11-09-2018
Niko Romito maintains, when commenting the biting words of Ferran Adrià («After elBulli, there’s been no more innovation in the kitchen»), that surely nobody has been and is capable of revolutionising all the major aspects in the restaurant business as much as the Catalan.
Niko Romito also maintains, however, that this doesn’t mean people are standing still; he feels that saying that «Today there are very capable chefs, but they are satisfied with doing what I call amiable creativity» (Adrià) is a little unfair.
Niko Romito maintains that innovation in contemporary fine dining can be based on different parameters. And that for instance trying to create a new connection between fine dining and popular cuisine, almost blending these concepts and overlapping their borders so as to make them impossible to distinguish, is very innovative. Incidentally, this can even create a new restaurant model tout court, something finally and completely Italian, because innovative, yet also strongly tied to our tradition.
Niko Romito maintains all this, starting from a clear provocation, that he made a few days ago, at Casadonna: «The restaurant offer here at Reale has never been as close to that of a trattoria». Bum! A clear provocation: because it’s not a sudden thought, but the result of a well-thought reasoning, an idea whose paternity the chef from Abruzzo shares with a great gastronomic thinker, the late Bob Noto.
Bob Noto and, from behind, Ferran Adrià
Niko Romito points out that this specific genesis is the foundation of all he later created: «I don’t know if I would have managed, had I thought to present other types of dishes». He points out that in this exchange between high and low there’s the essence of his pyramidal system of restaurant business (see La piramide del brand: bistrot e cloni gastronomici, by Fulvio Marcello Zendrini); and at the same time one can see the bud of a possible Italian model for fine dining: original and free of the models offered in the past few decades, the French, the Spanish, the Nordic.
Rene Redzepi, the inventor of the Nordic model
«When travelling around the world, I realised how Italian cuisine is still associated with dishes from the Seventies and Eighties. I found this frustrating: today we have dozens and dozens of wonderful restaurants; the food is marvellous, as good as ever; but we’re still mostly perceived based on an old cliché from the past. We’ve made huge leaps, but this growth is not largely perceived. I wondered why, and the reason I found is that those 8-10 old yet commonly known dishes, were somehow, indirectly codified, and thus still make the main image of our cuisine, because there’s no such thing as an alternative, contemporary categorization. So Italy needs a manifesto and a categorization that can make the principles of the Italian contemporary chef understandable and thus replicated all around the world».
Niko Romito points out that establishing shared rules is not a limit to a chef’s creative freedom. Categorising, for instance, the recipe for lasagne, does not mean you must explicitly state which ingredient should be or should not be added, one can still choose to make the traditional or less traditional version. «At Bulgari I considered various processes when making a specific dish, and I made my choices, even mixing the various versions. The detail of each recipe is not what establishes its quality; categorising means creating a model, and then we’re all free to change it following our whim. It’s the basic model that’s kept unchanged, based on parameters that I would like to be shared, and thus communicated so that they can be established widely».
Niko Romito believes a (codified) model of Italian cuisine should necessarily be the result of blending trattoria’s tradition with the innovation available in our fine dining; and the already established image of Italian cuisine around the world, with the creative novelties established by the techniques, ideas, and research of our contemporary chefs. A direction which he took a long time ago, so much so he’s already created the happy paradox that Bob Noto noticed. «We start form a de factocodification, which has already taken place, and from traditional trattorias. We must try to recodify and blend the concept of fine dining with that of trattorias».
Massimo Bottura
Romito’s Bomba
Cavolfiore au gratin, a (fantastic) dish at Reale. We spoke about it here: The Niko Romito system: human factor, research, codification, multiplication
Still, says Niko Romito, «innovating today is about making something democratic, making high and low meet. Making a high quality offer accessible on all levels, from bread at Reale, to fried chicken at Alt, to Bomba, and the food at Spazio. This is my innovation. I believe the turning point for Italy is to work hard on more inclusive, popular models. I do it at Reale, serving clearly Italian food which is a strong evolution of a trattoria. I believe that if my Cauliflower au gratin, or Cabbage and potatoes, or Tortello with chicken, were served in any osteria without guests knowing the huge amount of work that lies behind them, they’d call the patron, congratulate him without realising it’s fine dining». With a corollary: «I believe fine dining and trattorias must meet. But we also need a new model for a Trattoria Pura. Something that takes the research from fine dining while remaining faithful to tradition and to the concept of comfort food».
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
An outdoor trip or a journey to the other side of the planet? One thing is for sure: the destination is delicious, by Carlo Passera
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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