Omnivore’s Italy

After Istanbul, Omnivore faced the second stop of its world tour in Paris, in the new headquarters of the Maison de la Mutualité. Courage, risk, chefs who are not so into the media but are capable and unique in what they offer. Italy, was represented in the Tour thanks to Simone Tondo, Massimiliano Alajmo and Giovanni Passerini (in order of appearance) who spoke in two out of three cases in French.

Simone Tondo went on stage on Sunday, with his friend and partner Michael Greenwold. Together they have summarised their Roseval in two dishes. The entrée: Roe deer tartare with smoked buffalo milk ricotta, celeriac marinated in apple juice, marinated onions and grey dried prawn powder. Simone smoked the buffalo milk ricotta right on the stage, burning the hay but reassuring the audience: «Don’t worry, after Sarkozy’s speech on his inauguration day, 6 years ago, the building is fireproof».

Second dish: Lamb sweetbread cooked in butter aromatised with Bordier seaweeds, served with onion purée with Jerusalem artichoke and anchovies, sage ashes, onions cooked in salt with an emulsion of Duchessa beer by Birra del Borgo and purple broccoletti served raw. In each dish there’s a constant blend of sea and earth. This is the Roseval, a joint venture between Macomer and Oxfordshire.

Massimiliano Alajmo has summed up the evolution of Le Calandre since 2008, the year of his last lecture at Omnivore, focusing on the work done in the dining room: «Our client needs to experience the dish as an organic, vital element». The technique, therefore, is «not a goal but the means to translate the concept behind a product». First of all, a Rubano classic: Risotto with capers and coffee, halfway between gesture and contact with the matter. While the risotto is cooking, here comes the preparation of the second dish: Extra virgin olive oil vegetable garden, a tribute to Aimo Moroni, «the biggest connoisseur of this product in Italy».

There’s no cooking in the vegetable garden, only raw materials: pistachio and basil pesto, aubergine purée, fried aubergines, concassé tomatoes, capers and olives. Then came the creaming of the risotto with butter, Parmesan and a touch of stock. Sublime and perfect. And the sound of the risotto while it was served on the plate gave you goose pimples. His lecture ended with a short film entitled Lucefluida, an oneiric vision of the world of cuisine and the role of the chef through Beckett-inspired dialogue. A solemn conclusion.

Giovanni Passerini, the last Italian lecturer, on Tuesday, is the recent protagonist of a celestial dinner with Carlo Mirarchi of Roberta's and Blanca in Brooklyn. The surprising speech by mister Rino was focused on bitterness – a pleasant switch in a festival in which the umami flavour prevailed - and on the Italian essence of a dish beyond the ingredients used. The protagonists were raw materials: purple broccoli, endive, dandelion, puntarelle, the ReAle beer produced by Leo di Vincenzo and Cédric Casanova’s Marco oil.

The beginning belongs entirely to the Ravioli with pecorino cheese in infusion with herbs, a tannic and herbaceous concentrate of bitterness, obtained from a decoction of dulce sea weed, laurel, coriander, watercress and hay. Having brought it to the boil, you filter the decoction and prepare an infusion with mint, verbena and lemon balm, bringing it to 75°C. The stock is finally infused for 3 minutes in jasmine tea. The ravioli are served with some concentrated dashi and a few drops of artichoke aromatised oil. Final dressing: bitter herbs and liquorish. A great ending for Italy in Paris. Young, artisanal and with a bitter taste.