In a unique collaboration. Britain’s first Bava award celebrates contemporary Italian cuisine and contemporary British art.

Taking place at the stylish London waterfront restaurant Villa, the event brings together six of Italy’s finest chefs together with 25 short listed MA graduates from the Royal college of Art who have submitted over forty pieces of work in an array of materials and media including print, clay, rubber, metal, video, sound and photography.

Launched by Roberto Bava of the illustrious Italian wine producing family, the award will be judged by six of Italy’s finest contemporary Chefs now producing their interpretation of cutting edge Italian cuisine here in London.

The chefs participating are Stefano Cavallini of The Halkin, Simeone Cerea of Caravaggio, Giorgio Locatelli of Zafferano, Paolo Simeoni of Toto’s, Alberico Pennati of Harry’s Bar and Roberto Perini of Villa. They have created an extraordinary menu destined to enter into legend on the occasion of the Bava Awards, taking place on the 23^rd of September 1997 in London.

The theme

Both the chefs and artists have paid homage to the colour yellow, representing the colour of mother nature, the warmth of the sun, the autumn harvest and allegria.

The colour yellow, chosen as this year’s theme, is not only decisively creative, but essential in the kitchen, where it is perhaps the most elementary of colours. It is, of course, fundamental in wine, where with all its nuances it forms the other half of the universe, even if by convention it is called "white".

The principal protagonist amongst the wines will be the Alteserre, the new superwhite from Bava, which, with its straw yellow colour, has found great success with critics and consumers alike. Other classics will be there too: Gavi, Moscato d’Asti, and others, all naturally ... yellow.

The trophy

The Bava Award itself consists of an original work in silver by the sculptor Laura Potter, a prize of £ 2.500 and a holiday in Piedmont for the winning artist as a guest of the Bava family.

Created by RCA MA graduate Laura Potter, the silver BAVA trophy takes the form of an everyday object, the Tetrapak^TM. She explains the ideas behind her work: "We recycle lots of things - paper, plastic - and silver is recycled as well, melted down into bullion. Some of the forms we recycle we may see in a new way and with this trophy we see it in a new way, it becomes something else, something permanent. A mundane item becomes some precious and conversely a precious item become something mundane."

The same evening, a special tribute will be paid to Antonio Carluccio the "cook" from the BBC who has made a huge impact in spreading the values of Italian cuisine in England through his books, TV programmes and many years of success of his Neal Street restaurant in Covent Garden. Carluccio will present for the first time a culinary encyclopaedia that he has been working on for years.

"Contemporary art is ceaselessly crossing conventional boundaries. The young artists from the RCA are delighted to meet this new challenge of collaborating with these great Italian chefs to produce a memorable multi-media evening."

-Susie Allen, Exhibition curator and fine Art Consultant-

"The BAVA Award is an imaginative new venture which will bombard the visual and oral senses. Not only does it give top Italian chefs the chance to produce their best, it also gives support to a new generation of artists."

-Katie Sender, Arts Producer-