Food takes center stage at Milan Expo 2015

The mascot for Expo 2015 has tomatoes for ears, appears to be of zucchini descent, and not surprisingly, for a character named "Foody," hails from Italy.

Food will take center stage at today's opening of Expo Milano 2015, the modern incarnation of the World's Fair that began in London in 1851. The theme for this year's six-month-long world exposition is "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life," and it will showcase new food, energy, science and environmental technology of 140 countries over 12 million square feet of exhibition space outside Milan.

Italy expects more than 20 million people to visit the Expo, including as many as one million visitors from the United States.

"It's going to be devoted to some crucial issues," Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero said. "Food, agriculture, healthy nutrition, safe nutrition. These are issues that are very, very important these days for every country in the world. All of this against the backdrop of this dramatic need we have to find a way to feed 9.5 billion people on this planet by 2050."

The U.S. contribution, American Food 2.0, will be housed in a 35,000 square foot glass pavilion. It includes a crop wall, a 7,200-square-foot vertical farm growing 42 varieties of vegetables, grains and herbs to demonstrate future food production, and The Great American Foodscape, an exhibit that depicts the history of food in the Americas.

Outside the USA Pavilion, fairgoers will find Food Truck Nation, six custom-built food trucks serving up regional American street foods, including hamburgers, barbecue and lobster rolls.

The culinary centerpiece of U.S. contribution will be the James Beard American Restaurant at Seven Stars Galleria where visiting guest chefs from the U.S. will prepare five-course regional menus. Among the celebrity chefs on the schedule are Mary Sue Milliken of Border Grill in Los Angeles, Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park in New York, John Besh of Restaurant August in New Orleans, Rick Bayless of Topolobampo in Chicago, Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore and White House chef Cristeta Comerford. Chef Evan Hanczor of Egg in Brooklyn will curate Sunday brunches. The restaurant is now taking reservations.

More than 50 other countries will also sponsor their own pavilions.

In addition to country pavilions, the expo will devote exhibition space to "clusters" dedicated to particular themes, including cocoa and chocolate, coffee, rice, spices, islands, sea and seafood. The cocoa and chocolate cluster, dubbed "The Food of the Gods," is designed to make visitors feel like they are entering a tropical jungle, with warm, humid air and shafts of sunlight streaming through the tree canopy.

Although Milan plays host to the main attraction, the rest of Italy will also roll out more than 1,300 special cultural events, including operas, concerts, art exhibitions and culinary events to visitors, Bisogniero said.

"At the end of the day, it's the Italian lifestyle that really impacts visitors," he said. "They have a way to see and touch firsthand what it means."