Italian Ambassador Guido De Sanctis with his wife and Italian Chamber of Commerce Chairperson, Palma Libotte (left) during the Italian cuisine week-Qatar at Westin Hotel. Pic: Kammutty V P / The Peninsula
Italian Cuisine Week kick-started at Westin Hotel on Monday in which three Italian restaurants La Veranda, Italia Mia and Mercato Antico offered their signature dishes to the guests at the party.
Italian Ambassador Guido De Sanctis was the chief guest of the occasion. The Ambassador said: “The great presence here tonight demonstrates that Italian cuisine is internationally loved. A treasure of our heritage that brings us fame globally. We have attendees of many different nationalities appreciating our specialties from La Veranda , Italia Mia and Mercato Antico and they seem enthusiastic . I am confident that the menus offered by the Italians restaurants will attract many people too in coming week. The social media platforms we created to promote Italian Cuisine Week were activated only three weeks ago and reach more than 3000 people daily.”
"Overall we obtained a great success for the first edition of The Italian Cuisine Week in Qatar . We are looking forward to the next edition The Ospitalita’ Italiana Awards that the Italian Chamber launched last year to give an official recognition to the most authentic Italian restaurants in Doha," he further added.
La Veranda restaurant had their home-made pasta range. “The Italian community crave for our home-made pasta. We are famous for our special two dishes; Ravioli with Mascarpone cheese and Lobster Ragout and boutargy,” told Alessandro, Chef of La Veranda to The Peninsula.
Souid Rizzoni, Owner of Italian Mia said: “We have a wide range of sweet dishes but yet famous for our home-made pasta and sea food dishes. I am privileged to be a part of this grand opening party of Italian week. I am excited to look forward to this week and offer the best dishes.”
Mercato Antico had a long queue waiting for live cooking pizza and had a buffet of their special dishes. Standing in the queue, an Italian expat said: “I am just looking forward to eat their Margarita pizza, I always visit the restaurant with my family to have this special pizza.”
