for a food and wine tasting event in Southern California, as some of our blog readers can recall.

Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Specialist Francesco Zimone is always ready to join our friends at LAW to set up a tasting event with some of our delicious Italian food specialties.

Tomorrow, Friday March 7, between 7.30pm and 9.30pm PST, Francesco will be joining again Learn About Wine for a special event in Culver City, Los Angeles, where Napa Valley wines will meet gourmet food.

The list of Napa Valley wines available for tasting is impressive, and if you are a wine lover who lives in the area you should try not to miss this event. Check LAW’s website for the full list of Napa Valley wines available at the event, that you can enjoy while tasting samples of Academia Barilla’s Italian extra virgin olive oils and Balsamic Vinegars of Modena.

The address for the Learn About Wine event is HD Buttercup in Culver City, 3225 Helms Ave at Venice Blvd. A Google Map to the event is provided here below for your driving direction needs.

Entry fee is $60 per person / $100 per couple (online only), while TASTE Members pay only $48 (find more info about the very valuable LAW membership programs at LearnAboutWine.com).

Get your ticket in advance, as entry fee at the door will rise up to $75 per person. For more information and booking you can also call Learn About Wines at (+1) 310-451-7600.