Harrods and Cracco’s caprese

It made me quite an impression (a reducing definition) yesterday in the morning, on Tuesday September 2nd, to arrive in front of one of the entrances to Harrods and see a great poster announcing Stelle di Stelle, the pop-up restaurant born from the collaboration between us at Identità and the department store in London. “5 Italian chefs 13 Michelin stars – 1st September 2014 to 31st January 2015” and then the names of the chefs involved. First Carlo Cracco, then the Cerea brothers, Chicco and Bobo, Gennaro Esposito in November, Annie Feolde and Italo Bassi in December, while the golden month, because of the famous sales, will be controlled by Enrico Crippa.

I was touched because you cannot get to Harrods by hitchhiking, by chance. Besides London was the first great city where my parents sent me so I could learn English. It was the summer of 1968, I was only 13 and everything seemed extraordinary in this immense town that a boy you had just finished middle school in Milan couldn’t even measure. When I thought I had understood how to move in a particular space, I would discover another, as charming as the previous one.

I remember when I got off the train that was connecting Gatwick airport to Victoria Station and I was surprised by the quick service at the kiosks. All those who were queuing for a snack and a coffee to have while standing, knew perfectly well what to ask. I was dazed, everything was new. And I was almost hypnotized in front of the window of a Wimpy, a fast food born much earlier than McDonald’s. A small place, little bigger than a hole, with the person in charge overlooking a station that was in fact a piece of steel that he would turn on in the morning and turn off late at night. He used it to cook burgers and, if required, onion rings. All this with a spatula, with precise and neat hits, he was a chef in his own way. I ate his burger and felt I was the master of the world.

Fast foods soon became evil food and now I look for good things elsewhere. Harrods is the Wimpy of those days, every age has its points of reference. Today there’s Cracco settling in the new restaurant in the Wine Bar on the basement. It is called Stelle di Stelle, in Italian. Here in the British capital – and luckily not only here – there’s lots of desire for good Italian food. Not the usual one. Even here, people have enough of pizza and mandolins, so much so that Carlo is presented as the person who “leads a new generation of progressive chefs with a radical take on Italian Classics”.

So after a few shaves of Grana Padano and a glass of Ferrari Trento Doc, a Martini (cone) cup arrives at the table with Fresh tomato pulp, mozzarella and basil seeds (and leafs). In other words, a new interpretation of caprese. More aromatic and pleasing, with truly Italian flavours. What changes completely is the appearance, until the dessert, a chocolate parfait with parsley sauce. Startling and charming.

Today there’s the encore and tomorrow, late in the afternoon, the conference with all the protagonists.