Bellissimo Booths Italian Summer Events!
Written on September 18th, 2024
This Summer you’ll have seen our stores transformed into an Italian food lover’s dream, with 100s of new products, fabulous in store displays and extravagant events! Throughout August, we hosted a range of events in your Booths stores to highlight and celebrate the very best of Italian food and drink.
Italian Cooking Masterclasses
Customers enjoyed a taste of Italy in 4 sold out events hosted at Clitheroe, Penwortham and Hesketh Bank by Maurizio Bocchi. Maurizio is Chef Patron and along with his wife Cinzia runs the nationally acclaimed Italian restaurant La Locanda, in Gisburn, the heart of the Ribble Valley. Maurizio is respected for his commitment to the Slow Food ethos, sourcing the best quality produce and cooking pure, authentic Italian cuisine.
All guests were welcomed to the event with a glass of fizz and some breadstick nibbles while they settled in to their seats, Italian background music creating an authentic atmosphere.
Their tastebuds were then transported to Italy with each dish, demonstrated by Maurizio and exclusively developed for this event using our finest products
It has been an amazing experience, I truly enjoyed every minute. Lots of fun and I was surrounded by professional, friendly, helpful and happy staff in every store. Lovely and attentive customers with a great sense of humour! Grazie mille, and see you at the “prossima” (next one!). – Chef Maurizio Bocchi, La Locanda
You tasted:
Antipasti: Millefoglie di Melanzane (A cheese and aurbergine baked stack). Tap for the recipe.
Primo Piatto: Spaghetti con Pesto alla Trapanese (Almond pesto spaghetti). Tap for the recipe.
Dolci: Mousse di Caffé e Cioccolato (Chocolate & coffee mousse). Tap for the recipe.
Each dish was paired with a glass of wine hand-selected by Victoria our wine buyer.
To end the night, guests took home a goody bag filled with a range of Italian products, a gift voucher kindly supplied by La Locanda, and recipe cards to be able to recreate each dish at home!
Hosting the Italian Cooking event was a joy and a privilege. Myself, Brenda and Pete had the best night working with the staff and chefs from La Locanda. The customers were emersed into the Italian world of wine, cheese and pasta for the night. Italian music flowed as Chef Maurizio demonstrated 3 courses, which our customers could re-create at home, questions and laughter free-flowed, customers engaged with one another, exchanging the enthusiasm of the food and wine they were tasing. The night ended on the crescendo of the most amazing dessert, which left our customers wanting more. They left with smiles on their faces, gorgeous food in their belly’s and the feeling of having spent the night with family. – Emma Langford, Specialist Manager at Penwortham
Italian Coffee & Sweet Treats
To showcase our new products in store, for a limited time customers could enjoy a sample of these products along with an Italian cafetière in selected Booths cafés for £5. This was an opportunity for customers to try our new products in a relaxed environment and hopefully find some new favourites!
The tasty treats on the plate were:
Virginia Soft Amaretti, Crosta & Mollica Mini Panettone, Marabissi Chocolate & Hazelnut Cantucci, Di Forti Lemon Aragostine, Baci Milk Chocolate, accompanied by an Illy Caffe Ground Espresso Cafetiere.
Bambini Ingredient Hunt
Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, kids could take part in a free ingredient hunt around our stores. After picking up an Italian themed shopping list, they could then start the search for the 6 giant ingredients we’d hidden around the store.
Ticking them off as they go, once completed they could pick up their prize which was a bag of Dinosauri pasta and a seaside activity book. All of the ingredients on the list when combined would make a lovely vegetable and salami tomato pasta to inspire our little foodies!
Thank You!
A huge thank you to The Italian Trade Agency (ITA), our amazing store teams, the team at La Locanda and our suppliers for supporting these events and bringing them to life!
Our wonderful wine suppliers for providing excellent wine to accompany the food:
Frescobladi Toscana: Supplied Remole Toscana Rose. Tap to find out more about them.
Ornellaia: Supplied Le Volte dell’Ornellaia 2019. Tap to find out more about them.
Cantine Pellegrino: Supplied Marsala Superiore Garibaldi Dolce. Tap to find out more about them.
Our fantastic suppliers who featured products in our goody bags:
Rummo Pasta, tap to find out more about them.
Belazu, tap to find out more about them.
Mutti, tap to find out more about them.
Mazzetti, tap to find out more about them.
San Pellegrino, tap to find out more about them.
You Said…
Join Us Next Time!
We look forward to welcoming you to our next event visit our events webpage to find out what’s coming up next, and keep an eye on our social channels to see what we have in store for 2024!