Mollica with beans in New York

The first time is always the best: «I’ve never participated in a congress at Identità Golose. Of course I’m excited, it’s a unique opportunity to convey your experience inside a serious and important circuit, such as the one you created». With a plus: «We will be in New York and, what can I say… Everything will be even more magic». Vito Mollica will be one of the protagonists of the next edition of Identità New York. We join him in Milan, at “his” Four Seasons, «but tomorrow I’ll be in Florence», as he continues to guide the kitchen in Tuscany with the same luxury hotel chain. Then, on Thursday, the leap overseas.

He’s been various times to the American town, in fact he’s already cooked at Eataly on Fifth Avenue, which will host the event as usual. Two moments, above all, await the chef from Basilicata: on Friday he will sign the dessert in a dinner that will have him in the kitchen with other super-chefs, Carlo Cracco (entrée), Davide Scabin (first course) and Mark Ladner (main course), all this under the supervision of Lidia Bastianich. Then on the following afternoon, he will get on stage for his lecture, together with Rita Sodi, and speak about a rather unusual topic for these fine dining events: beans.

Beans? «Exactly. I want to bring the best of our tradition to the US: so instead of working with experiments, I prefer to present what I call “flavours from our memories”. I like to close my eyes and dream of old aromas and scents. Then I open them again and try to make them in the most accurate but current way». Because «we’ve always had excellent raw materials, we only lacked technique. Now we’ve learnt the technique, it would be ridiculous to forget about raw materials following who knows what fantasy».

So no inferiority complex, no desire to overdo: «I will prepare a soup, which is our traditional single-dish, like soups from Japan or Vietnam». It will have beans (and what beans, the white ones from Rotonda, Potenza), pork head, cabbage and Grana Padano. «I want to create a dialogue through flavours with our emigrants or their children who are in the States and will visit us but in fact with every American because travelling is part of their DNA, they love to discover the world, even through cuisine».

Mollica will accomplish this with his dish, «because I put two traditions together: pork is part of US tradition, just think of eggs and bacon in the morning. Beans have also always been in our pots and in theirs. The union of these two components is part of the European culinary geography, just think of the French cassoulette. In other words, we’re presenting something that must be illustrated. At the Four Seasons in Milan and Florence, I meet tourists from all around the world every day: I know what they want from Italy».

He remains faithful to his motto, in other words. The latter is also mentioned in the brand new presentation of the chef on the Identità Golose website (you can read it here: it also includes lots of extra info on Mollica’s bio): «attention to the production of ingredients is mirrored in the palate. The simpler the preparation of the ingredients, the easier it is to amplify their flavours».