Gambero Rosso: The best street food in Italy

Gambero Rosso: The best street food in Italy

The new 2021 edition of the Gambero Rosso street food guide mentions 600 eateries, crowns 20 regional champions, and presents 2 special awards

There is a new Gambero Rosso guide created for street food lovers. The volume contains all the indications and useful information about the best pizzerias, fryers, piadinerias, sandwich shops, focaccerias, and hamburger bars in the Belpaese.

The publishing group launched ‘Guida Street Food 2021’ in the elegant outdoor setting of MAXXI’s Mediterranean restaurant in Rome. Like the previous five ones, also this edition is the result of the collaboration with ‘Così com’è,’ the only Italian national map of street food.

Street food is a cornerstone of Italian gastronomy, with an ancient tradition that used poor raw materials and waste that could not otherwise be used.

Italian street food

Over the centuries, many Italians have been able to eat thanks to the creativity and inventiveness that characterizes street food. Today, several traditions have been recovered and integrated with food from abroad and new experiments.

Examples of this are the ‘Cicotto di Grutti,’ the Florentine ‘Lampredotto,’ and the Sicilian ‘stigghiole.’

The new guide dedicates to them three of its many illustrated insights.
The guide mentions over 600 noteworthy addresses throughout the country. Among them, the editors selected 20 new regional champions and chose the winners of two Special Awards.

The ‘Street Food da Chef’ is a recognition for the unprecedented reworking of typical street food in an haute cuisine recipe. This went to ‘Il Grano di Pepe’ restaurant in Ravarino (Modena). It won with ‘1983. Cronaca di un’estate,’ a dish created in memory of Judge Rocco Chinnici, victim of the mafia. While ‘CiVà – Cibo Vagabondo’ from Sala Consilina (Salerno) won the ‘Street Food on the road’ award dedicated to the best proposal of street food on wheels.

Ilona Catani Scarlett