If you're thinking about having some Italian tomorrow night, you might want to join the hundreds of chefs in the GVCI network - the Italian acronym for Virtual Group of Italian Cooks - who have declared January 17 International Day of Italian Cuisine. The 800 or so members of GVCI, which started as an online forum, are dedicated to upholding and defending the authenticity and quality of real Italiano cuisine. This year's dish in focus is risotto alla milanese (risotto with saffron). The local group moderator is Gaia's kitchen boss, Paolo Monti. 'The spirit of the group is to support real Italian food, with no BS, following the rules and trying to get rid of all these American-Italian restaurants that serve things that aren't real,' Monti (below) said. 'Last year we did spaghetti carbonara.' This year, the aim is to give diners across the world a taste of real risotto - 'although everyone will still do it with a little twist. I'm putting veal tenderloin on top. Someone else will serve it with bone marrow and osso bucco'. If you order the dish, expect to wait about 20 minutes as that's how long it takes to cook Italian rice the traditional way. 'The bad places will just make something with yellow powder and the wrong kind of rice. There are only two kinds of rice you can use, otherwise it becomes soggy. Then you have some sort of congee. The technique also takes longer.' The other restaurants officially taking part are Habitu The Pier, Mistral, Angelini, Sabatini, Va Bene and Osteria.