Velier to participate in Identità Milano 2025, the place where culinary excellence and spirits meet. Introducing "hogo"

Now in its twentieth edition, Identità Milano, the global culinary congress part of Identità Golose, once more proves to be a crucial meeting place for excellence. Velier's ongoing experimentation journey into the food and drink culture continues.

Just a few more days. At the Allianz MiCo conference center on Viale Scarampo, Milan engines are warming up for the new edition of Identità Milano taking place this February from Saturday 22 to Monday 24. 2025 marks an important milestone for the event with its 20th anniversary.

From its inception the event has always been the place to be for haute cuisine and for the gourmet world as a whole. Its craft-inspired spirit and continuous pursuit of excellence are very similar to the world of spirits, liqueurs and wines represented by Velier. For this reason, in the belief that these two universes can and should remain close, in 2025 for the third consecutive year Velier and Champagne Billecart-Salmon will be Main Sponsors of the congress. Food and spirits share a long-standing love affair which the Genoa-based company has been exploring for several years and is now taking shape in a concept that we will be hearing about for a long time: HoGo.

HoGo is a term that is often used in cuisine to indicate a certain quality of taste. Technically, it's a contraction of the French expression haut gout, meaning "high taste". The concept was historically introduced by the great Auguste Escoffier, a pivotal figure in codifying French cuisine and in the transition to haute cuisine. It refers to an intense, often gamy taste akin to slightly aged game, boiling cabbage or Gorgonzola cheese. Strong flavors to be sure, but HoGo is much more than that. By extension, the term can refer to a dimension of extreme sensory pleasure going beyond mere flavor and not necessarily involving just taste and smell. In this interpretation service, plating and even the choice of glasses can contribute to creating an amazing experience. This hospitality style can be summed up in a few simple words: "the best products in the best places."

HoGo means excellence in every concept, from Velier's top-notch customers – hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants, bars, Velier stars - and their culinary or mixing projects to selecting the best products and presenting them in the best way. In this regard, the concept is closely connected to the Sipping 2.5cl cultural project aimed at bringing consumption of top-level spirits back to the conviviality of the table, both in food pairings and as an after-meal.

The world of food and the world of top-level wines and spirits will come together at the Velier Extraperimetral Lounge part of the Identità Milano congress. Excellence will star as the leitmotif in an experience engaging the palate at multiple levels.

Velier's Lounge is a space designed to entertain, kindle new ideas and inspire chefs and gourmets. It will be open by reservation throughout the three-day event with food and spirit pairing experiences and meetings with Triple A wine producers.

There will be 6 Masterclasses accessible by reservation at the lounge entrance.

They will place emphasis on raw ingredients by exploring five common grounds where food and spirits meet: grains, fruits, herbs, agave and sugar cane. During these experiences, world-class chefs will duet with some of Italy's leading figures in mixology, focusing on the use of spirits in bars and restaurants.

The masterclasses are scheduled as follows:

Saturday 22 

1.00 pm – Dario Tortorella from L’Antiquario di Napoli together with Raffaele Minghini and Sauro Ricci from Joia, Milan with a focus on herbs: the present, past and future of plant ingredients. The importance of botanical raw ingredients and foraging.

5.00 pm – Edoardo Nono from Rita & Cocktails, Milan and Salvatore Salvo from Pizzeria Salvo in Naples and San Giorgio in Cremano for a focus on fruit - capturing the essence of raw ingredients while saving a terroir and its best products. Pizza is pizza, pineapple is Tiki.

Dario Tortorella de L’Antiquario, Edoardo Nono del Rita & Cocktails

Sunday 23

1.00 pm – Emanuele Balestra from Hotel Barrière Le Majestic, Cannes, and Corrado Assenza from Caffè Sicilia, Noto, for a deep-dive into the aromatic depths of Jamaica's Hampden rum.

3.30 pm – Roberto Artusio from La Punta Expendio de Agave, Rome and Nino Rossi from Qafiz in Santa Cristina d'Aspromonte with a focus on agave, the plant world, ancestral distillation and terroir.

Corrado Assenza del Caffè Sicilia, Roberto Artusio de La Punta Expendio de Agave

Monday 24

11.30 am – Jimmy Bertazzoli from Aguardiente in Marina di Ravenna and Jacopo Ticchi from Trattoria da Lucio, Rimini will be talking about sugar cane and raw ingredients and discussing the evolution of taste from fermentation and maturing to fish ageing.

3.30 pm – Daniele Cancellara from Rasputin speakeasy in Florence and Davide Longoni from the eponymous Milan bakery for a focus on grains - raw ingredients, techniques and traditions.

In addition to Masterclasses, there will be 'a la carte' experiences led by a team of Velier experts on the following dates: Saturday 22 at 10.30 am, 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm; Sunday 23 at 10.30 am, 2.30 pm, 5.00 pm and 6.00 pm; Monday 24 at 10.30 am, 1.00 pm, 1.30 pm, 5.00 pm and 6.00 pm.

As in a speakeasy, guests will be invited to sit around the table and choose tasting experiences also revolving around five raw ingredients: herbs, fruit, agave, sugar cane and barley.

Spirits will be served with both conventional and unconventional food creations including one classic and one unexpected pairing.

For example, those choosing the sugar cane experience will be served a Neisson Godinot, a Hampden Pagos 2023 or a Providence 2019 with a ‘conventional’ pairing like bread and tomato from Orto Praca or an 'unexpected' one like Gabrio Bini's Pantelleria capers. Those who prefer to dive into the world of barley will be enjoying a Balvenie 12-year-old Double Wood with a 'conventional' bread toast with whipped butter and caviar and an 'unexpected' umeboshi plum.

Guests will also be able to join a tasting experience focusing on Gin & Tonic powered by Fever Tree. The brand's tonic waters will be paired with some of the gins in the Velier portfolio. This will be an opportunity to welcome the Selvatiq gin range into the Velier catalogue with three different expressions inspired from a careful selection of wild raw ingredients and junipers growing in extreme areas.

On Saturday and Sunday, the calendar of Velier events will also include two more significant events. At 11.30 am there will be two talks with a panel of producers, restaurateurs and sommeliers featuring special-guest moderators.

The Saturday 22nd panelist wineries will include Tinessa, Cascina Fontana, L'Archetipo, La Stoppa and Curto as well as chef Giacomo Pavesi, moderated by Matteo Gallello.

On Sunday 23rd the talk will see the participation of Emidio Pepe, Podere Le Ripi, Radikon and Vigneto Altura with chef Luca Grasselli from Cascina Lago Scuro, moderated by Jacopo Cossater.

Another highly anticipated event is Identità di Pizza, taking place on Saturday and featuring the special participation for the third consecutive time of Maison Billecart-Salmon as Main Sponsor along with Velier. 

Eight talented pizza chefs will showcase their creations paired with the Maison's fine champagne. Pizza and champagne is today a well-established pairing elevating one of the world's culinary icons to unprecedented heights. Below are the pizza chefs who will be stepping on the stage during Identità di Pizza:

11.15 am Simone Padoan - I Tigli

12.00 pm Luca Pezzetta - Pizzeria Clementina and Pier Daniele Seu - Seu Pizza Illuminati

12.45 pm Richard Abou Zaki and Emanuele Mennella – Controluce

3.15 pm Diego Vitagliano – Diego Vitagliano Pizzeria

4.00 pm Carla Ferrari – Pizza Cosy

4.45 pm Franco Pepe – Pepe in Grani

On Sunday, Maison Billecart-Salmon will also be participating in the Roots in the Future award-giving ceremony celebrating the union between strong family traditions and the passion for culinary experimentation and innovation. In 2023 the award was won by the Cera family from the eponymous Venice restaurant. As in past editions, this year the award will once again be presented by Luca Gargano.

Finally, there is great excitement for the presence at Identità Milano 2025 of a corner bar by Contrattino, a new ready-to-drink low-alcohol beverage that sees celebrity chef Antonino Cannavacciuolo personally involved in the company together with Paolo Dalla Mora, Giorgio Rivetti and Luca Gargano. 

In the coming days we will be revealing more details about this highly anticipated edition of Identità Milano. Velier will once again bring its own concept of spirit-culinary future culminating in the presentation of the Hogo project.