Ein Prosit: Italy's Food & Wine Festival With the World's Best Chefs
Ein Prosit is a food festival in Udine, a historic Italian city, each October. After a few days of headline dinners and regional wine tastings, I've come round to thinking the food isn't really the point, even though it's clearly why everyone turns up. What stands out instead is the gap between how seriously that food deserves to be taken and how little the town seems bothered by it, while some of the world's best chefs traipse its cobbled streets regardless. Forty-odd Michelin stars turn up each year, alongside large swathes of both the global and Italian regional 50 Best lists, and Udine carries on charming everyone, unfazed. Updated 13 September 2026
Ein Prosit in Udine shows posters of the chefs on show over the coming days.
The Highs
The Lows
The Highs
The Lows
Which Ein Prosit? Udine in October, not Tarvisio in July
This is the autumn edition, held in Udine in mid-October. There’s also an Ein Prosit Summer, two weekends in July in Tarvisio, built more around wellness and the outdoors than star-studded dinners. If you were expecting Bottura and found a hiking trail, you’re at the wrong one.
Ein Prosit, 100s of Michelin Stars over less than a week
Ein Prosit brings chefs together to build tasting menus, presenting an opportunity to meet some of the world’s best chefs and taste their dishes first-hand. Each night, scheduled dinners are unfolding across the city’s restaurants, staffed by two to three chefs, usually from a restaurant with at least one Michelin star, and often they are listed in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and/or in regional lists like LATAM’s 50 Best, MENA’s 50 Best or Asia’s 50 Best.
Chefs such as Italy’s Niko Romito (Reale, three Michelin Stars), Massimiliano Alajmo (Le Calandre, three Michelin Stars), Enrico Crippa (Piazza Duomo, three Michelin Stars) and Riccardo Camanini (Lido 84, one Michelin Star) cook alongside Slovenia’s Ana Ros (Hiša Franko, three Michelin Stars), Japan’s Zaiyu Hasegawa (Den, two Michelin Stars) or Spain’s Dabiz Muñoz (DiverXo, three Michelin Stars), assembling tasting menus and meeting with guests. Himanshu Saini’s Trèsind Studio in Dubai, is worth flagging on its own: in 2025, it became the first Indian restaurant anywhere to hold three Michelin Stars. Note: I later co-authored a book with Trèsind Studio and wrote the foreword to their tasting menu. No such relationship existed at the time of this visit.
Ein Prosit offers the opportunity to meet some of the world’s best chefs in person: Dabiz Muñoz, Massimo Bottura, Zaiyu Hasegawa and Ana Ros
This convenience comes with a price in addition to the cost of getting to and staying in Udine. Guests may view certain dinners as pricey, but it is worth keeping in mind that they are often considerably cheaper than the tasting menus offered in each chef’s restaurant, let alone where more than one chef is featured in the same menu. Of course, having all the events in one place is also very convenient.
Is it worth it?
Ein Prosit speaks to a crowd willing to travel for food and pay a premium, the sort of seasoned food traveller who watches Chef’s Table and follows the guides and lists closely.
Ein Prosit quickly became my benchmark for other food festivals, mostly because of the calibre of chefs willing to turn up for it. Some of the world’s most prestigious kitchens are more accessible in one place where the chefs are relaxed, milling around the restaurant floor, or out around town grabbing coffees and quick pours of wine between prep and service. The chefs often seem as pleased to see each other as they are the guests
The whole city leans into the fun as fine dining enthusiasts get together over drinks to swap recommendations and talk about food and wine.
Massimo Bottura’s Gucci Osteria group flew in from Beverly Hills, Seoul, Tokyo and Florence to prepare signature dishes from each one of these restaurants.
Ein Prosit, Dedicated Bartending Masterclasses
Ein Prosit runs to over 35 wine and champagne-tasting masterclasses with sommeliers and growers. Some begin as early as Saturday morning, with a champagne tasting.
Take advantage of the wine tastings, especially if you can’t find these grapes or regions at home, as Ein Prosit focuses predominantly on Friuli-Venezia Giulia wineries together with Slovenian and Austrian labels. You taste a breadth of grapes, vintages and regions, often with the producer chaperoning you through the wine in person, together with their challenges and joys.
Highlights included a sparkling wine vertical tasting between 1991 and 2021 from Gaspare Buscemi, a small Friuli-Venezia Giulia winery. You should keep an eye out for their natural sparkling wine.
The Friuli region is known for its Sauvignon Blanc, among other varietals. A horizontal seven-glass tasting between nearby Austrian, Slovenian and the local Friulian variety showcases the terroir’s impact on this popular grape variety.
You need to plan because many tastings book quickly. Most tastings are back-to-back, either in the Hotel Astoria or the cavernous Palazzo D’Aronco (worth a special visit). Beer fans can also find a few beer tastings.
Udine features various art pieces around the city include this oversized floppy octopus by a canal.
Ein Prosit is my benchmark for food festivals. The whole city leans into the fun.
Ein Prosit, Two Days Bartending Masterclasses
A few of the bars in Udine serve rounds of cocktails before dinner, including this Bonanto Spritz.
Don’t overlook the bartending masterclasses and events scheduled during Ein Prosit. In 2023, the drinks programme was in the hands of Dom Carella, founder of Carico in Milan, a 50 Best Discovery bar, and it showed. Check the current programme before you book. You should also head towards Udine’s De Room for Ein Prosit’s after-parties and Dom’s unique cocktails. Good luck prying yourself away early.
De Room is a popular bar in Udine that hosted Ein Prosit’s after-parties in 2023, in the capable hands of Dom Carella of Carico, Milan.
Pricing note: Tasting menu prices vary considerably, usually trending with the prestige of the featured chefs. Dinner starts from around €90, most hover around €130 and go upwards to €180 and €275. Most wine tastings are between €25 to €40, but some stretch to €50 for the most premium or rare bottle tastings, including champagne.
Written by Liam Collens.
Liam Collens was invited to Ein Prosit during a press trip where all meals and tastings were paid for by the Friuli-Venezia Giulia tourism board.
