Breads from Creative Cities – Local Traditional Bakers
The Breads from Creative Cities initiative is a global bread culture project that celebrates traditional bakers, millers, and farmers. Born during the pandemic, it helped communities reconnect with homemade bread traditions and rediscover local heritage
THE IDEA
This project highlights the breadmaking knowledge passed down through generations. It focuses on the simplest ingredients—flour and water—and the people who turn them into powerful cultural expressions. These include local traditional bakers, farmers, and millers who share recipes, stories, and step-by-step videos.
Through these contributions, the project helps families recreate regional bread recipes in their own kitchens. Each submission brings the flavor of a unique place, connecting people through shared rituals and food heritage.
HOW IT WORKS?
The project welcomes contributions from UNESCO Creative Cities, local communities, and individual knowledge keepers. Participants upload their bread stories and recipes to the Creative Knowledge Foundation’s customized TRusT™ Platform.
Locally, the project can be adapted in native languages to enhance engagement. It also lives across official websites and social media channels, amplifying each community’s voice. To promote participation, contributors are encouraged to share their content widely, building a global archive of bread culture.
Panettieri d’Italia - Breads from Creative Cities
Panettieri d’Italia is the first edition of the “Breads from Creative Cities” project, launched by Fabriano, a UNESCO Creative City, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The initiative aimed to reconnect people with the tradition of homemade bread, encouraging families to rediscover authentic flavors and the simple act of baking with flour and water.
Recognized by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network Secretariat, the project was designed as a cultural response to the pandemic. It focused on preserving and celebrating breadmaking as a form of shared knowledge across generations.
The project
In April 2020, the project launched through a series of live Facebook events. Several bakers from different Italian cities took part, each presenting their bread, their personal story, and their deep connection to their territory.
From Alba UCC, Enrico Giacosa represented the Pan ed Langa Consortium. From Carrara UCC, Francesco Carusi participated with Antico Mulino Pandolfo. Gabriele Mancini joined from Fabriano UCC with Panificio e Dolci Ragni Franco. Fabio Bertolucci, based in Casola in Lunigiana, contributed through Il Forno in Canoàra. From Tizzano Val Parma, Mariella Bonfanti and Antonio Bocchi shared their story from Agriturismo La Corte di Boceto. Finally, from Naples, Antonio Falco brought in the iconic L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele.
The project received national and international attention. It highlighted the resilience and creativity of Italian bakers and demonstrated how traditional knowledge can travel across borders and screens, even in times of crisis.
Panettieri d’Italia stands as a powerful example of how bread can unite people, preserve local culture, and foster global dialogue through one of the world’s most ancient and shared practices: baking.
