Ego Food Fest arrives in Puglia, a festival worth keeping an eye on
It's called Ego, and it's a food festival that focuses on Puglia and its food culture.
And it's wonderful that some of these events showcase Southern Italy (think of the Bob Fest, for which we were a media partner and which put Calabria at the center of the gastronomic world), a region rich in traditions, raw materials, and gastronomic beauty to share. So, the first beautiful thing about Ego Food Fest seems to us to be the location where it takes place: Taranto, a city that deserves a different perspective, which perhaps an event like this can help provide.
The history of the Ego Food Fest and the 2026 edition
The Ego Food Fest isn't a new event; it's been around for almost ten years, but naturally, it took a while to grow and establish an identity, thanks in part to the chefs, pizza makers, and producers who have participated in the past seven editions. More than a thousand, in fact. This year alone, 70 master pizza makers, both Michelin-starred and non-Michelin-starred chefs, and over fifty top-quality producers will be arriving for the 2026 edition (scheduled for April 17-20). All of them, the organizers say, will be asked to sign a handbook "to change the restaurant industry": ten points that represent a concrete commitment to shifting the paradigm in a more ethical direction.
The first – the pizza makers – will be the protagonists of a huge popular festival in the Arena di Villa Peripato in Taranto, and we like the idea that pizza – even the “gourmet” kind of pizza made by Ciccio Vitiello, Massimiliano Prete, or Renato Bosco, to name a few – will once again have the pop and social significance it has always had.
Producers and chefs will take the stage for masterclasses (over twenty-five are planned), which, like the entire festival, will focus on a major, highly contemporary and timely theme: "The Cuisine of the Future: Enjoying the Table, Enjoying the Planet." The first to address this theme, and it's sure to be a joy to listen to, will be Enrico Bartolini and Barbara Nappini, president of Slow Food Italy.
The chefs—numerous, interesting, like Jacopo Ticchi, and exquisitely local, like Domingo Schingaro; guardians of long histories, like Ernesto Iaccarino; and new contemporary talents, like Francesco Brutto—will also be the protagonists of the "incredible dinner," an "incredible" dinner that promises to bring Puglia to the forefront and tell its story to the world through the language of food.
