Icelandic salted cod in the spotlight in Italy

Some of Italy's finest young chefs donned their aprons on Sunday, February 18, in a competition hosted by Bacalao de Islandia (Icelandic salt-cured cod) and Federazione Italiana Cuochi (FIC) in Rimini, Italy. FIC is the Italian association of chefs and manages the Italian national culinary team. The competition was held alongside the "Beer and Food Attraction" festival, which took place from February 18-20.

The event's participants came from all 20 regions of Italy and were selected after a preliminary competition in their schools. The challenge: preparing a meal with Icelandic salted cod. The participating schools were sent ingredients to practice with before the final competition.

Alessandro Abbrescia, an 18-year-old student from the Armando Perotti culinary school in the Puglia region of Southern Italy, emerged victorious. In the competition, Alessandro had the opportunity to work with Icelandic cod for the first time. He expressed astonishment at the versatility of the ingredient. Alessandro's "BACCA-TRA" dish consisted of Icelandic salted cod with cedar tree needles, Toritto almonds, and olive oil. "For me, it was important to combine regional ingredients from the Puglia region with the Icelandic salted cod," said Alessandro about his tasty winning dish.

Below you can view a video from the Rimini Competition:

This is the fourth time the Bacalao de Islandia marketing project has organized a culinary school competition in Italy and the second time in partnership with FIC. "I must say that the collaboration with the Italian national culinary team is incredibly valuable and greatly facilitates many aspects of the execution. Distributing the product to 20 schools across all regions of Italy would be very difficult without this partnership. The professionalism that characterizes the final event is admirable, and to see Icelandic salted cod in the spotlight is simply a fantastic achievement," said Björgvin Þór Björgvinsson, the Director of Fisheries and Food at Business Iceland, who represented Bacalao de Islandia at the event.

Not only did Alessandro Abbrescia cook up a winning meal, but he also won a trip to Iceland, which will be in September, along with his teacher and the winners of similar events in Spain and Portugal.

Below are some pictures from the event.