Made Expo event promotes tour of world's fair site

(ANSA) - Rome, March 20 - The ongoing Made Expo architecture, design and construction fair in Milan is taking firms and experts on a tour to discover the massive location in Rho Pero hosting the food-themed Expo world's fair opening on May 1 for six months.
    Made Expo, which runs until Saturday, has organized the special tours as part of the 'Building Expo' show debuting the projects of some 30 national pavilions at the Universal Exposition.
    Construction and interior decoration professionals will also get acquainted with the innovative techniques used for the single projects, such as the Italian pavilion's Palazzo Italia which has been built with new material including biodynamic cement developed by Italy's construction firm Italcementi.
    Expo will host a record 53-single nation pavilions, along with nine clusters representing about 90 countries and theme-based pavilions.
    Almost all external structures of national pavilions have been completed while work is ongoing on interiors as workmen are giving the final touches to collective pavilions, organizers said this week.
    Meanwhile on Thursday, top Italian chef Gualtiero Marchesi was appointed special ambassador to Expo, joining a list of leading personalities representing the food-themed event, which runs under the banner 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life'.
    Marchesi, from Milan, became special ambassador on the day of his 85th birthday.
    "It is an honor to list among our ambassadors a master of Italian cuisine like Gualtieri Marchesi", said Expo chief Giuseppe Sala.
    "We are certain that his know-how and skills in mixing ingredients and flavors in a cuisine close to tradition but strongly innovative represent a precious distinction able to highlight Made in Italy".
    And Italy's gastronomic traditions are being showcased Thursday and Friday in Washington. Award-winning food historian and TV host Francine Segan is giving two conferences on Italian cuisine as part of initiatives organized by the Italian embassy ahead of the world's fair.
    Segan, a leading expert on Italy's culinary traditions, spoke about tradition and innovation in Italian gastronomy on Thursday afternoon at the Library of Congress, the largest in the world, which serves as the research arm of the US Congress.
    On Friday night, Segan will tell the story of chocolate, from Christopher Columbus - the first European to come into contact with cocoa beans during a voyage to the Caribbean - to the unique chocolate produced in Modica, Sicily, and the most recent Italian products, in an event at the Italian embassy.
    The two conferences, said Italy's ambassador to the US, Claudio Bisogniero, "will provide an excellent window for Milan Expo 2015, the largest event ever organized worldwide on nutrition" with the participation of over 140 countries.
    Indeed Expo will provide a unique opportunity for participating countries to showcase their food industry and culinary art.
    French President Franois Hollande this week said the Milan Expo will be a "big opportunity" for France while unveiling the country's pavilion during a ceremony at the Elysée Palace.
    Expo, he said, will also be a useful platform for the promotion of tourism and a chance to build diplomatic momentum for the Paris climate conference of 2015. "For six months, Milan will be the largest farm and the largest kitchen of the world", pointed out Hollande. A restaurant and a boulangerie (a French bakery), serving croissants and baguettes seven days a week for 22 hours a day, will be among the attractions of the French pavilion.
    The US pavilion, which will be serving Thanksgiving dinners every Thursday and a brunch on Sunday, will also focus on boosting innovation in the food industry, organizers said this week.
    The pavilion is setting up a special Council for Innovation with entrepreneurs, policy makers and academics to promote education on nutrition and new technologies in the food industry through projects including Feeding the Accelerator, which will help businesses develop scientific knowledge.
    Out of the 8.5 million tickets sold for the Universal Exposition, 5.2 million - or over 60% - were purchased abroad, including one million in China, which will be represented by three pavilions at the event.