Guests at a lavish dinner held at the Des Moines Art Center during Winefest Des Moines 2005 have already gotten a taste of what a Sister State relationship with the Veneto Region of Italty can mean for Iowans. To sum it up in a word: delizioso.

And it’s about to become more so. Four chefs from Veneto will be arriving in Des Moines later this month for the first half of cultural exchanges that will send three Des Moines chefs – the Embassy Club’s Michael LaValle, Basil Prosperi’s Steve Logsdon and Mosaix Restaurant & Wine Bar’s John Teeling – to northern Italy early next year.

In Des Moines, the Italians will spend a couple of weeks working with the Iowa chefs in their restaurants. Valter Crema has been paired with Logsdon, Luca Giacomel with Teeling and Michele Nobile with LaValle. Graziano Manzatto, president of the Veneto Chefs Association, is also be making the trip. Together, they and their American partners will cook up a fabulous Italian feast, available for $150 per person or $1,200 for a table to 10, to be served Nov. 11 at the Temple for Performing Arts. The money raised will help offset travel and other costs of the exchange.

Each of the chefs involved in the exchange excels in certain areas, and they’ll pool the best of their talents for the multicourse meal. Wines from the region also will be served. Veneto produces about one-fifth of all Italian wine, including some of the best the country has to offer. Ample sunlight and calcium-rich soil contribute to the full-bodied vintages for which Veneto is known.

“It’s going to be a really interesting evening, with very high quality and very unusual food,” Iowa Sister States Executive Director Philip Latessa promises. “Each will produce one of the courses, which will be very different than what you find in a restaurant in Des Moines. Some of it is just not made here.”

The exchange also provides an opportunity for Iowa Sister States to introduce an important part of culture to Iowa, according to Latessa. “While enjoying the cuisine, they’re learning other things,” he says. “What we are after is an experience to exchange information and increasing understanding; we are using food as the mechanism.”

Other events planned in conjunction with the chefs’ visit include a class teaching the basics of cooking authentic Italian cuisine at the Italian-American Cultural Center at 1961 Indianola Ave. on Nov. 7. It’ll be offered twice, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., and costs $40 per person.

Logsdon and his friends at Coyote Run Farms near Lacona, suppliers of much of the produce he uses in his restaurants, are planning a special surprise for the Italian chefs, a traditional Midwest hog roast, where the meat is cooked in a pit in the ground. “It’s a good image of Iowa,” Logsdon says, and a showcase of the state’s famous hospitality. That as-yet-unscheduled event will be free and open to the general public, Logsdon says.

Iowa Sister States established a relationship with the Veneto Region in 1997. Though Veneto is dissimilar from Iowa because it encompasses both coastal areas and dramatic mountain landscapes, it also has extensive agricultural areas and a character that is at the same time urban and rural, much like Iowa. When Sister State agreements are formed, great care is taken to match areas that have things in common, thus elevating the possibility that exchange partners will learn from each other, Latessa says.

The relationship isn’t regarded lightly, says Paolo Bartesaghi, chairman of Iowa Sister States’ Veneto Committee. He says the Veneto Chefs Association is “a really important part” of the prestigious Italian Association of Professional Chefs, but nevertheless turned down an invitation to meet with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin because they’re committed to meet with their new friends in Iowa.

The Veneto Chefs Association is one of the top such organizations in Italy, as well as in the world, Bartesaghi says. In world cooking competitions last year, the Veneto chefs took home more prizes than any other regional association of chefs in Italy. “They are not just a simple group of people,” he says. “These are the guys on the top.”

The significance of the opportunity to learn from internationally renowned chefs like those from Veneto is not lost on Logsdon. His Italian partner, Valter Crema, also owns a small restaurant, and Logsdon is eager to learn some simple dishes, as he did last summer when he learned to make gnocchi, a potato dumpling common in Northern Italy, from the chefs visiting during Winefest.

“I’m looking forward to learning simple dishes from the area and find out what I’m doing wrong,” he says.

He’s equally excited about the opportunity to travel to Italy. “I think it will be nice to work with somebody in Italy,” says Logsdon, who traces his ancestry to the Tuscany region. “It’s good for both sides.”