Taking its inspiration from the fascinating history and culture of five great Italian cities, the Taste of Italy: Amo L’Italia food festival was recently opened by Her Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali at Central World Plaza.

After a giving an impeccable demonstration of cooking squid ink pasta with tomato sauce to raise funds for the Thai Red Cross Society’s Friends in Need (of ‘Pa’) Volunteers Foundation, Her Royal Highness visited exhibitors’ stalls displaying an intriguing variety of distinctive food products and ingredients imported from Italy.

Taste of Italy: Amo L’Italia has been organised by the Italian Trade Commission and the Embassy of Italy in cooperation with Central Food Retail. Visitors will have the pleasure of tasting a wide selection of over 1,300 traditional food products from leading producers at special prices.

“We came up with this year’s theme, Amo L’Italia, meaning ‘I love Italy,’ to give a broader picture of the Italian lifestyle and cuisine by depicting the historic charm of five famous Italian cities: Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence and Capri,” said Ms Chiranun Poopat, Senior Vice President for Buying & Merchandising and Marketing of Central Food Retail.

“Many traditional food products from the five cities were specially imported for this event, such as parmesan cheese, salami, Parma ham, paste, spaghetti, olive oil, cookies and Segafredo premium coffee.”

Visitors will also enjoy tasting Italian dishes presented by well known chefs, who will demonstrate the process of preparation from ingredient selection to the completed dish ready to serve. The chefs are Frederik Farina from Spasso, Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, Antonio Facchinetti from Brio, Bangkok Marriott Resort & Spa, Gaetano Palumbo from Rossini’s, Sheraton Grande Sukhumwit, Giovanno Ranaudo from Grappino, Amari Watergate Hotel and Luca Appino from La Bottega di Luca Deli restaurant.

In addition, Central Food Retail is offering a special promotion to SPOT Reward Card members. With every Bt300 purchase of selected Italian items, customers will be eligible to win the grand prize with a value of Bt205,000: a nine-day tour for two of the five great Italian cities at Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence and Capri.

On October 6, the first 200 members who come to register at the opening ceremony of
Taste of Italy: Amo l’Italia at the Eden Zone on the 1st floor of Central World, will be automatically entitled to enter for the package tour prize draw without the need to make any purchases.

The Taste of Italy: Amo L’Italia festival is now open and will continue until 27 October 2009 at 38 selected branches of Central Food Hall, Tops Market and Tops Super across the country.