Slow Food 'Italiana' with Chef Riccardo Rizzoli

Italy, is a country that truly appreciates the benefits of making a meal an event to be shared with family and friends. A meal in Italy is lingered over whether it is served at home or in a restaurant. You will never feel rushed to finish up and leave in a crowded Italian restaurant.

The 24th Slow Food Night at Mount Lavinia Hotel which takes place on October 29 from 7.30pm takes pride to this wonderful experience specially formulated by Chef Rizzoli. This Food and Wine evening has everything you need to dine Italian style: modern and traditional recipes, regional dishes and beverages to complement the Italian food.

Food is one of the cornerstones of Italian culture and even if times are changing and life is more and more hectic, Italians still find great pleasure in sitting at a table, and sharing a good meal together. Italians love discovering new foods and new ways of preparing familiar dishes. Every year there's more and more interest in the traditional cuisine of the various regions and in biological, environment friendly foods.

The Slow Food Movement is a movement that actually started in Italy by Carlo Petrini in Rome 1986.

It only makes sense that such a movement was founded in Italy. Italy takes great pride in their culinary traditions and the people have passed family recipes and cooking methods down through many generations.

Using the freshest ingredients available, which would more than likely be grown locally, and the Italian way of life, with rich regional specialty dishes that focus on the best crops grown in the region at different times of year. The slow food movement would like to resurrect the kitchen and dinner table as centers of conversation, pleasure, culture and community.

It represents a slower lifestyle, taking time out to enjoy the pleasures of life. In essence it is the exact opposite of the fast food, frenetic lifestyle of today.

"The Slow Food Manifesto declares that: A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life. Hence, MLH endorses their strong link between plate and planet. The slow food movement's mission is to show us that we can take the time to enjoy the pleasures of food and that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness", Mount Lavinia Hotel GM Anura Dewapura states.