Nine years of PizzaUp: from live sour dough (2007) to pizza’s rendez-vous with haute cuisine (2016), by way of the Italian Contemporary Pizza Manifesto (2012), developed and endorsed by Italy’s most influential food critics.

And here comes the tenth PizzaUp.  

The question is, what theme to tackle next after live mother yeast, flour, heat, the assisted germination of grains, the different dough recipes that trace Italy’s regional traditions, the importance of nutrition and taste side by side with the spectacle of tightrope-walking pizza makers?

Having already explored the modern face of Italy’s most characteristic dish, and the demands of gourmet clients, the next challenge can only be: WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR ITALIAN PIZZA?  

To answer this question we have to look beyond Italy, to the changes developing in a world of continuous culinary cross-fertilisation, where the role of food as a cultural “glue” holding people together is often underestimated in today’s melting pot of different traditions.

With globalization our current reality, the protection of diversity is now a necessity. This is certainly the case here in Italy, where life is still lived on a human scale. Unlike those parts of the world where individuals are increasingly overwhelmed by the projects and places in which they work and spend their free time.

What will happen when the megalopolises have completely absorbed the culinary characteristics of the world’s various traditions into a mass of bland, featureless food?

The tenth edition of PizzaUp will be a completely new experience, aiming to open our minds to the different lifestyles and ways of eating that hold sway among young and younger-adult consumers today.

With its package of technical seminars, talks, debates, pizza makers, top-end chefs and food critics, PizzaUp will be drawing on our authentic culinary past to shine light on the confused state of contemporary consuming. It will be going back to basics with the natural, healthy food that makes up Italy’s Mediterranean diet: a contemporary Italian pizza that teaches us how to use nature to live better.