Culinary Arts & Gastro-Tourism Symposium (Saudi Arabia)

The Culinary Arts & Gastro-Tourism Symposium, organised by the Culinary Art Commission in Abha, south-west Saudi Arabia, during which Surgital was invited to share its expertise as a spokesman of Emilia-Romagna’s culinary excellence, ended on 25 February. The Commission was founded in 2020 as part of the local Ministry of Culture to promote the growth of the food industry, with a particular focus on culinary traditions, but also with a view to collaborating with other like-minded enterprises around the world.

Andrea Bino, Marketing Manager Surgital, led the talk “From a family fresh pasta workshop to a retail supplier” in a roundup of agrifood excellence narrated by some of the leading players in the region with the most PDOs and PGIs, hence known as the Italian Food Valley. The trip to Saudi Arabia was organised in collaboration with Emilia-Romagna’s Clust-Er Agrifood, the association of companies, research centres and training organisations that share skills, ideas and resources to support the international competitiveness of the agrifood sector.

Surgital’s speech focused on the group’s storytelling, recalling how it came to be recognised as the standard-bearer of the fresh pasta tradition in over 60 countries, succeeding in producing an iconic culinary product on an industrial scale while remaining true to tradition, with all the advantages of deep-freezing. Special emphasis was afforded to the Ca’Pelletti project, the brand of Romana-style inns opened by the company in Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Veneto and Tuscany in a recognisable and distinctive casual-dining format, with strengths including an around-the-clock kitchen and a welcoming, sociable atmosphere typical of Romagna.

The Saudis were presented with industry data and the tourism, technological and ecological implications of the Food Valley. “Emilia-Romagna and the Saudi Arabia Culinary Art Commission share a close relationship; the Commission, in fact, had already visited last year to learn about the region, its culture and symbolic products,” explained Bino. “Pasta is certainly one of these and Surgital is one of its proud international exponents. This approach reflects what was expressed in the manifesto we developed for the publication of our last Sustainability Report, where we set down in black and white the ingredients that have allowed us to ‘put our best plate forward’ over almost half a century”.