Italy too will participate in the Bocuse

Stockholm becomes the capital of European cuisine: on Wednesday and Thursday, the 7th and 8th, it will host the European selection of the Bocuse d’Or, the world cuisine championship dedicated to chefs in their 20s and 30s. Everything began thanks to an idea of Paul Bocuse, in 1985. The first edition took place two years later, the 15th is set for next January during Sirha in Lion. Even years are dedicated to the selection, while the odd years are dedicated to the competition itself. Once Italy, which never won, presented itself following Gualtiero Marchesi, our own Bocuse, but then everything became more diluted and the latest participations would have best been avoided. Sometimes it’s better to stay at home, especially when not having passed the continental selections one needs to play a wild card.

We will soon discover the future participants though the many competitors have been working hard for quite some time. Twenty countries are competing. Representing Italy there’s Diego Rigotti, from Tione, in Trento, just like the chef who preceded him, Alfio Ghezzi, of Locanda Margon in Ravina. Thirty years old next July, with three children, he recently received a Michelin star for the re-born Maso Franch in Giovo. Diego grew up among Marchesi and Cracco, Berton and Veyrat. He arrived in Stockholm yesterday and we will follow him during the competition the day after tomorrow, at box number 5. As for myself, this will also be the chance to freshen up my memory with regards to the Swedish capital’s restaurant scene thanks to Mathias Dahlgren (who is also the president of the competition, which he won in’97) and Magnus Ek, Jacob Holmström and Petter Nilsson. And because of the little time, I will miss, for instance, Björn Frantzén, honorary president of the Bocuse d’or as well as Eléna Arzak who will be the honorary president of the international jury.

The Bocuse is a hard game, especially for us Italians, allergic to discipline and a crazy work organization. Two dishes need to be prepared, one with meat and one with fish, 5 hours and 35 minutes are available to complete the task in a sort of stadium including so much cheering it would seem a basketball game. Rigotti, helped by his commis Giorgia Piffer, will have to deal with a pork leg and a black cod. The first includes feet, blood and bowels, the cod comes with oysters and mussels. Here and there, there will be green apple gelatine, a polenta-cannolo, a cold stock made with the cod skin and yogurt pearls, the pork leg will be cooked so as to resemble porchetta, there will also be some Tropea onion and a Marsala wine gelatine, with a whole-wheat toast mirrored in a crispy cabbage wafer and the use of alchermes to add a touch of originality to a very strict competition.

“My journey will be a happy one, across Italian values”, underlines talented and pragmatic Diego, weighed down by the Italian non-system. I met him a few days ago, in Trento, happy about the work Aromi Creativi and Lido Vannucchi did with his video and images. However, he had only received the tray for the service in the competition 48 hours earlier, while there are other competitors from Northern Europe who have kept on training non-stop, just like the French ones. In some cases, those who are selected to represent their country need to leave their restaurant and are be paid incredibly well. Winning the Bocuse changes your life. It changes the life of the winner for sure, as in the case of Danish Rasmus Kofoed of Geranium in Copenhagen, who participated three times and was first third, then second, and then finally first, and is now 42nd in the latest 50 Best list. More than one destiny is connected, after all, as the image of the restaurant scene of an entire nation can gain from winning.