A detailed recap of Host Milano

Two weekends ago, I was in Milan, Italy for one of the hospitality industry’s biggest trade shows: Host Milano. The venue campus is gigantic: 20 halls, linked together by a very long through walkway, lined with food pop-ups and al-fresco restaurants. I was there for the conclusion of my year-long ambassador contract, representing the US/coffee, among a few dozen other ambassadors from other countries. Many of them were food journalists or influencers.

We had a few organized booth tours, which I participated in for furniture, pizza, bakery, gelato, and coffee. Last week, I shared some preliminary thoughts about the show with paid subscribers and I also posted some of these photos on Instagram/LinkedIn. Now that I’m on the other side of my travels, I have a little more time to reflect fully on what I saw and learned.

First, we were there for three full show days (the show is five days) and there were a few events also happening that I got to visit: the World Barista Championship and the World Panettone Championship. On Saturday night, I got food poisoning (I suspect it was the cream served with a panettone dessert I ordered at a restaurant outside the show) and spent all of Sunday locked in my hotel room. Thankfully (?), I’ve had food poisoning several times before and recognized the signs, knowing it was mild in comparison. My fever broke after a few hours, and I was able to eat rice crackers by the end of Sunday. Plus, the other ambassadors were seasoned travelers, and they assembled a medley of meds and snacks for me. I called room service to see if they could make soup—“I’m sorry, ma’am, we do not have soup on the menu.”

I’ll start with the coffee portion, so those who are reading this only for coffee can skip to the rest. The coffee halls were mostly equipment exhibitors: I recognized many of the espresso machine, grinder, and roasting machine names and saw plenty more that I did not know. Despite what my past work may lead you to believe, I am not that into equipment releases. 

LaCimbali had a huge booth: there was a black-curtained, red-roped 360º dramatic product reveal, a few selections from their new coffee equipment museum, and a programmed recipe grinder (not the only manufacturer that has this). As a concept, Everysys and Modbar partnered up and hid all the components, including the grinder, under the bar.

In terms of sampling drinks, I was intrigued by the idea of Herbpress that designed a portafilter basket and tea bag that sandwiches between it to make tea via an espresso machine. I'm very curious what tea pros think about this. Water was really hard to find but Brita's booth saved the day with Oh La Laqua additives. Personally, I don't like flavored water but this no-sugar variant was refreshingly tasty. Milbok Double Milk is partially condensed and used on the competition stage was very creamy and had double the lactose. After trying the potato donut in Chicago, I stumbled upon potato milk from Dug Drinks. The company offered samples of their unsweetened and sweetened versions, in addition to the barista unsweetened milk that has pea protein for better steaming results. Using the sweetened version, they made two kinds of gelato! It was my fourth gelato of the day and my lactose-intolerant stomach was happy for some relief.

Zummo juicers were featured at the SEB booth. This gigantic booth had four different concept sections. This section was a cafe (seating in the background of the second photo), complete with a U-shaped bar, bar stools, and servers. Also, the malibu sunset was fantastic and we got a masterclass session on making it!

Caimi had one of my favorite booths and products. It's an acoustics and fabric tech company and it created three sections for different implementation scenarios, like a hotel lobby or bar. The fabrics were used on lighting fixtures, seating, wall panels, curtains, and on unique artsy products (the white geometric wall displays). As someone who has recently learned about my audio sensitivity, being in one of these sections was the best display I've seen of products put to use.

I happened to be wearing a DVF dress (shoutout to Rent the Runway) that perfectly matched Ginori 1735's gorgeously elegant booth. The green-on-white pattern in the second photo is one of the original designs by Ginori himself...in 1790! Every pattern is hand-applied. We toured a few pastry display case companies; one had a fridge-as-furniture product where every drawer could have a different environmental setting. There were so many pizza ovens, gelato equipment, and pastry equipment that I kind of just got overwhelmed.

The MadreProject—a sustainability-focused nonprofit—wanted to show how a container could be repurposed into a small-space bakery. At the Panettone World Championship, nine country teams competed and Taiwan won! Several had to be made on the spot with additional separate awards for categories like "Best Laboratory Organization" and "Best Teamwork."

If you're looking for a comprehensive hospitality trade show to attend, this one fits the bill. Booth designs were phenomenal, often reflecting the luxury markets that the companies serve. In coffee, I would not recommend it for those who want to explore smaller startups or non-coffee equipment.

The End. Did you make it all the way here? This was a doozy to read and you're probably hungry (sorry).