Naval engineer Mattia Bassi, 56 years old and with three children, from Genoa, 'graduated' as world champion of mortar pesto during the final of the International Championship held in Genoa.
Bassi defeated the 100 competitors from all over the world, who today competed in the hall of the Maggior Consiglio of Palazzo Ducale judged by 30 experts, gourmet opinion leaders selected at a national level.
The oldest competitor was awarded, Maria Carbone, 90 years old, from Davagna, a small town in the Genoese hinterland, and the competitor Kelly Rocha from further away who won an preliminary race of the Championship following the Ocean Race stages in Itajaì in the South of Brazil (9,846 kilometers from Genoa).
There was a very high participation in the Championship, with its collateral events, from the non-competitive children's championship to the exhibition of the ancient mortars of Genoese families, to the "meetings and conversations" on the most recent studies and research on basil and pesto.
For the first time, three foreign competitors were in the final: Nyusuke Ota, a Japanese chef who is carrying out work experience in Florence, Albertoimpresa of Italian origin living in Dublin and Jeanne Beauvais, Parisian, selected during one of the preliminaries which took place under the Eiffel Tower .
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