The airport is the Elmas one, in Cagliari; the province is that of Carbonia-Iglesias so the region can only be Sardinia. Except the over six thousand citizens of the only town on the island of San Pietro, namely Carloforte, don’t feel they are Sardinians at all. San Pietro, a little off the South-Western coast, surprises you as soon as you arrive because people here speak pegliese, the dialect of Genoa-Pegli, a place in Liguria’s capital which their ancestor left in 1542 in order to colonize Tabarka, an island off Tunisia, and then, in 1738, this other island which until then had been unpopulated. They were looking for some peace after all the troubles with Tunisian and Algerian authorities, plus some new nourishment for their coral handling.
Almost three centuries later, their richness is made of tuna and tourism. Here, between Portoscuso on the Sardinian side, and Carloforte on San Pietro, the last tuna fishing nets of the Mediterranean Sea are at work, and Girotonno, an event which starts today and ends on Sunday, is its direct testimony.
Both a competition and decade old festival, the event is now organised by the same agency, called
Feedback, from Palermo, which had created and launched it. The same which in San Vito Lo Capo, in the province of Trapani, has been organising the
Cous Cous Fest, another event which is founded on local history, for almost twenty years now.
Just like in San Vito, chefs compete by representing their country. As of tonight, they will enter the rooms at the sound of their national anthem and with their flag too. There are six chefs competing, with three eliminating rounds and a final one with three chefs on Saturday. With a notice: the jury of experts, which I have the honour of presiding, judges the dishes only once, in the semi-finals; the popular jury, instead, formed by 100 people who change at every round, will also judge on the day after tomorrow. And just like in the latest two editions of the contest in San Vito, the final winner could well have been eliminated by the enthusiasts, who are more prone to applaud comforting and rich dishes, instead of the more imaginative and refined ones.
Argentina will be competing with chefs Emiliano Lopez and Antonio Martucci of Buca di Ripetta in Rome (the kingdom of Roman traditional cuisine) with the recipe of tuna asado. France will be represented by Alain Cirelli and Fabrizio Cosso. Cirelli has an important school in Paris where he promotes Italian cuisine too and in Carloforte he will present a recipe base on fresh tuna in phyllo pastry with, I believe, pine nuts and pistachios. Then there’s Japan with Haruo Ichikawa and Lorenzo Lavezzari and the "To.Ka.Mi" tuna, a preparation created and perfected by the chef in his Iyo restaurant in Milan, one of the few in which Japanese food culture is respected and valorised (first of all by the Chinese owners). The representative of Mauritius, Vinod Sookar, now Italian, precisely from Brindisi, in Apulia, will be sided by Tiziano Mita in the preparation of the "Diversamente tonno" recipe. Vinod is the only to have one Michelin star thanks to Fornello da Ricci in Ceglie Messapica, a star he shares with his wife, Antonella Ricci. Spain is also competing with Josè Luis Marin and Roberto Pena Medina of the Ramses restaurant, with their tuna belly with pepper mousse, rocket salad and black garlic pesto. These are the competing pairs: tonight Mauritius-Spain and tomorrow first Italia-Argentina and then France-Japan.
The Italian team competing in 2013 at Girotonno in Carloforte, Sardinia. All the pictures are by A.Saba
Finally, two Sardinian chefs (though not from Carloforte) will compete for Italy:
Roberto Flore from Seneghe, a small town on Montiferru, and
Pierluigi Fais, chef at the
Il Duomo restaurant in Oristano. They will prepare a recipe called From Montiferru to Carloforte.
In the jury, together with me, there will be Francesca Angeleri for La Stampa, Giorgia Cannarella for Dissapore, Lydia Capasso for Gastronomiamediterranea.com, American Mei Chin for Saveur.com, Mimmo Di Marzio for Il Giornale, English Ryan King for Fine Dining Lovers, Daniele Miccione for Gazzetta dello sport, Roberto Perrone for Corriere della sera and Sara Porro for La Repubblica.
I’m the first to realise we are ten very envied people, super-happy to have received such a task. Happy thanks to the food and to the spectacular island of San Pietro, a formidable summer destination.
