Identità Milano 2026 looks to the future From June 7 to 9, the congress brings together industry professionals and emerging talents
From June 7 to 9, 2026, the Allianz MiCo North Wing in Milan will host the twenty-first edition of Identità Milano, three days dedicated to dining-room service, hospitality, haute cuisine and pastry, mixology and wine. After celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 2025, the event founded by Paolo Marchi and Claudio Ceroni returns with a particularly rich program: 192 speakers, 97 masterclasses, 11 thematic focuses, the Pavillion Hospitality with the Bar Experience, the Identità Young project and the debut of NEXT GEN LAB.
The theme of the 2026 edition is Identità Future: the freedom to think, a concept that runs through the entire event and invites professionals, businesses and new generations to reflect on the challenges that are transforming the world of gastronomy. The freedom to imagine new models, to redefine the relationship with the territory, with work, with climate change and with the evolution of consumer habits, in a historical moment marked by profound social, cultural and economic changes.
Paolo Marchi and Claudio Ceroni have emphasized how the Congress, whose central theme will be the involvement of the new generations, aims to become increasingly a place for dialogue: hence the strengthening of Identità Young, the project launched in 2025 and now further developed through initiatives dedicated to students, young professionals and operators under 35, who will be able to access the Congress at reduced rates and which expands with NEXT GEN LAB, ''Fuori Menu: cuisine beyond school'' , through a media partnership with Foodminds Podcast which, with interviews with professionals in the sector, enhances experiences and visions capable of inspiring the Italian and international public, and with the creation of the Digital Map, a social guide designed to help the public find their way among halls, events and the exhibition area.
What’s new at Identità 2026
NEXT GEN LAB is one of the main new features of this edition, a new project developed in collaboration with Sidewalk Kitchens and nss edicola. A laboratory dedicated to the new culture of authorial street food, it will also be accessible to the external public on the terrace of the Allianz MiCo North Wing. The area will be animated by an All Day Station active from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with businesses such as L’Altro Tramezzino, Verde, Totost and Davide Longoni, joined by other emerging hubs active from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. such as Chuck’s, Salumeria Malinconico, TOFU LAB by Dalle:8 and Pantera Pizza Rustica. The project is powered by TheFork and supported by the media partnership of NSS Edicola, by partners Jet HR, Tebi and Dickies and by technical partners Costa Group and ISA.
Also with the aim of bringing the Congress closer to the new generations, “Fuori Menu: cuisine beyond school”, will be launched, a panel scheduled for June 9 in the Arena Space. The initiative will involve some of the main Italian gastronomic training schools, with the aim of creating dialogue among students, teachers and professionals in the sector and presenting concrete opportunities for entering the industry.
Great attention will also be devoted to the world of hospitality. After its debut last year, the Pavillion Hospitality takes on a central role within the event and presents itself as an experiential journey through the new forms of contemporary hospitality. In dialogue with this area, the Bar Experience develops, dedicated to Italian and international mixology, with masterclasses and meetings that will analyze the relationship between beverage, cuisine, service and space design.
On Sunday June 7, the fifth edition of “Bollicine del Mondo” will also be presented, the guide curated by Paolo Marchi and Cinzia Benzi dedicated to the best international sparkling wine production. The 2026 edition reviews more than one thousand wineries and over twelve hundred labels from fifty countries, confirming the project’s global vocation. A particularly anticipated moment will be the presentation of the symbolic dish of the 2026 edition, entrusted to Massimiliano Alajmo. The chef will present “Relazioni – Gioco al Cioccolato”, a dessert composed of fourteen tastings that reflects on the value of sharing and of the relationship with others. The cutlery, joined together by wool threads, will transform the act of tasting into a collective and symbolic experience.
The Main Stage will represent the heart of the event. Not only a stage dedicated to haute cuisine, but a space for dialogue among gastronomy, culture, research, science and business, accompanying reflections on well-being, sensory perceptions, sustainability, wine and hospitality. Some of the most important figures on the international scene will take the stage, alternating in talks and masterclasses. Alongside the international guests, Italian cuisine will also be a protagonist thanks to the presence of some of its most authoritative interpreters. These include Antonino Cannavacciuolo, Massimiliano Alajmo, Niko Romito, Carlo Cracco, and numerous other professionals who continue to contribute to the evolution of national gastronomy.
The thematic areas
There will also be the traditional thematic areas dedicated to the great protagonists of Italian gastronomy. Identità di Pasta, Identità di Formaggio, Identità di Pizza and Identità di Lievitati will return, while the new features include Identità di Territorio, Identità Umbria and Identità di Bufala, created to explore the relationship between raw materials, territory and innovation.
For the first time, Umbria will be the Guest Region. On Tuesday, June 9, the Emerald 1 Hall will host “Identità Umbria”, a journey dedicated to regional agri-food excellences and to their evolution and interpretation by seven Umbrian chefs: a story of territorial identities that conveys the image of a region capable of preserving memory and biodiversity.
Alongside Umbria, Peru will be the Guest Nation of the 2026 edition. With the concept “Peru: the taste of an extraordinary journey”, the South American country will present the public with a path that will tell the richness of its gastronomic tradition through three emblematic expressions: ceviche, Arequipeña cuisine and Nikkei culture, enhancing symbolic products such as pisco, cocoa and coffee. Peru’s participation is organized by PROMPERÚ, the agency of Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism.
The off-congress program
Fuori Congresso will also bring Identità Milano 2026 outside the spaces of the Allianz MiCo, with a citywide calendar spanning cuisine, mixology and urban lifestyle. It begins on Saturday June 6 with the Bar Experience Connection, created in collaboration with Milano Hospitality Week, which will involve some of the city’s iconic cocktail bars, from Ceresio 7 to Dry Milano, from Rita Cocktails to Camparino in Galleria, all the way to Moebius Milano, The Carlton Bar, Bvlgari Hotel Milano and 1930 Cocktail Bar.
From Sunday, June 7, starting at 7:30 p.m., there will be space for “Identità di Marciapiede”, a project by Sidewalk Kitchens and nss edicola dedicated to new urban gastronomic cultures, with DJ sets and food linked to the NEXT GEN LAB street court, which will also return in the following days. That same evening from 8:00 p.m., Identità Golose Milano will host “La Cena delle Meraviglie”, with Luiz Filipe Souza, Antonio Bachour, Moreno Cedroni and Jacopo Ticchi. Also scheduled for Sunday are two guest shifts: at Dry Milano, with Luca Ardito, Federico Galli, Mattia Capezzuoli, Nicola Loiacono, Federico Pavan and the presence of Salvatore Calabrese; and at Frangente, with Giulia Caffiero, Restaurant Manager of Geranium in Copenhagen.
On Monday June 8 from 7:00 p.m., Fuori Congresso will stop at Rumore, the American Cocktail Bar inside Portrait Milano, with a guest shift that will create a dialogue between Milan and Venice thanks to Sossio Del Prete and Antonio Ferrara. In the evening, at Identità Golose Milano, the “Eccellenza Perù” dinner will be held with Francesca Ferreyros, a talent of the new Peruvian cuisine, protagonist of a gastronomic journey that intertwines ingredients, techniques and traditions from Peru and Southeast Asia.
On Tuesday June 9, the program will close with the Closing Party, an invitation-only event hosted by Terrazza Martini in collaboration with Milano Hospitality Week, and the “Identità Umbria” dinner at Identità Golose Milano. The latter will bring together the seven chefs representing the 2026 Guest Region, called upon to tell the evolution of Umbrian cuisine through raw materials and the identities of the territory.
The main partners
At twenty-one years since its creation, Identità Milano thus continues to represent one of the main international observatories on the transformations of contemporary gastronomy, confirming itself as a privileged place where ideas, innovation, culture and hospitality come together to imagine the future of the sector.
The 2026 edition can count on the support of over one hundred partners and the backing of important players in the sector, including Acqua Panna - S.Pellegrino, Avolta, Berlucchi Franciacorta, Berto’s, Bibite Sanpellegrino, Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano, Fondazione Cotarella, Molino Dallagiovanna, together with Regione Umbria, Guest Region, and PROMPERÙ, Peru Guest Nation. It also enjoys the patronage of the Municipality of Milan and the collaboration of numerous national and international media partners: Il Gusto, La Cucina Italiana, Elle Gourmet, Tgcom24, Food&Wine Italia, Travel+Leisure Italia, ItaliaSquisita, Reporter Gourmet, Tuorlo, James Magazine, Spirito diVino, WineNews, Italian Cocktail Weeks, Realize Networks, Foodminds, nss edicola.