Wikimania 2016 bids/Esino Lario/Food

Food makes an event. Wikimania Esino Lario relies first of all on all local restaurants, bars and food shops. The number of seats available is increased during Wikimania by using other buildings made available by different private owners. We have also considered the use of a tensile structure, a catering service, and the involvement of street food vendors (which is quite a big fashionable thing right now). Esino will allow to provide participants with varied and interesting culinary experiences. Tommaso Fara will be our food curator, checking and coordinating the menus (biographies of the team).

Cuisine

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The Esino Lario traditional local cuisine is a simple mountain cuisine, based essentially on polenta, potatoes, dairy products, nuts and pork meat, with some specialities such as the ravioli called patole or the simple dessert called "paradell". More broadly the traditional cuisine of Lake Como, Valsassina and Valtellina includes specialities such as fish from the lake (i.e. lavarelli - whitefish, pesce persico - perch) on a white risotto, pizzoccheri and grilled pork (ribs and sausages). The local cuisine is today always mixed with Italian cuisine coming from different regions and which can satisfy also vegetarian (V) and vegan diets (VV) and include meat dishes which do not include pork. We will concentrate on Italian and mountain food for two reasons: because we are in Italy and in the mountain, and because this is the kind of food local providers are more accustomed to preparing.

Meals
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Breakfast will be provided by hotels, restaurants and bars; we are considering the idea of providing apartments with a welcome box which includes our welcome kit, information about the apartment and the basics to have breakfast. Differently from the Italian tradition, lunch will be a lighter meal than dinner; in Italy we would say that it is mainly focussed on the "primo" (what in Italy is the first course); there will mainly be pasta, pasta and rice salads, salads, vegetables, cheese and bread, and of course fresh fruits. Dinner will be on the "secondo" (what in Italy is the second course or main course); there will be mainly traditional cuisine, meat, soups with beans, stuffed vegetables and of course vegetables and bread, and of course a dessert. Pizza will be available in two restaurants and sandwiches in bars. We will discuss with restaurants and the catering about the menus to make sure there is variety.

We are aware that non-Italians get a little tired of pasta after few days (even if it has different shapes and sauces, people just see it as a lot of pasta pasta pasta), so we would like to allow them to taste some specialties – also vegetarian (V) and vegan (VV), which will be selected according to seasonal-local-available ingredients and the weather – they might not know or they might have experienced differently: for example polenta (VV), pizzoccheri (V), panzanella (VV), zuppe di legumi (VV), minestrone (VV), caprese (V), prosciutto e melone, panettone gastronomico, bluefish (such as sardines, anchovies and mullet) pollo alla cacciatora, vitello tonnato, bruschetta (VV), risotto (V), farinata (VV), focaccia (VV), piadine, tramezzini, gnocchi (VV), ravioli (V), parmigiana (V), fiori di zucca ripeni (V), peperonata (VV), caponata (VV), carciofi alla zudìa (VV), cheese with honey and jams (V), verdure sott'olio (VV), pasta al forno (V); and desserts (of course all vegetarian, and some of them also vegan) such as sorbetti (VV) e gelati, panettone and pandoro, cantucci con il vin santo, panna cotta, tiramisù, gelatine di mele cotogne (VV), semifreddo, granita (VV), torrone, affogato al caffè, zabaione, bunet, panforte, confetti (VV), salame al cioccolato, pesche al vino, gianduiotti, croccante (VV), frutta di pasta di mandorle (VV).

Special diets
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To satisfy different tastes and diet, during Wikimania we will focus broadly on Italian cuisine with a specific attention for vegetarian and vegan food. We will not ask all restaurants to use vegan dairy or to cook specialities from other countries because they are not necessarily accustomed to those menus and ingredients; vegetarian and vegan food is already part of our Mediterranean cuisine and we will focus on it. The restaurants in Esino Lario – and the available food market - is not equipped to produce a properly Kosher food (we are also unable to manage two kitchens for the tensile structure and the catering), but we hope vegan food can maybe provide an adequate compromise. Food will be labelled and one restaurant will focus on specific dietary needs. We can organize without specific problems to have soya milk available. Local cuisine will be served in particular in two specific restaurants.

Restaurants and bars

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Image Restaurant/shop Location Typology Seats Bar Restaurant Pizza Sandwiches Ice cream Drinks Prize range Note
Ristorante La Montanina and Rosa delle Alpi Centre, square area. Restaurant and bar. Around 150. X X box X
Ristorante pizzeria Centrale Centre, garden area. Restaurant and bar. Around 150. X X X X box X
Ristorante pizzeria Oasi Centre, square area. Restaurant and bar. Around 120. X X X X box X
Bar ristorante 58 Villa Clotilde area Restaurant and bar. Around 100 X X X X box X
Ristorante La Lucciola Uphill. Restaurant and bar. Around 100. X X X box X
Ristorante Santa Maria Uphill. Restaurant and bar. 30 (+ large outdoor). X X X box X
Ristorante Cacciatori Ortanella Restaurant and bar. Around 120. X X X box X
Ristorante agriturismo Ortanella Ortanella Restaurant and bar. Around 50. X box X
Ristorante Cainallo Cainallo Restaurant and bar. Around 100. X X X box X
Bar La Sosta Centre, square area. Bar. Around 50. X X box X
Bar Tabaccheria Lisa Centre, square area. Bar. Around 20. X box X
Gelateria da Eli Centre, garden area. Food shop with artisanal ice cream. 2 benches outside. X
Alimentari Virginia Centre, garden area. Food shop. None X X box X
Mini Market Chicco & Nadia Centre, square area. Food shop. None X X box X
Panificio Pietro Pensa Centre, garden area. Food shop with bakery. None X X box X
Catering service. Centre, square area in the tensile structure. Temporary service. 500 seats.
Street Food Centre, church area. Temporary service. None X X X X X
Accommodation with kitchen Esino Lario. DIY solution From 4 to 50 people (a dorm has an equipped kitchen from groups)
Restaurants outside Esino Lario
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Restaurant/shop[1] Location Seats Prize range[2] Note
Al Terrazzo Eremo Gaudio Perledo 40 25 euro
Crotto del Meo Perledo 60 22 euro
Ristorante Del Sole Varenna 120 27,50 euro
Ristorante Il Cavatappi Varenna 20 27,50 euro
Ristorante La Contrada Villa Cipressi Varenna 70 25 euro
Ristorante Cavallino Varenna 40 25 euro
Ristorante Crotto di Pino Varenna 50 35 euro
Ristorante Gourmet Royal Victoria Varenna 300 40 euro
Ristorante Nuova Isola Varenna 30 30 euro
Ristorante La vista Milano Varenna 55 -
Ristorante Olivedo Varenna 40 30 euro
Ristorante Quatro Pass Varenna - 30 euro
Ristorante Victoria Grill Varenna 100 25 euro
Ristorante Varennamonamour Varenna 45 30 euro
Ristorante Moncodeno Varenna 55 22 euro

Crowd management for the food

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The tensile structure with the catering is necessary to manage lunch (this assures that lunch is provided very closed to the location of the venues), but we envision to avoid catering for the evening to provide variety, to limit the costs for participants and to take advantage of the existing restaurants.
We expect to use tickets to manage lunch and dinner. At the moment the hypothesis is to assign lunch seats randomly (except for special diets) and to implement a reservation system for the evening with also thematic dinners planned before the event.

Site Breakfast Lunch Coffee break (always open) Dinner without catering (2 shifts)
Bar Ristorante Centrale 160 150 250
Ristorante albergo La Montanina e Rosa delle Alpi 160 150 250
Bar Oasi 150 120 200
Bar La Ruota 50 50
Bar La Sosta 100 50
Bar Lisa 60 30
Catering in the tensile structure 500 1000 no catering
La Lucciola (also accommodation) 100 100
Santa Maria (also accommodation) 30 30
Villa Rogo-Pime - has kitchen 70
Ristoro - has kitchen 50
Cacciatori 10 70
Cainallo 39 70
Varenna 30 70
Total 1009 1050 1000 1040

Please note that for breakfast there are also some B&B (which are not included above) and we are also considering to use welcome box (managed by the local food shops).

Management of the lunch and coffee breaks
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Expense Number Days Cost/Unit Total in euro Total in dollars
coffee breaks preconference 500 3 € 5 € 7.500 $ 10.293,67
coffee breaks conference 1.000 3 € 5 € 15.000 $ 20.587,35
catering lunch 500 3 € 22 € 33.000 $ 45.292,17
restaurant lunch (conference and preconference) 500 5 € 10 € 25.000 $ 34.312,25
Total amount planned in the estimated costs € 80.500 $ 110.485,45
Currency € 1,00 $ 1,37


Notes

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  1. From http://www.varennaitaly.com.
  2. Information from http://www.varennaitaly.com, price without beverage.