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An Italian journalist specializing in food and wine, Francesca Negri writes about food and wine, paying particular attention to the story of the feminine sense.

In addition to being the historic author of the Corriere del Trentino and the founder of the "Geisha Gourmet" blog, Francesca Negri has written several books and has recently embarked on a television journey, first with "Wine passport" and now with a new format by the American Tv production company Web Icon Inc. for Amazon Prime Video USA and UK distribution.

How did your passion for wine come about?

«I'm in my thirties and, between the seventies and eighties, when I was little, the children had grown up on water and wine. I grew up like this, my water was dirtied with wine, I remember it well. In kindergarten they took us to press the grapes in the vats... so let's say that in Trentino you have grapes and wine in your daily life. I have also developed a passion for it.

I have had people in my life who have fomented in me this passion for wine but also for cooking since I was young. When I was in my 20s and starting to go out trying out restaurants, weekends were always spent out at various restaurants. It was the mid-nineties, there wasn't yet the boom in restaurants that we have now, and I was already dealing with this. Then, when I paired wine with food, I thought “I would really like to meet the producer of this wine”».

When did you start working in the world of food and wine and what do you mainly do now?

«First of all, I consider myself very lucky, because what has always been my passion has become my job. When I started nobody wanted to write about cooking, I already had the passion and I started writing about it. In my varied path I have also written many cookbooks for chefs. Then, frequenting both the world of chefs and that of winemakers - the way I am - I found much more poetry, romanticism and entrepreneurship in the world of wine and therefore I decided to devote myself more to that and less to cooking. I find more charm in those who make wine.

Since November, I have launched my new online newspaper, called "Fancy Magazine": it is a lifestyle magazine dedicated to food and wine enthusiasts. Since 2008 I also have a blog, which has built my character and my style, which is "Geisha Gourmet"».

Why is your blog called “Geisha Gourmet”?

«The name was born on an April night in 2008: I wanted to get in touch with my readers more and I decided to open a blog to create a dialog with them. Thinking about what my role could be in this world, I thought of the figure of the geisha, not as everyone mistakenly thinks - that is, that she is a prostitute - but a figure dedicated to the development of the arts. And I was dedicated to developing the art of food and wine, clearly not as a producer but as a storyteller. I liked the connotation a lot, in a feminine sense, because in this sector, when I started, there weren't many women and above all I've always thought that we women have a different way of communicating.

Even in my first novel, "Sex and the wine", I openly declared the freedom of women to enjoy food and wine without guilt. So “Geisha Gourmet” has also always been a manifesto of women's emancipation in terms of food and wine».

Do you define yourself as an influencer or not?

«I'm a journalist, I don't "do" a journalist, and this alone should make you understand... I tell you that usually when they organize events just for influencers, I don't go. I may sound snobbish, but I have a dream for our profession: to respect the journalistic profession, which is very difficult today. For this reason I get angry if an influencer dominates me and they don't say I'm a journalist.

We must not forget that journalists were the first influencers, even if today they may have had their job stolen and influencers have become others. I have 118,000 followers on Instagram and they are people who have started following me over the years thanks to my work».

Are you currently writing a new book? Is there anything new going on?

«There are at least a couple of ideas in the drawer, but at the moment I don't have the time. Many readers ask me for the continuation of "Sex and the wine", it will surely come, but I can't say when. However, I can tell you that in 2018 I launched a web series called "Wine passport": five episodes for the web in English. Thanks to Web Icon Inc. they were distributed on Amazon Prime Video USA and UK and were also awarded at Vinitaly.

This summer I will be together with the American actress Amy Erin Johnson, in six episodes of 25 minutes each one, for a brand new Tv series again for Amazon Prime Video USA and UK. It will be a road trip in which Amy will introduce me to the American things and I will introduce her to the Italian things, especially wines, which we will find in the course of our stages. It will be titled " A & F " Amy & Francesca a Gourmet and Wine Story.

It is a very important project for Italian wine, above all for the extent of views it can have with Amazon Prime Video. This has obviously postponed my editorial projects but we know the scope of television well: if we want to talk about the benefits of disclosure, television has no equal. So I gladly sacrifice writing, my great love, for a new TV project in the United States of America".