A few fathoms to the South, leaving the Ligurian sea behind, the Tyrrhenian Sea begins. The sun is high in the sky, the beach on one side of the Castagneto Carducci marina and the Tombolo resort, owned by the Antinori family, and the vineyards on the other. Here is where the 20th congress of the Italian section of JRE, the Jeunes Restaurateurs d’Europe, took place, directed by Ligurian Andrea Sarri. Between Sunday 16th June and Monday 17th the members of one the two associations at the top of the Italian restaurant scene (the other is Soste, with older chefs, directed by Milanese Claudio Sadler, who was a Jre in the last century) divided themselves between this old settlement and the Antinori vineyards, between discussions and good food.
Leonardo Vescera of the Apulian Capriccio in Vieste sul Gargano
I was lucky enough to discover this group a long time ago, by chance, at the end of the Eighties, in France, and in a way I also christened its birth and I still give the initial greeting that opens the annual edition of the guide (the title of the one just presented is Il gusto salverà l’Italia – Taste will save Italy). In any case, at 58, an age close to retirement, were I a member of this association I would have liked to listen to more discussions on training, schools, education, dining room service, interns, taxes, unfair competition and see a little less glitter, cocktails and catering. After all, it’s always better to receive some compliments, instead of complimenting oneself.
Besides, in the middle of the third decade of the association, I was surprised that behind closed doors the age of the members was discussed in a very weird way, in my opinion. In order to become a member, today you should not yet be 37 and at 45 you are out and become an honorary member (if this is ok, since like in all families there are some rows). Today the members are 83, a big, perhaps too big number. To be honest, I’m surprised they even speculated on raising the age limit, instead of lowering it. Something like being 42 to be accepted and 50 (half a century!) to be out. Starting from the guide, the way it is designed today, one cannot notice the young side (for instance, there are mothers photographed next to their sons). Imagine if this reform was approved.
However, there’s an idea behind which the Italian section, at least for now, has not agreed to. In a nutshell, the European headquarters want to eliminate the limits of age. That is to say, you’re either young or your not. Which means they would like to raise the minimum limit, but also the maximum one, one extra year per season, so as to soon reach half a century. It’s a lot but once half a century has passed, no more honorary members, no more families. There are other associations that don’t pay attention to age. You’re out (of the JRE) but on friendly terms. Or perhaps not, but in any case, this reform, blocked by Italy, is at least clear. After all, I’d prefer one extra twenty-year-old and a forty-year-old less, as even I, should a 42 year-old knock on the door of a group of young people, would ask what has he done in the previous 20 years.
Gourmet beef by Cristiano Tomei, chef at l’Imbuto in Lucca, the starter offered at the gala dinner which took place in the Guado al Tasso estate in Bolgheri
Seen that I’ll soon turn sixty, this may seem a self-destructive argument, instead, it is for this very reason that I would like to see a few twenty-year-olds entering the association and I would like to praise some young entrepreneurs, given that simple cooks are not admitted, but only patron-chefs are. Unfortunately Italy is too often a country for old men, even though “old-age” is a forbidden word since it is no longer associated to wisdom.
This year Alessandro Dal Degan of Tana in Asiago in the province of Vicensa enters the association – and deserves to be praised. Just like Piergiorgio Siviero of Lazzaro in Pontelongo (Padua). Then we move South, where being an entrepreneur is an even bigger challenge. Well done to Giuseppe Iannotti of Kresios in Telese Terme (Benevento) and Leonardo Vescera of Apulian Capriccio in Vieste sul Gargano. They too are the future of an Italy that doesn’t give up. Iannotti will turn 31 on December 6th, Dal Degan turned 32 on April 24th and Vescera 36 on February 20th. Siviero, finally, will celebrate his 33rd birthday on July 28th.
The four of them cooked three ideas each on Sunday night. Giuseppe Iannotti presented Pizzaiola: a fassona beef tartare with tomato gazpacho, garlic cream and powdered capers; Strawberries and salted codfish; Gorgonzola and black cherry cheesecake. Dal Degan Salted biscuit with smoked lard, wild blackthorns and hay milk; Barley with mugo pine resin, pine needles and buds, fibres of smoked colt and toasted bread crumbs; Asiago dolce bavarian cream with a maple pollen cream and olive oil biscuit; Siviero Black on black: black rice with squid ink creamed with almonds and candied cedar with raw squid; Breaded (non cooked) sole with asparagus and pistachios, raspberry vinegar and tuna sauce; Tea passion: white peach mousse with passion fruit Ceylon tea and a chocolate and salt biscuit. Finally there was Vescera’s Scorched tuna with citrus fruits, pink pepper and mint, salicornia sprouts and broad bean puree with orange; Veils of confit onion with red prawn tartare with lemon and mountain lard; Apulian tiramisu: stale bread with carob vin cotto, ricotta mousse and hot zabaglione with coffee.
And now all back to work in their respective restaurants.
