Saturnalia attending the exhibition GUSTO! in Venice

Is there an ‘Italian taste’? Past, present and future of Italian cuisine 

Today the exhibition “Gusto! – Gli italiani a tavola 1970-2050” (Gusto! Italians at the table 1970-2050) opens at the M9 Museum of Mestre (Venice). It is curated by Massimo Montanari e Laura Lazzaroni, together with many experts of Italian cuisine and culture. The exhibition, as its title implies, analyses the relationship between Italians and food. Gusto! traces all the steps of the evolution of Italian cuisine and its main protagonists, both the most renowned and the less-known ones, the latter being often ordinary citizens who were the first to come up with a new ingredient – inadvertently causing changes both in the society and in the national taste.

The exhibition programme goes through all the recent past of Italian cuisine, from the 70s up to the present, and then takes a peek at the future, trying to imagine some new possible scenarios. A part of the exhibition takes in consideration both the innovation brought by new technologies and the change that is bound to occur in the eating habits of Italians. 

And it’s indeed in this part of the visit, the one dedicated to the future shaped by technologies, that the curators and the scientific board placed Saturnalia and our work with the analysis of satellite-derived data to determine and track the vegetative growth of vineyards. Indeed, also the wine industry is destined to undergo – and partially it’s already happening – some changes and incorporate some new technologies into its framework in order to tackle some increasingly pressing matters. First and foremost, climate change, which is affecting and changing the growing season of many renowned production areas. 

Here is what Daniele De Vecchi, Saturnalia project manager, said about the inclusion of Saturnalia in the exhibition: