09-10-2014

Italy at Gastronomika

The complete reportage of the congress in San Sebastian, chef after chef, ponencia after ponencia

The Catalan pastry chef on board of a Vespa plumed with cakes. This is the tribute that the Basque Country paid to the Italian chefs, the protagonists of the 3-day Gastronomika congress, which attracted crowds in the rooms of the Kursaal in San Sebastian, from October 5th to the 8th

Massimo Bottura opened the “Italian” congress presenting his new book, in a world preview, published by Phaidon: "Never trust a skinny Italian chef". «It took me only 28 years to write it. It’s a collection of all the stories that are behind each dish. Our daily battle to make Osteria Francescana what it is today»

Photogallery

Massimo Bottura opened the “Italian” congress presenting his new book, in a world preview, published by Phaidon:

The second to get on the stage during the opening day, on Sunday morning, was Carlo Cracco (right, his trusted Luca Sacchi), who immediately mentioned the leitmotif of the congress: «It’s easier for someone from the South to work than for one from the North: they have products, strength, and a very recognisable cuisine. For us it is harder because without the products work is complicated». Then came the risotto, his emblem. And a tribute to the hosts: «The Basque Country has a huge heart»

Pino Cuttaia of La Madia in Licata (Agrigento) played on some themes that are dear to him: memory, childhood, games, territory and the vastness of the sea. His fake pizza. And a perfectly served octopus. And yesterday his new book was announced: "Per le scale di Sicilia: profumi, sapori, racconti, memoria" [literally, Through the stairs of Sicily: scents, flavours, stories, memories] to be published by Giunti

Mauro Uliassi of Uliassi in Senigallia (Ancona) started from the concept of wonder, which was very well represented by his dish called Bagnasciuga; a great classic for us. He then moved on to a concept he holds dear, that of "Street good", explaining how this theme can be crucial for the destiny of chefs and our children

Gennaro Esposito of Torre del Saracino in Vico Equense (Naples) held a ponencia that was totally focused on the meaning of landscape: «Italian cuisine is usually not a mathematical cuisine, of assemblage, it is a cuisine based on the whole set. Flavours blend into each other, they explore the semantic and gastronomic potential of the landscape». All this while holding a lemon «because our lemon is unlike all other lemons»

Massimiliano Alajmo of Le Calandre di Padova (and since a few days ago at Cafe Stern in Paris) held a speech on the sly. He borrowed the concepts of "Fluidity" (which is also the title of his most recent book) interpreted in two dishes that are emblematic of Italian tradition: risotto and pasta. Octopus with snails and herbs served with pistachios with water and smoke.
Dishes that are not heavy. The first served with Joselito ham, wild fennel and camomile, the second with tarragon (blanched, frozen and pacotised), aromatised with a star anise essence, snails with herbs and pistachio with water and smoke

Salvatore Tassa from Colline Ciociare in Acuto (Frosinone) gave a neat and punctual speech on the concepts of tradition, territory and memory – from Ciociaria. Among the dishes presented, pasta with tomato sauce. The old style fresh egg tagliolini, however, thanks to today’s knowledge were transformed into something completely different: seasoned with extra virgin olive oil at 40°C (at this temperature the molecules “open” and get inside the pasta becoming an ingredient, not just a seasoning), lyophilized powdered tomato and Parmesan. A symbolic morsel that was however also concretely craveable

Norbert Niederkofler started to sing the chorus of his alpine cuisine with German and Ladin influences with a recent refrain, "Cook the Mountain". «Mountains protect you and contain you – he says – but they also get you curious about what is beyond. I went there, and then I came back. But mountains can naturally make your life hard, you have to make do with seasons with few products and a small gastronomy». Is this a limit? No, it is a challenge, that involves local producers and artisans, who are united in thinking over a supply chain that can give you lots of surprises such as 20 types of carrots and turnips used throughout the year. Last June he organised a meeting with his “mountain” colleagues from all over the world – from Virgilio Martinez to Ana Ros – to think mountain cuisine over, all together. An emblematic dish? The Enrosadira dessert – this term describes the unique colour of the Dolomites at sunset – it is served only in the summer and is based on all the shades of fruits of the forest that grow around the Rosa Alpina in the hot months

Niko Romito of Reale-Casadonna in Castel di Sangro (L'Aquila), emotional yet precise as always, explained that until a few years ago he preferred to remain silent and have his dishes speak, but since he launched his training programme he feels the responsibility to transmit the origin and the creative process of his dishes. He did so with the help of some videos that were effective, essential and impressive, just like his cuisine, listing its prominent elements: simplify (starting from raw materials and extracting their essence), profoundness (working with a profound research and recomposing the flavour with a game of overlapping layers), balance (with the awareness that the perception of a flavour or of an element can change, for instance, by modifying temperature and texture) and health, trying to “add” as little as possible (be it fats, thickeners or something else) and using the natural properties of the ingredients, such as the albumin inside prawns’ heads as the base for pastry, or for an egg-less mayonnaise with an unusual taste. The goal: intriguing expert palates that understand the game of layers and the research for essential flavours, but also give pleasure to less cunning palates which can thus find primordial, known and enjoyable flavours

A close up of Arcangelo Dandini of L'Arcangelo in Rome in a selfie in San Sebastian with his team. During his lesson, he launched the theme of the trattoria which in Italy, as explained by Marco Bolasco to the audience, has always been a place to ponder on identity and tradition and today on innovation too. The host of L'Arcangelo guided the audience in a journey across Roman cuisine through the centuries, with veal alla fornara with cipollata – from a Renaissance recipe by the papal chef Bartolomeo Scappi – and mixed wild herbs seasoned with “his” garum, a sauce inspired by ancient Rome with the addition of incense and manna

For the first time, pizza irrupted into a fine dining congress outside of Italy. Three were the speakers that day: Enzo Piccirillo of Antica Pizzeria Masardona, Enzo Coccia of La Notizia and Raimondo Cinque of Pizza a Metro in Vico Equense. These three brought the tradition of Neapolitan pizza in the shape of its three souls: not just the round pizza made by La Notizia’s pizzajuolo, but also the versions that are less known abroad, namely fried pizza – that of Masardona, for the first time abroad – and that of pizza served “by the metre” at Università della Pizza in Vico Equense. Different shapes, cookings and doughs (starting from the flour) which the Basque city had the opportunity to appreciate during the four days of the congress, even in the Popular section, outside the Kursaal

For Davide Scabin (here with Steve Caruso) of Combal.zero in Rivoli, Torino, this was a good chance to show off two important strong suits: Black is black, something that is part of his now famous revolution with regards to dried pasta. A dish cooked with Spaghetti alla carbonara with béchamel and mayonnaise, two traditional sauces. He then touched the audience when he explained the details of his Food Clinic, a joint project with the University of Torino: "As chefs we can help to make people with important diseases happy, from dysgeusia to celiac disease and intolerances", a project in which I strongly believe. And we do too

Andrea Berton of restaurant Berton got on stage with a surprising energy: «As Italians, we have a great task: we must present our food and the culture of our country on this stage and elsewhere, in the crucial year of the Expo». Then came his call to arms: «As chefs, we need to work together!». Then his lesson began, starting from the concept of Landscape illustrated by Gennaro Esposito, he explored the pureness, precision and identity of Italy in every possible way, with «identifiable» flavours, but also with an interesting chocolate stock

Lorenzo Cogo – who can count both on the experience in Japan with Seji Yamamoto and that at the school of Basque asador Victor Arquinzioniz – expressed his instinctive cuisine through an “utopic grill” in which Italian ingredients, oriental flavours and techniques and a tribute to Iberian tradition are united: bull testicles marinated with soy, sake and honey, chargrilled and paired with corn salad root and a “cocktail” of coffee and vermouth offer a powerful and flooring tasting, played on bitter tones, which turns out to be one of the most interesting Italian contributions

Neapolitan Nino Di Costanzo started with a declaration of intent: there’s even too much talking of chefs and their “philosophy”, he says, while we should talk more about raw materials and territory. In his opinion, a chef has the duty of illustrating the territory in which he works, for better or for worse. The chef of Mosaico in Ischia presented a dish that unites North and South, a risotto seasoned with lemon, used in all its shades and textures – including the “bread”, the white, sweet and meaty part of island lemons – and prawns from the Gulf

Alberto Manassei, a great ice cream artisan in Rome, illustrated the magic of pistachios from Bronte – even too used in Italy but mostly unknown at these latitudes – but also the effort and the cost of their supply. He, even before it became popular and at a time of fluorescent boxes, decided to focus on quality, and is rightly acknowledged as a real master of pistachio. His secret is having adapted the machines necessary to make pistachio paste himself, abolishing semi-processed products as with all of his ice creams. The tasting was a charming confirmation

Moreno Cedroni, a veteran in San Sebastian, here with his sous chef Luca Abbadir, this time – he underlined – he is here to represent Italy together with a group of colleagues who know how to respect tradition and how to make it grow, supporting it with new experiences and stimuli. So following the fil rouge of his literary menus – he presented dishes that evoked his region and his story, a tribute to Giacomo Leopardi - the intention was to make the shadowy poet – and today’s guest - smile with fun and sensual dishes, such as the “soup” made with barley and clams with the exotic touch of parsley, lime and coconut

The only woman among the set of Italian chefs was the last speaker of the 3 day event. Viviana Varese of restaurant Alice in Milano, arrived from Salerno to conquer San Sebastian, through her mentors too: Gennaro Esposito and the Roca brothers, where she did an enlightening internship. Some inspirations from her lesson: «In Italy there are hundreds of different types of pasta and each requires a different cooking time». And again, the now famous fried pizza and the lingering on the colour of the dishes, her passion. Transformation, instinct and technique for a deserving finale

It’s hard to give a final colour to the evaluation of Gastronomika, a three day event that never as this year has had so many representatives among the Italian chefs. Ever since gastronomy congresses have existed (the very first took place in these same rooms in San Sebastian in 1999, but with another soul and management, the pioneering one of Lo Mejor de La Gastronomia) never had so many chefs from our country, over twenty, from Alto Adige to Agrigento, including pizza chefs and ice-cream makers, got on a foreign stage.

This was a crucial edition for the future of Gastronomika: it went well, the room was often packed and the average attention was high. The guest nations of the 2015 edition will be Hong Kong and Singapore

Al final, things went better than what one could have foreseen after the first morning, a scanty start that was portrayed by Marco Bolasco, for whom, «Once again, Italian chefs appeared in an isolated succession, and not as a group». For sure, the fact that at lunchtime, the group photo did not see the embrace of our chefs, but that of the big Basque ones, Andoni, Juan Mari Arzak, Martin Berasategui, Pedro Subijana, all united by a recurrent image of cohesion that we have never had, made you think. And those who were here last year can remember the chefs from London, all brotherly singing in unison under the same Union Jack.

All right, it’s already been said many times: Italy is a sum of individuals. In fact, chefs never spoke together before, in order to coordinate their speeches and it would have certainly been desirable to find a common direction, to agree on a general image from which to develop all the different specific aspects that characterise our cuisine, that same variety that is, after all, our country’s richness, as often said. But perhaps what stood out even more was the absence of any institutional representatives: there was no sign of lets say a minister, but not even a council member at the Kursaal, at a time in which in our country «there’s little smiling» (Moreno Cedroni dixit) and in such a crucial phase with the World Fair round the corner.

Among the most passionate speeches of the Italians during the 3-day-event, that of a... foreigner, namely Uruguayan Matias Perdomo of Pont de Ferr in Milan, a passionate lesson on pasta, a mix of fun, play and flavours

A positive result, for sure, was the chance to put together some great individuals who stand out, some for their great technical skills, some for their research and imaginative capacity. For their capacity of always knowing how to be innovators and polyhedral and also of having a huge knowledge of products and their manipulation (to confirm this, read the summary of all the speeches in the photo gallery on the top left corner). And memory – the real leitmotiv of the congress, invoked by many of our chefs – which can truly become a stimulus towards innovations, as confirmed by Andoni himself. In other words, if you are born in Italy and grow up with our flavours, you have a head start.

A final note: in the end, the authors of the most incisive lessons were our youngest chefs or those who are less used to be on stage. They were the decisive axes of Italian cuisine which, as finely summarised by Matias Perdomo, «must base itself on tradition, while looking at the future and living in the present».