01-10-2015
Mario Batali, at the helm of Babbo and of many other restaurants in the Big Apple and Moreno Cedroni, chef at Madonnina del Pescatore in Senigallia (Ancona) pose in front of Eataly and the Flatiron before their lecture, the second at Identità New York. The leitmotiv: extra virgin olive oil
«Moreno Cedroni is the fish whisperer. He knows raw fish and cooked fish very well, and uses the same approach with them. He recalls the original texture of each fish and when he cooks it, he proves he respects it fully». There couldn’t be any better presentation of Cedroni than the one Mario Batali, co-author of this second lesson at Identità New York, gave.
The chef from La Madonnina del Pescatore conveys two important messages, straight from Expo: «First, don’t waste food. You mustn’t throw away yesterday’s bread: what you don’t finish, you can reuse». The second announcement is coherent with his role as Expo Ambassador of an excellent Italian product: «Cook using extra virgin olive oil as often as you can, because it offers an elegant way of cooking, without producing smells. Most of all, don’t trust cheap extra virgin olive oil as it’s not good. Think about the person hand-picking the olives: his work is not worth 5 or 6 dollars per litre». The audience gets warm.
Moreno Cedroni’s codfish of champions
There’s also time for a last, interesting concept: «People always thought that with fish any temperature would do: nobody at a restaurant will ever ask you how cooked you want your fish, as with meat. Yet every fish has its cooking temperature». What arrives on the plates is simply the best codfish in our lives.
Mario Batali's tortelloni
The filling of the tortelloni is 50% caprino cheese, 50% extra virgin olive oil (here the emblematic ingredient of the lecture returns). A filling that is a tribute to Bottura and a pair – pasta and oil – that is «so good it is hard to find anything as successful in the world».
The events you cannot miss and all the news of topical interest from the food planet
by
This article is curated by Identità Golose, the publication that organises the international fine dining congress, publishes website www.identitagolose.com and the online Guida Identità Golose, on top of curating many other events in Italy and abroad