08-03-2017

Massimo Bottura: Italian Renaissance in the kitchen

At Identità Milano, the chef presents Italian cuisine «as never conceived until now»

Italian Renaissance, but in the kitchen. This is w

Italian Renaissance, but in the kitchen. This is what Massimo Bottura suggested during his speech at Identità Golose Milano

Italian Renaissance in the kitchen is what Massimo Bottura suggested from the stage of Identità Milano: a constant parallel with art and history, the rediscovery of an excellence that belongs to us, with a plus given by an acquired awareness: «Now, as never before, we’re all aware of our past which, filtered through contemporary thought and amplified by sharing [a new and decisive element] and by a biodiversity of food (and ideas) that has no equal in the world, gives life to a new Italian cuisine, never conceived until now». Modern Italian chefs are aware of their role. They take part in a system that can interact with them also in terms of culture. They hold the necessary knowledge: «The most important ingredient for the chef of the future is culture».

A large crowd was attending the lesson

A large crowd was attending the lesson

Cooking, art, Renaissance. These three elements characterised the speech given by the number one chef who enjoys «seeing our restaurants as Renaissance laboratories», where people went to learn technique and spirit, «they were real labs for ideas» just like these days chefs are (must be) «ambassadors of agriculture, capable of educating, developing tourism, even embodying a social role».Art is evolution and transformation. Piero Della Francesca “becomes” Michelangelo Pistoletto, who evolves in Carlo Benvenuto. Development and synthesis, the past is the necessary prodrome for the present and future: «The future cannot exist without the past, figurative and abstract are not opposites but complement each other. They don’t erase but acquire strength from one another».

Bottura and his staff with the prize given to the best restaurant in the world according to the World’s 50Best

Bottura and his staff with the prize given to the best restaurant in the world according to the World’s 50Best

This applies – it must – also to the kitchen: in order to paint this Renaissance accessible to all, and has Bottura as its guide, you need to follow the same process, says Massimo: «I tasted a Caesar Salad. It was good but there was too much sauce. It became Caesar salad in Emilia, with mustard leaves, parmigiano brittle, balsamic vinegar and pancetta. It then resulted in something more abstract, hidden under the salad: Caesar salad in bloom», a hint to Lucio Fontana. Today it changes nature and name, it becomes a seafood salad, with water with squid ink, a jus of prawn and scampi heads, filtered oyster water, as well as almond milk yogurt and concentrated camomile, breaking the wall between sweet and savoury. There’s an idea, there’s a process of change and refining, but taste is till the North Star, «in Bottura’s exploration flavour always has its dutiful prominence», says Enzo Vizzari.

One could name even other examples: Riso camouflage was born thanks to a distant inspiration given by Luigi Cremona, «enough risottos, let’s focus on the grain instead». Or Lepre nel Bosco, which is inspired by Vizzari himself, back from Paris, with a hint at Picasso. And Riso cacio e pepe, «which looks like a painting by Pietro Manzoni».

Bottura’s riso camouflage

Bottura’s riso camouflage

History, even gastronomic history, is the inspiration for the future. In the Piccione camouflage there are sour vegetables, a fried pigeon thigh filled with its entrails, and the sauces, the result of Bottura’s trips around the world: «they explain our ideas. A wise, and not wild, contamination», as «my cooking still speaks Italian». Indeed, it moves across the entire peninsula, as with the famous Croccantino al foie gras, which plays with France by adding Langhe (hazelnuts), Noto (almonds) and Emilia (balsamic vinegar). To Paolo Marchi, Bottura replied pointing out: «My strongest influence comes from Piedmont and Sicily».

Today there’s Riso camouflage, we were saying: «I wanted to enhance the extract of winter chlorophyll, but the taste by itself was too dull. So with Davide and Taka I took some rice with squid ink, added two tablespoons of rice with chlorophyll, then rice with a water with powdered porcini and truffle peel, a sort of “surf and turf” dish». Or the broken Tiramizucca, following Oops, mi è caduta la crostatina, which will be available at Francescana from October and starts from a pumpkin from Mantua: «a dish recalling my origins, my childhood», which becomes a “tortello that wants to become a cannolo”, and Tiramizucca «a concentrate of pumpkin, mustard, campanine apples, amaretti biscuits, brittle…». It’s now broken because «we’re working on a millefoglie, that will be included in the menu in the future, so a broken dish is the perfect emblem of the evolution of imperfection».

«Just like Renaissance uses culture to recuperate the great Roman and Greek classics after the barbaric invasions, so we Italian chefs are doing the same today: we were subjected to the invasion of nouvelle cuisine, of fusion, Spanish avantgarde, New Nordic Cuisine». It’s time for a comeback.
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso


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by

Carlo Passera

journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief

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