Italian Cuisine Week in the World is an annual event dedicated to promoting high-quality Italian cuisine and food products, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and promoted by the network of Embassies, Consulates, Italian Cultural Institutes, and ICE Offices abroad.
The 10th edition, titled ‘Cooking meets health, culture and innovation’, highlights how Italian cuisine represents a healthy, balanced and sustainable food model, enriched by innovation and research processes that characterize the entire food cycle and ensure its continuous evolution. This year, the event will take place in an extended form, divided into several moments and not limited to a single week. In Melbourne it will end on November 29, 2025.
The calendar of events promoted by the Italian Cultural Institute in Melbourne began
on 4 September at the 48H Pizza e Gnocchi Bar restaurant, in collaboration with COMITES. As part of the event, Luciano Pignataro presented his book “La Pizza. Una storia contemporanea” in the presence of Renato Rocco, editor of La buona tavola Magazine.
This was followed by the launch party for the Melbourne Italian Festa & Expo 2025, organized by CO.AS.IT, which took place on September 8 with a special dinner prepared by renowned chef Guy Grossi at the Grossi Florentino Restaurant.
On the occasion of the Melbourne Italian Festa & Expo 2025, scheduled for the weekend of October 18 and 19 at the Royal Exhibition Building, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Italy will support two special initiatives:
- The panel exhibition ‘I Racconti delle Radici’ (Tales of Roots), which explores Italian cultural and culinary identity, emphasizing how cuisine is a fundamental element in the sense of belonging of Italians abroad. It highlights the historical ability of Italians to combine and reinvent gastronomic traditions to create a rich and varied food culture.
- The “Dish Italy Up” competition, in which teams of chefs and students will participate in a flame-free, fusion, and sustainable competition that celebrates tradition, creativity, and sustainability.
In November, the IIC is promoting the conference “Walk a Mile in the Shoes of a Pompeian,” dedicated to food and daily life in ancient Pompeii. The meeting, scheduled for November 18 at CO.AS.IT (199 Faraday Street, Carlton) at 6:30 p.m., will be held by Dr. Tamara Lewit, Honorary Fellow at the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. To register for the event: https://www.coasit.com.au/pompeian-lewit.
The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Australia (Victoria and Tasmania), in partnership with the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Melbourne, has planned two key activities that will conclude the program at the end of November.
The first involves the participation of the 19 venues which in July 2025 were awarded certification as part of the ‘Ospitalità Italiana’ project. They will be asked to create an original dish, pizza or ice cream flavour between November 22 and 29. Finally, the calendar of events will close on November 29 with the Italian Business Awards Gala, where the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Australia – Victoria and Tasmania will recognize Italian excellence in Melbourne.