No one in the room will ever forget that day. It was Thursday, February 27. And the Taste of Italy planning team had met for an emergency session to discuss whether or not Taste of Italy 2020 should be postponed from its March 30-31 dates in Houston and New Orleans and its April 2 date in Los Angeles.

At the time, Prowein, the annual wine trade fair in Düsseldorf scheduled for mid-March, hadn’t yet been cancelled. Nor had organizers cancelled Vinitaly, the annual wine trade fair in Verona scheduled for the third week of April.