Coriano | Rehab with Taste

With a population that spends more on food per capita than any other in Europe, it’s not surprising that you find food fairs, gastronomical events, wine tastings and generally thousands of foodie celebrations happening all the time all over Italy. But this one is different.

Launched in 2004, Squisito! brings together renowned chefs, exceptional products, contemporary cooking workshops, journalists and hungry Italians in an extraordinary setting.

The venue is not some tacky exhibition centre on the outskirts of town, rather the largest drug rehabilitation centre in Italy, San Patrignano, founded by Vincenzo Muccioli in 1978 near Rimini. The 1500 members of the community who are organising the jamboree this year get a chance to work alongside some of the biggest names in food from the 29th of April to the 2nd of May.

Squisito! offers workshops with experts and tastings of the finest products. It hosts meetings, debates and round tables on sustainable models of producing food, with the accent on quality and food safety along the whole supply chain, from the farm to the consumer. It showcases international heavyweights on the food-and-wine circuit, but mainly exalts the Italian tradition. The theme of this year’s 8th edition is a return to simple food: spending less and eating well.

And most of all, it explores how young people, like those at San Patrignano, can make a fresh start by training to work in one of the many professions connected to food and wine.

With the passion and expertise of the luminaries and the sheer enthusiasm of the community at San Patrignano,this is an uplifting event with exquisite promise.