08-05-2018
La natura parla, l'esperienza traduce is the latest dish by Simone Cantafio, born in 1986, chef at Michel Bras in Toya. He presented it during a Japanese congress, and it tells the story of his life between Calabria, France and Japan
There’s onion from Tropea and Calabrian oregano, a French style pea sauce and hémérocalle, a flower picked on the beach in Toya, rainbow trout from the same lake, aromatised with wild garlic. La natura parla, l'esperienza traduce [Nature speaks, experience translates] is the latest dish by Milanese Simone Cantafio, born in 1986 (see: Lo chef che guarda il lago), since 2015 he’s chef and director at restaurant Michel Bras in Toya, Japan. There’s Calabria, his homeland, France, where Simone was raised professionally at Maison Bras and Japan, where he’s been living for three years.
The World Cuisine Academic Meeting (the World Cuisine Academic Meeting in Hakodate provided the photos from the congress)
Simone Cantafio presented at the World Cuisine Academic Meeting by his colleague Masaaki Yokosuka of MiYa-Vie in Sapporo, one Michelin star
In order to convey emotions, you first have to live them and hence for weeks Simone worked to create a dish that would tell his story. He used his head, his heart, memories and feelings, and then ingredients. «So my culinary journey took shape – he says – I started from ingredients that would represent my roots and those of my family [his parents were born and raised in Calabria]. I chose onion from Tropea and dry oregano from Calabrian forests, two ingredients that were a part of my childhood, aromas and flavours I hold dear. I cooked the sweet, sensual onion covered in bread so it lost its water and concentrated its natural sugars, then a quick chargrilling. I wanted the audience to participate in a feeling that fascinated me as a child, the strong smoked aroma of the rooms where salami were hanging and maturing over the winter. I wanted everyone to feel as if they were in my beloved Calabria, for just one moment».
Simone Cantafio on the stage
The beautiful view from the Windsor Hotel Toya
The only difficulty, if one can consider it as such, at the World Cuisine Academic Meeting: «On the stage, I would think in Italian, speak in French, and was translated live in Japanese. So that’s it: my journey and my cuisine had a meaning».
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
Reviews, recommendations and trends from the four corners of the planet, signed by all the authors of Identità Golose
by
Born in 1968, a professional reporter and collaborator at Il Giorno since 2000. Co-author of Storie di cibo nelle terre di Expo. Not too skilled in the kitchen, she’s a lover of fine food, and loves telling the stories of the “souls” behind gastronomy