The proposal is to create an opportunity for exchange and discussion between local population and immigrants through a cultural and recreational activity: gastronomy.

Italians are increasingly attracted by “ethnic cuisine”, which leads them to try other countries’ traditional restaurants. Immigrants, in addition, have to find “substitutes” for some ingredients which are not easy to find in Italy among the available products.

We think that creating the conditions for a meeting between local people and immigrants based on the exchange of culinary information can be a new, stimulating and amusing method to contact with other cultures, and to promote new intercultural relations.

Thus, the idea is the creation of this intercultural recipe book, containing Italian and other countries’ recipes, presented by people who participate to the initiative and realized only with bio- and fair trade products.

In the page of each recipe, there are also a presentation made by the author, a description of the country of origin (which also shows the agricultural production system of this country), and the “variant” for the recipe with Italian products.

What has already been done:

- coordination meetings

- realization of a flyer and a form for collecting immigrants’ recipes. This form has been distributed in the most popular meetings points and through immigrants associations, grocery stores, Unions’ offices or city offices

- realization of the intercultural recipe book “I sapori del mondo”, containing recipes in Italian, color images and descriptions of different countries (focussing on strengths and weaknesses of their production systems) an article about food sovereignty and another one about the use of spices.