Tomaž Kavcic
Tomaž Kavcic’s success stands in his agile bursts on one side and the other of two different thresholds. There’s the space threshold, the Iron Curtain that until 1989 separated Italy from Yugoslavia, and that he now crosses as soon as the closing time of Pri Lojzetu allows him to, chasing ideas and techniques from the “other world”. Then there’s the time threshold, the one separating the before and after of Slovene gastronomy.
Once there was jota sauerkraut soup, kranjska sausage or heavy cakes of rolled-up dough, such as potica. Traditions Kavcic has not forgotten: «in Slovenia, it’s not Sunday if stock or soups are missing», he still says while he places beef stock and mushroom soups on the table, but only after having waved a lollypop or Champagne («I’m the landlord, first of all»). Let’s not forget the past, then, but better sift it with contemporaneity, which clamours for taste but also lightness, creativity and substance, impertinence and care. Thus the Adriatic fish can be swallowed in the vortex of a salt plate (his most resounding contribution to contemporary cuisine), or grilled in an oven with potatoes and vegetables. Thus Fettuccine with porcini and prosciutto ham are matched with Risotto with nettles and sea food, on the tracks crossed by a space/time machine which, set on current Slovenia, has no fear of exploring the West and the East, the past and the future millennium. All this with a marginal note that is hardly marginal: without great producer-friends, every effort would be an empty cry in the desert. This is why Kavcic, before beginning his jam session, invites to applaud the Vipava prosciutto ham, the Nanos cheese, the steaks from Pohorje. Then, to end it all, arrives the standing ovation dedicated to the wines of the Goriška brda.
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