Identità di fuoco shines over the future

Two evenings and two dinners, five protagonists on Sunday 24th, and as many on Monday 25th in Modena, for the pilot edition of Identità di Fuoco. More emotions and ideas than guests because Lara and Massimo Bottura's Gatto Verde, with chef Jessica Rosval, can seat thirty, so a total of 60. It was not a crowd for sure, but the electricity was real and amplified every spark to shine over Casa Maria Luigia.

It all started with Massimo Bottura even before we were confronted with the oldest, and at the same time most contemporary, form of cooking. In Jessica Rosval he found a thinking and cooking mind, a superb colleague, far beyond what is commonly understood as a good chef.

There is nothing ordinary about the Canadian chef. When Bottura, between Sunday and Monday, reminded us that there will always be more future in his future it is also because, among the hundreds and hundreds of chefs who have passed through Via Stella and the dozens of chefs who have moulded themselves there, she has a vision that goes ahead in time and scope, encompassing the surrounding space with horizons that are blurred on the horizon.

Those who remember the evolution of the Francescana universe, from the historic street to the open country, remember these words of Bottura: 'It all starts with breakfast with the wood-fired oven. Then, the Sunday brunch, the barbecue and finally, the restaurant. The race begins again,' and Identità di Fuoco is a moment that precedes other moments in the sign of the blazing embers and the pizza oven, but also of the pairing of prawns and scottona beef from the Marche, morsels placed on opposite sides of the fire and slowly caramelised.

sempre all’aperta campagna, ha nella memoria queste parole di Bottura: «Tutto parte dalla prima colazione con il forno a legna. Poi il brunch domenicale, quindi il barbecue e infine, adesso, il ristorante. Riparte la corsa» e Identità di Fuoco è un momento che precede altri momenti nel segno delle braci ardenti e del forno per la pizza, ma anche dell’abbinamento tra gamberi e scottona marchigiana, bocconi messi dal

Cooks and pizzaioli are tense before the start. They were playing away and, as Rosval pointed out, 'Gatto Verde has only been open for four days, Francescana for 28 years and Niklas Ekstedt in Stockholm for a little less'. And they were excited, we all were, as happens at any premiere that you trust will last and grow over time.

First the pizzaioli, then the cooks. On Sunday, Michele di Già, who usually takes care of the entire bread universe of the Francescana Family, signed the Pizza Sangue di drago, a pan dominated by smoked pork sausage and hibiscus flowers, a goodness that duetted with Anthony Mangieri's Bianca terre e mare pizza from Una pizza napoletana in New York, the Sorrento peninsula between coast and mountain, and then left room for Niklas Ekstedt from Stockholm with his smoked oyster and then smoked reindeer, with the finale in the shape of porcini mushroom soufflé that was born in his mind as a savoury idea but which his wife judged at the first bite to be a dessert and remained so.

On the other hand, Errico Recanati opted for prawns, scottona and grilled tomatoes, then stewed skate. Finally, the hostess, Jessica Rosval: Lamb in the Montreal style, where, however, tradition calls for beef and Pasta Arsa, burnt and topped with beef ribs, maple syrup and spicy pistachio.

Twenty-four hours later, pizzas from Francesco Martucci and Diego Vitagliano, the Parmigiana 3G, three like the number of cooking processes it undergoes, and the Pizza like a tortellino, half-successful because the ingredients of a dish do not always succeed in different versions. Then Jessica Rosval immediately threw down a trio of aces with Borlengo di acqua di porcini, plus truffle and Rosola 36-month Parmigiano, a booklet I would have read in far more copies.

The Canadian closed the evening with Cielo Terra Mare, the sweet not sweet, no classicism in the mix of charcoal, caviar, raspberry, rose and seawater. And a light grey colour that forces you to taste it because it gives you no palatal reference whatsoever.

In between, the Slovenian world of Tomaz Kavcic and the Elkano galaxy, aka Aitor Arregui from Getaria in the Basque Country, first with cocochas, the gorge of cod in double service, grilled and in pil pil sauce, then with Rodaballo, turbot on the embers, one for every four guests, almost in ecstasy.

When you go to that part of the Atlantic, it’s like going in procession. I was afraid they could not repeat that magic, but Aitor is a top professional, capable of going further in the preparation, which is never easy to replicate when away. Two days to fine-tune the collaboration between us at Identità and the world of Bottura, which will have ten more rooms next year at Casa Maria Luigia. It is like lighting a Swedish match. The light will come.

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso