For the first time in the festival’s history, 10 countries will compete at the Cous Cous Fest, whose 27th edition will take place in San Vito Lo Capo from September 20 to 29, 2024. It will therefore be a special edition of the Bia Cous cous world championship, the World Cous Cous Championship, the central event of the festival, which brings together international chefs in a friendly competition promoting cultural exchange.
This year too, the organization of the event produced by the Feedback agency in partnership with the Municipality of San Vito lo Capo is proceeding at full speed. They will stage a 10-day program of cooking challenges, cultural meetings, concerts, and free shows on the beach of the town: three live performances have already been announced, with the artistic direction of Massimo Bonelli and his iCompany: Friday, September 20, La Rappresentante di Lista, Friday, September 27, Rose Villain, and Saturday, September 28, Big Mama.
In light of the historical situation we are experiencing, the festival – which since its inception has been promoting the theme of integration between peoples and cultures – this year intends to launch, even more, a message of peace, union, and sharing, underlined by the slogan chosen for the 2024 edition: Grains of Peace.
From Thursday, September 26 to Saturday, September 28, the Bia Cous cous world championship will bring together, in the kitchen, chefs from 10 countries around the world, some of which are at war with each other, for a moment that promises to be highly emotional and of great symbolic value, featuring teams from Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, China, Eritrea, Tunisia, Morocco, Italy, and the team promoted by Doctors Without Borders, which will contribute to strengthening the message of peace.
“For 17 years now,” said Francesco Formisano, CEO of Bia cous cous, “Bia has been supporting the Cous Cous Fest, the international festival of cultural integration that celebrates cous cous as a dish of peace. We stand by the World Championship because our cous cous is exported to 50 countries and we have always cared about the themes of internationalization and integration, as we speak of a food that is consumed almost all over the world, with an eye also to its healthiness and sustainability.”
Two juries will taste the dishes: a technical one, made up of cooking experts led by Oscar Farinetti, and a popular one. In fact, the public also participates in the challenges: just purchase the tickets (20 euros, 40 euros for the final), to taste the dishes, paired with Sicilian labels, and vote for the recipes. Tickets are also available online, and on promotion, on the website www.couscousfest.it.
Here are the participating countries for the 2024 edition:
For China, Giulia Liu and Zuo Cuibing take the field. Giulia Lui, born in 1984, is from Wenzhou, in the Zhejiang region. After living for several years in Emilia Romagna, she moved to Milan where her parents opened the city’s first Chinese restaurant. She is the founder and owner of Gong Oriental Attitude, a high-end Chinese restaurant in Milan – opened in 2015 with her husband Lorenzo – which interprets, in a contemporary way, the ancient traditions of Asian gastronomy. At her side is chef Zuo Cuibing: originally from Beijing, he is a master of traditional Chinese cuisine and leads the wok station, a typical cooking method that requires great technical skills.
Eritrea will be represented by Biniam Sagai. Born in Asmara, he is the chef and owner of the Savana Eritreo restaurant that offers authentic Eritrean cuisine in the heart of Milan: a journey through the colors, aromas, and flavors of Africa. With his passion, he managed to introduce one of the most flavorful dishes of his childhood in Eritrea to the Lombard capital: zighinì, based on beef, vegetables, and spicy legume cream, and injera, a typical thin bread with a pleasantly acidic taste, on which vegetables, meat stews, fish or legumes are served. At Savana Eritreo, you eat with your hands, a habit that favors direct contact with food and creates a convivial moment.
Israel competes with chefs Tze’ela Rubinstein and Mauro Galigani, a couple in life as well, who manage Cooking in Toscana in the Lucca countryside, a restaurant of traditional regional cuisine, but also a place for events and cooking classes. A place where the concept “from farm to table” is a lifestyle and where relationships are at the center of the food connection.
Italy will be represented by Antonino Ingargiola, born in 1995 in Mazara del Vallo, chef of the “Bik Bak” restaurant pub in San Vito lo Capo. A lover of Sicilian traditional flavors and colors, he has also worked in starred restaurants, such as the three-Michelin-starred “Geranium” in Copenhagen, elected the best restaurant in the world in 2022, and the “Mec” restaurant, one Michelin star in Palermo. Ingargiola will be joined in the competition by the winner of the Conad Italian Cous Cous Championship.
For Morocco, the chef couple Chaoui Hanae and Mourad Dakir will compete. Chaoui Hanae is a chef entrepreneur born in Fez, and “adopted” by Milan where, in 2022, she opened La Medina, a bistro with a tea room, specializing in Moroccan cuisine and pastry. At her side is her husband Mourad Dakir, born in Tata, in southern Morocco, chef and owner of Maison Touareg, the first Moroccan restaurant in Milan (2017). Mourad is a master of Cous cous fassi, a typical sweet and sour specialty, based on chicken, pumpkin, carrots and onion jam, raisins, cinnamon, and honey.
Palestine fields Shady Hasbun and Samia Sowwan. Born in Florence to a Grosseto mother and a Palestinian father, Shady Hasbun grew up in Palestine, where he was influenced by Tuscan and Middle Eastern culinary cultures. His love for cooking materialized in Arezzo, where he decided to transform his passion into a profession. He becomes a teacher and in 2012 starts the Social Cooking project, which in 2016 evolves into Chef Shady FoodExperience, a culinary laboratory on interaction and exchange of experiences. Samia Sowwan, Palestinian, was born in Lebanon in Beirut, but arrived in Italy in 2001. Enrolled in the Culinary Academy, she works at the Simbiosi restaurant in Cinquale, Forte dei Marmi.
For Russia and Ukraine, two chefs who work at the same restaurant, Veranda, which offers Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian, and Belarusian cuisine in Milan, will compete. Hanna Yefimova, chef and owner of the restaurant, will represent Ukraine with a Russian father and Ukrainian mother and a life of moves and sacrifices that brought her to Italy, passing through Naples and finally to Milan where she was able to express herself best as an entrepreneur. Among her specialties is Borsh, traditional Ukrainian soup, rich in vegetables and meat, served with sour cream (smetana) and a sprinkling of dill, and Vareniki, typical Ukrainian ravioli filled with potatoes, mushrooms, and onions, served with sour cream and melted butter. Hanna’s story demonstrates how borders are in men’s heads, on paper, not in culinary traditions.
At the stove for Russia is Evgeniy Romanov, born in 1984, who at the Veranda restaurant specializes in traditional Russian cuisine. Although his parents wanted him to become a lawyer, he decided to take the path of catering, following his passion for cooking. He began his journey in 2002, working in restaurants of Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Chinese, Japanese, French, and Mediterranean cuisine. Among his specialties are the Tsar’s Crepes, stuffed with smoked salmon, covered with salmon eggs and served with sour cream, and Solyanka, traditional Russian soup, rich in meat and smoked cold cuts, with black olives and pickled cucumbers, served with sour cream (smetana) and a sprinkling of parsley.
Tunisia competes with another couple of chefs, Amine and Sahla Marrakchi, both from Sfax where they work at the Doigts D’or restaurant, in the heart of the Medina. Amine graduated from the hotel school in Djerba, Sahla in pastry making, but both have worked in training chefs in Tunisian cuisine for the Iberostar chain. After their marriage, they participate as jurors in numerous gastronomic competitions and in Marseille, they prepared cous cous for more than 1400 people in a single day.
The tenth team in the competition will be the one promoted by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), once again this year’s Charity partner of the festival, which for this important occasion has formed a truly “Without Borders” team, led by Cesare Battisti, chef and host of the Ratanà restaurant in Milan and composed of his sous chef Davide Politi and Senegalese chef Mbaye Mbow. Battisti is considered today one of the most representative chefs of revisited and quality traditional cuisine, attentive to the use of excellent raw materials from small producers and focused on the themes of food sustainability, but also economic, environmental and social sustainability, and creator of the cultural integration project for social and economic integration for asylum seekers Marcel Boum.
“We are happy and honored to be partners of the Cous Cous Fest again, this year also through our involvement in the World Championship,” declares Chiara Magni, Head of Public Engagement of Doctors Without Borders. “As an independent medical-humanitarian organization that has been operating worldwide for over 50 years, we know well how much food represents a fundamental resource that people still too often do not have access to, and at the same time a precious tool for integration between cultures. This is the message we want to bring to the Cous Cous Fest, and we thank Cesare Battisti, Mbaye Mbow and Davide Politi for accepting this challenge at our side.”
The Cous Cous Fest is organized with the support of the Sicily Region, main sponsors Bia Cous Cous, Conad, Electrolux and official sponsors Acqua Maniva, Amadori, Premiati Oleifici Barbera, the Caronte & Tourist Group, Le Stagioni d’Italia, Tenute Orestiadi and UniCredit.