60 Chefs from Parma interpret the King of Hams

For the Twelfth Parma Ham Festival (29 August – 20 September)

7 August 2009 – There are a thousand reasons to spend a weekend in Parma. It is a city of art, music, good living and above all good eating. For gourmands, from 29 August to 20 September, the capital of Food Valley is a not-to-be-missed destination.
For the twelfth Parma Ham Festival, the 60 best restaurants of the city and surrounding province will interpret Parma Ham with the imagination and creativity that characterize the Emilian spirit. The formula is very simple. The Consortium has offered the restaurants the best Parma Hams, cured with care and patience in the mild Parma Hills, and has thrown down a challenge to the chefs of the area: to promote the King of Hams, highlighting its taste and versatility. Prosciutto di Parma is a masterpiece that is difficult to “handle”. You need to know how to cook it to not lose its delicacy and texture, to not ruin your dishes with vulgar saltiness.
Over the four weekends of the Festival, diners at the restaurants participating in the promotion will be able to experience the chefs’ acrobatics and also to receive a welcome gift: a taste of plain and simple Parma Ham at the start of the meal, as if to say that a genuine, natural and perfect product like Parma Ham in reality needs nothing to intensify it, except maybe a slice of bread… The initiative - in collaboration with the Parma branches of ASCOM (the association of merchants and shopkeepers) and the business association CONFESERCENTI  – is part of the rich programme of the Parma Ham Festival.
There will be various events dedicated to gastronomy, performance and culture, such as tasting workshops, art exhibitions and concerts (at Langhirano, Francesco De Gregori and Davide Van De Froos are eagerly awaited), which will be held in the 12 municipalities in the Parma Hills that belong to the traditional Parma Ham production zone.
To understand the special relationship between Parma and its Ham, visitors will have the opportunity to visit the Parma Ham Museum set up in the historic building in the ancient Forum Boarium. The visit to the Museum (www.museidelcibo.it) offers an explanatory multimedia tour that reconstructs the history of the prized products of Parma’s meat-curing arts. And it ends with the chance to sample, taste and purchase the area’s traditional products.

List of the restaurants taking part in the initiative.

Press Office
Fabrizio Raimondi
ufficiostampa@prosciuttodiparma.com
+39 0521 246 242 – + 39 335 389848
www.prosciuttodiparma.com