Dulcis in fundo

This year too, for the eleventh edition (out of twelve), on Tuesday 8th March the programme of the main auditorium at the Identità Golose Milano Congress 2016 will have a sweet end with Dossier Dessert – our space dedicated to pastry making in restaurants – so that, just like with a great dinner, one can end three days as filled with events and content as ever with a sweet up to the task.

There’s continuity, and it could not be otherwise, even in the collaboration with the Ecole du Grand Chocolat Valrhona, an essential partner for this focus on the art of desserts. The most important news this year instead refers to the chefs selected for the afternoon. Indeed, while in the previous editions we’ve always had great foreign chefs on stage, from France and elsewhere, this year we’ll present a “team” entirely formed by Italian talents, to show the international spreading of the great Italian pastry making.

The great pastry-chef Gianluca Fusto, who this year too will coordinate Dossier Dessert having also participated in eleven editions of the Congress out of twelve, was the trait d'union between Identità Golose and Valrhona. And he thus presents the spirit of this day dedicated to desserts: «This year we want to celebrate the Italian flair and creativity spreading our pastry making around the world. This is why we mostly chose people who work outside of Italy, and thus have to adapt to the tastes and needs of different palates. This will result in a journey around the world through desserts».

The first stop in this journey will have the smile of Sicilian Corrado Assenza. As usual, he was given the task of opening Dossier Dessert: «Corrado is a real pillar in Italian pastry making – says Fusto – and with his work he made it possible to overcome the boundaries between sweet and savoury».

From Sicily we then fly to Dubai, a destination Gianluca Fusto holds very dear: «It’s a place were I spent lots of beautiful moments and I’m glad to have a very talented professional such as Francesco Acquaviva, who works at Heinz Beck’s Social at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, representing it. He will prepare a cake using local ingredients only, so as to show in the best possible way his work in Dubai».

The next stop will be Japan, and Tokyo in particular, where Michele Abbatemarco is the pastry-chef at Michel Troisgros’ restaurant. A prestigious name in French cuisine with an Italian pastry-chef? Indeed, and this is due mostly to the fact that, as confirmed by Gianluca Fusto, «he has a touching talent. I’ve tasted some of the most delicious desserts in my life at Michele’s». His lesson, in honour of the title of this edition of Identità Milano "The strength of freedom", is titled Omakase, which is the Japanese word for "freedom of implementation". His dish will also be based on local ingredients from the country where he works, matched with bergamot and chocolate.

In some way Valrhona chocolate will part of all the recipes presented at Dossier Dessert, also and most of all in the dish by Gianluca Fusto himself who will celebrate the 30th anniversary of a great creation by Valrhona such as Guanaja, the first interpretation of the concept of Cru in chocolate-making, a blend which ever since 1986 perfectly represents the South American terroir. «The dessert I’m presenting is inspired by South America - says Fusto – but most of all it’s a different dish, an extreme one perhaps: indeed I’ll use no cream, sugar, butter or flour».

The title of Gianluca’s lesson is instead a quote from John Fitzgerald Kennedy, which is once again connected with the theme of this edition of Identità: "Conformism is the prison warden of freedom and the enemy of growth". A title Fusto wants to dedicate both to Identità Golose «which with an anti-conformist spirit created a Congress that is most of all an occasion for hundreds of professionals to meet, a moment of real, common growth», and to Valrhona «which with as much anti-conformism has innovated the idea of chocolate by introducing their Grand Cru, capable of interpreting the territories where cocoa is produced». We’ll add no more... so as not to spoil the surprise for those who will be in the Auditorium Hall on the afternoon of Tuesday 8th March.

This will be no ordinary date: indeed the last lesson at Dossier Dessert, with Vito Mollica and Domenico Di Clemente of Ristorante Il Palagio at the Four Seasons in Florence – and since a few months ago in Milan too – who will dedicate their speech to the International Women’s Day. «Vito and Domenico are doing an extraordinary job of redefining hotel pastry-making in a modern way, from breakfast onwards – ends the coordinator of this event Gianluca Fusto – on top of all their work for the clients of the two gourmet restaurants».

There’s still space to remember the person who will have the task of presenting and guiding the sweet afternoon, that is to say Francesca Romana Barberini, and for Gianluca Fusto’s final thank you «to a dear friend such as Andrea Besuschio, who, on top of being an extraordinary professional, with his collaboration will make it possible for Dossier Dessert to be a success».