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On March 17, the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South-Central and the Consulate General of Italy in Houston celebrate authentic Italian gastronomy with a virtual dinner and wine pairing featuring leading food producers and winemakers from Italy. The guests at the invite-only dinner include top food and wine professionals as well as local food-focused influencers and journalists. The event was made possible with the support of the Italian Foreign Ministry’s “Extraordinary Italian Taste” campaign. Please follow both on social media using the hashtags: #iffoodcouldtalk #trueitaliantaste #extraordinaryitaliantaste.

Authentic Italian Table:
“Nothing Like the Real Thing.”
VIRTUAL DINNER – BY INVITATION ONLY
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
7:30 pm CST

Featuring select wines and foods by some of the Taste of Italy Exhibitors: Wines from Le Velette (Umbria) and Cantine Silvestri (Lazio); EVOO by Olio Zucchi; pasta by Vero Italian Traditional Food; and cheeses by Monti Trentini.

Menu by Chef Giancarlo Ferrara, Amalfi Ristorante Italiano e Bar (Houston)

Antipasto

Focaccia Trentina con Formaggio al Tartufo e Speck

Olive oil focaccia stuffed with melted truffle cheese and Speck served with potato salad.

Primo piatto

Calamarata con Salsa allo Zafferano Fiori di Zucchini e Vezzena Stagionato

Pasta calamarata served with saffron sauce baby zucchini blossom and imported aged Vezzena cheese from Trentino, Italy.

Secondo piatto

Suprema di Pollo Farcita con Spinaci e Formaggio Lagorai

Organic chicken breast stuffed with Lagorai cheese and sautéed spinach with EVOO and onion, lightly breaded and oven roasted, served with Brussels sprouts and scalloped potatoes.

Dolce

Sfogliatella Napoletana con Crema alla Vaniglia e Amarene Fabbri

Traditional Neapolitan sfogliatella crispy and flaky pastry stuffed with semolina, ricotta and candid orange zest cream, served with vanilla pasty cream and Fabbri sour cherry in syrup.

Wines:

Cantine Silvestri (Lazio): Sparkling Brut 2020 and Rosso Colli Castelli Romani 2019

Le Velette (Umbria): Accordo Sangiovese 2015

The Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South Central is please to announced dates for the 2nd-Annual Taste of Italy Virtual Trade Fair and Festival.

To be held during the week of March 15-19, the virtual gathering will include:

– one-on-one virtual trade tastings with leading food and wine buyers in Texas and beyond;
– one-on-one virtual media tastings with top food- and wine-focused writers and social media influencers;
– trade-focused seminars with U.S. food and wine experts in Italy, Texas, and beyond;
– a virtual food and wine pairing dinner for food industry trade members;
– a virtual food and wine dinner for Italian food and wine lovers (a consumer event featuring Houston restaurants).

For next year’s week-long event, the IACC will also be working closely with exhibitors to help them focus and fine-tune their messaging and follow-up. Each presenter will have a personal IACC liaison that will prepare them for their meetings and facilitate interaction with potential buyers and media in the days following the online gathering.

IACC will also be producing short video interviews with each exhibitor conducted by our resident Italian food and wine educator. These YouTube clips will be published in the weeks running up to the fair and festival but will also be made available to participants for use on their own websites and social media.

By extending the event to five days (instead of the usual two), scheduling of the one-on-one meetings will be expedited and streamlined. And inspired by the success of the virtual dinners it mounted this year, the IACC is opening up at least one of the dinner events to the public this year in order to get invaluable feedback from consumers who love and follow Italian food and wine.

Exhibitor sponsorships are also available for producers who would like their products to be featured at trade, media, and consumer virtual events.

The IACC has decided to call the event “the 2nd-Annual Virtual Taste of Italy” because even once in-person gatherings are safe again, the chamber intends to mount parallel in-person and virtual events.

If you and your company would like to learn more or would like to apply for the 2021 Taste of Italy Virtual Trade Fair and Festival, please contact IACC deputy director Maurizio Gamberucci by emailing him here.

This event was made possible with the support of the Italian Foreign Ministry’s “Authentic Italian Table” and “True Italian Taste” campaigns. Please follow both on social media using the following hashtags: #iffoodcouldtalk #trueitaliantaste #extraordinaryitaliantaste.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week (September 21-22, 2020), the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South Central held its first-ever virtual Taste of Italy trade tasting in cities across Texas.

Participating winemakers and food producers were asked to ship samples to the U.S. earlier this year.

Texas-based food and wine professionals and food and wine-focused media used a new virtual platform scheduling tool create specially for the event by IACC partner GrapeIn.

The IACC then distributed the products among trade members and influencers in Houston (where the chamber’s offices are located), San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas.

Starting at 9 a.m. on Monday (4 p.m. in Italy), participating producers and the Texas-based professionals took part in Google Meet calls, each with the same wines and/or foods in front of them.

“I had never tasted a Gutturnio,” said an Austin-based wine importer, a veteran of the trade. “I was excited to learn about a new appellation.”

“In my more than two decades as a wine writer,” said a leading Houston-based wine educator and blogger, “I had never tasted a still wine made from Lambrusco di Sorbara. There’s a first for everything and this one was thanks to Taste of Italy!”

More than 20 producers in Italy took part in the two-day event and more than 40 trade members and 20 media community members participated here in Texas.

“The best part,” said a Dallas-based influencer, “is that I get to keep the bottle of traditional balsamic vinegar!”

Despite a few minor technical hiccups, it was an unmitigated success.

“We were extremely pleased with the results,” said IACC director Alessia Paolicchi. “It was challenging to coordinate the delivery of so much wine and so many food products but the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, on both sides of the Atlantic.”

“Our overarching mission,” said deputy director Maurizio Gamberucci, who coordinated the event, “is to promote awareness of authentic Italian wines and food products and to create connections between Italian and U.S. businesses. We were really pleased with the results and we plan to develop and expand our virtual trade events moving forward.”

On Monday, August 3, the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South Central will be hosting a webinar featuring Grape-In, a new and highly innovative online platform that allows winemakers to bypass America’s three-tier system for wine sales and connect directly with trade buyers.

Watch the recording here!

According to the founders’ market research, corporate wine groups who sell to America’s five largest importers account for roughly 60 percent of wine sales in the U.S. (an increase of 20 percent with respect to a few decades ago).

The big companies’ market share continues to grow as wine industry consolidation continues to expand its reach. And the channels and opportunities for small- and medium-sized wineries continue to become fewer and farther between and increasingly narrow.

The idea behind the GrapeIn concept is simple: By connecting suppliers directly with trade buyers, GrapeIn enables small wine and spirits suppliers to bypass the monopolized distribution market to dramatically increase sales and profitability.

And by harnessing powerful Artificial Intelligence technology, GrapeIn is able to identify potential clients with laser-sharp focus and accuracy.

For our webinar presentation of their company and platform, we’ll be talking with the company’s lead executives.

If you are a small to medium-sized winemaker in Italy, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to go right to the source.

Looking forward to connecting you and GrapeIn next Monday!

TASTE OF ITALY 2020
Digital Hybrid Italian Food and Wine Trade Show

When: September 21-22 HOUSTON,
September 28-29 NEW ORLEANS.
Who: Top Italian producers, regional distributors, local buyers and trade members.

CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE MORE INFO.

CONNECT WITH TRADE MEMBERS
Interact with leading buyers, including importers, distributors, retailers, restaurateurs, and media in Texas, Louisiana, and beyond.

INTERACT REMOTELY & SAFELY
Thanks to digital video conferencing technology, producers will be able to engage with buyers in a 100 percent safe environment.

STRENGTHEN YOUR BRAND VISIBILITY
Meet new buyers, taste with current clients, introduce new products and vintages, launch new packaging, schmooze with taste-makers and opinion leaders.

IACC FOLLOW-UP
IACC food and wine professionals will follow up with your contacts in order to ensure that you make the most of your Taste of Italy experience.

Not only will the TASTE OF ITALY DIGITAL CATALOG be available online during the fair but it will also be featured online at TasteOfItalyHouston.com for 1 month prior to the event and 2 months afterwards.

Sponsorship opportunities also available.

Producers, looking to ship your samples? The IACCSC is offering early-bird rates for shipping! Contact us today at [email protected] to learn more about discounted shipping.

As U.S. issues Italy travel advisory, IACC postpones food and wine festivals planned for Houston, New Orleans, and Los Angeles in March.

The Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South Central has officially postponed its food and wine festivals and trade fairs previously scheduled for March in Houston (March 29-30) and New Orleans (March 31). The Italy-America Chamber of Commerce West (Los Angeles) has also postponed the festivals’ sister event in Los Angeles previously scheduled for April 2.

The IACC has decided to reschedule the gatherings in the wake of news reports of U.S. carrier flight cancellations to and from northern Italy and the U.S. government’s newly announced screening policy for travelers arriving in the country from Italy.

“Given the evolving situation,” says IACC Houston director Alessia Paolicchi, “we felt it wise to reschedule the Texas and Louisiana events, and our counterparts in Los Angeles agreed. We’re currently working with all of our partners, including the Los Angeles office and the Southern Food and Beverage museum in New Orleans, on setting up new dates for all three events, possibly in June.”

“Although we are confident that the spread of the novel coronavirus will soon be contained in Italy and in the U.S.,” she adds, “we feel that it’s in everyone’s best interest to postpone these events, especially given how many working parts are in play.”

The cancellation of the Prowein wine trade fair, previously scheduled for March 15-17 in Düsseldorf, Germany, was another factor in the decision-making process, note the event organizers.

New dates will be announced as soon as possible, and the organizers are planning to coordinate the scheduling so as not to conflict with other rescheduled food and wine events in the U.S. and Europe.

For further inquiries, please contact IACC media consultant Jeremy Parzen ([email protected] or 917-405-3426).

Tom Dobson is the Italian and French wine buyer for Spec’s Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods, which counts more than 160 locations across the state of Texas. Tom will be speaking on Sunday evening at the exhibitors seminar.

Originally from Tyler, Texas, Tom Dobson has been with Spec’s Family Partners for over 10 years, starting with the company just a few months after graduating from Texas A&M University. After a few months of working there, he truly started to discover the world of wine and has worked his way up to the buying position for Italy and France. He is a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers and holds his WSET 3 certification. He’s currently working on his WSET Diploma.