At Identità Milano 2022, Dossier Dessert: pastry making from skills and from the heart

While in the Auditorium we're still celebrating the gold medal in Lyon, the aromas of a glycaemic peak are starting to spread. We're waiting for the guests of Dossier Dessert, the sweet moment of Identità Milano 2022, always in partnership with Valrhona, a brand of excellence in the chocolate industry.

The first to get on stage are Titti Traina and Paolo Griffa, partners in life and at work, in the kitchen of Petit Royal del Grand Hotel Royal, in Courmayeur, near Aosta. Their goal: to present restaurant desserts, that is to say the famous sweet moment that ends a meal in a fine dining restaurant. If you think about it, desserts are the last course and have the duty of finalising the outcome of the meal. Leaving a memorable memory that mixes emotions and flavours. Emotions, indeed. Like the ones that Paolo Griffa told us about, with his childhood memories and his attempt to reproduce these in a dessert. Technique above technique, yet everything is seemingly simple. Bright colours, linear shapes, for the guest this is an amusement park for sure. And indeed Traina and Griffa call this “playful pastry-making”.

Marialuisa Iannuzzi was an accomplice to the bravado of the two pastry-chefs. She acted as moderator but also as improvised client, breaking tasty pignatte, and chocolate eggs, in other words seconding pastry projects that aim not just to be delicious, but surprising too. And fun. For the fun couple from Petit Royal, it's the simplest things that surprise. Hence Banana split, to name a dessert above all, which they make playing with all its ingredients. Shell of white chocolate, broken raspberries, toasted and sanded seeds, caramelised banana ice cream. Sour cream with vanilla, to set the seeds. This is playful pastry-making, We told you so.

The afternoon continues with Paula Stakelum, who runs the Chocolate and Pastry section at Red Carnation Hotels, which includes hotels in the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, USA. They say that pastry-chefs are serious people, focused, obsessed with details. Paula Stakelum, after the playful pastry making of the young couple from Petit Royal, confirms our certainties. And tells us of desserts conceived to convey “a sense of place”. We once again speak of sustainability with Stakelum who, with grace and firmness, shows how desserts can become a real place. Experiential desserts, that is. Ready to act as magnifying glasses for each one of us: we taste, and experience a place with all its sensorial nuances.

We go back to Italy with a couple who's causing lots of talk. Roberta Merolli and Giovanni Solofra from Tre Olivi al Savoy Beach Hotel in Paestum: they received two Michelin stars all in one go, that's why people call them 0-2. He's from Campania, she's from Abruzzo; he's impetuous, she's more reserved, but always on top. Always together, they are partners in life and at work. They tell us about free, aware choices. They met in Rome, courtesy of Heinz Beck, and today share lots of work and a fantastic organisation (including at home with the family). Passionate about foraging, tradition and its free interpretation, they stress that to them pastry-making also includes bread making. It's all connected, and at Tre Olivi this is their religion.

«Those who visit us must geolocalise themselves, they must understand they're about to enjoy an Italian meal». They think global, but make it local, with local ingredients and recipes that they draw from around the world. They are talented and charming. With a contemporary modus operandi. They prepare Peppina, their favourite buffalo, to present the artisanal character of Cilento and celebrate its most representative animal. Buffalo, that is.

After lots of south, we make a leap to Giaveno, near Torino and this time we're guided by Guido Castagna. Very proud of his “Giuinott”, the iconic Gianduiotti, centennial chocolates that represent the first surrogate of chocolate. The reason is historical, we go back to the Napoleonic embargo, when cocoa was rare and pricy, while hazelnuts, an emblem of Piedmont, were cheaper and easier to find. Hence the idea of the “blend”, the birth of gianduia chocolate and Gianduiotti: three ingredients, hazelnuts, cocoa beans and brown sugar. A great lesson of territorial pride, of technique used to enhance a product not easy to use, and finally of creativity. Guido Castagna changes tradition to return where he was. And offers all the audience one of his “Giuinott”. To show that they really are the most delicious in the world.

 

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso