03-03-2018
Franco Pepe, Pepe in grani, Caiazzo (Caserta), star of the day at Identità Formaggio. He’ll be back on Monday 5th March in Sala Blu 2, for Identità di pizza, at 5.30 pm (photo Brambilla/Serrani)
For Cristina Bowerman cheese is a “matter of survival”. Andrea Aprea confesses “he lives on cheese”. As for Franco Pepe, for him cheese is something more: it’s a consubstantial matter in the job of a pizzaiolo. Three chefs at work on different fronts and borders, three visions but the same acknowledgement of the central role of one of the most important ingredients in the great Italian cuisine, so much so it deserved a session by itself in the 14th edition of Identità Milano.
Half of the emblem of the 2018 edition of the congress is indeed made by Franco Pepe. The other half, by Renato Bosco. A choice of image? A political choice, mostly, if politics are intended as a vision that can change the world. And in the food world, pizza has now a central role thanks to pizzaioli such as Franco Pepe. By the way, this is the year when the art of the pizzaiolo – not pizza itself, attention please – has been acknowledged as a world heritage by Unesco. So basically they’ve given a central role to the Human Factor. It all fits.
Niccolò Vecchia presented Identità di Formaggio
The audience is thrilled. Pepe said “I watched as they made Grana in a high-tech dairy factory: 160-180 pieces per day. But it was the action of the dairy producer, the moment in which the curdle is broken, that literally gives shape to the product. Giving identity to a product is something human”. Culinary trivia fact: at Pepe’s, Sundays are special. At lunchtime they serve a tasting menu with 13 pizzas, served on a sort of “social table” for eight people. “For those who want to have a good pizza and think about it”.
Cristina Bowerman, Glass Hostaria and Romeo in Rome
Andrea Aprea
On the side, a potato in fake foil (in fact, it’s a precious silver leaf) and satureja. Voilà, here’s the amatriciana of the future. “When you work with a dish for which you know guests have a specific and recognisable point of reference, the going gets tough. Guests have a memory they can compare against your dish, and it becomes tricky for the chef. And this is a risk we at Vun like a lot”. Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
Tutto sull’edizione 2018 di Identità Golose, a Milano da sabato 3 a lunedì 5 marzo. Il tema della quattordicesima edizione sarà “Il fattore umano”
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A journalist by profession, curious by vocation, she applies her attitude to investigative reports and food features. She's author for Repubblica, Gambero Rosso, Dispensa