Identità Golose: Day 1, part 2

Previous Identità Golose posts: Intro, Part1.

The original of the article below, in Italian, can be read here .

11:00 AM. Jordi Herrera is busy in downtown Milan desperately seeking the fifth essential element needed for the dish he is going to present and is substituted on stage by the young Italian chef Alfredo Russo. The newcomer, chef of Dolce Stil Novo near Turin, presents an unusual and thought-provoking talk: The difficulty of doing easy things well.

The starting point of Russo's cuisine is the daily routine and his surprising ability to absorb the terroir of Piemonte through the most common views, smells and sounds and then use them, putting them above the Italian-peninsular traditions, in a contemporary fashion to obtain a cuisine that is modern in its concept rather than in its use of technology.

© Benedetti-Grassi/Zerozero (repropuced with permission)

The "signature" pasta, presented among his recipes as entree, is made using the classical pastry technique to write on cakes, used this time to impose the name of Russo's restaurant name on the pasta sheets with cuttlefish ink, in a chromatic game between the yellow dough and the black ink. Russo does not abstain from his gastronomic re-visitation even before a classic like pasta alle vongole (clam pasta), which becomes through this approach a real "signature" dish.

The frittata is Russo's chosen example to show the role of diversification, care for detail and opening towards new textures. The eggs, destructured in a scrambled egg sauce, are enriched with low-temperature cooked artichokes. Simple bread croutons bring a play between soft and crunchy textures. The result? A pop-art frittata dressed in art's forms and geometry.

© Benedetti-Grassi/Zerozero (repropuced with permission)

Even with his "Insalata Russa" (in Piemonte this is traditionally a dish of different vegetables, especially pea, carrot and potatoes, bound by mayonnaise) Russo explores textural games, though this time with an opposite approach. Every single ingredient is placed tone on tone and soft on soft, a melange of jellies and creams. The dish has not only rigorous lines or toned-down ingredients, but also transparencies in form and texture. Russo's cultural melting pot produces a delectable and varied gastronomy –he has stated that the world meets in the kitchen– with many traditions are as many reinterpretations, in contemporary style: "My cuisine has as aim that of not wanting to surprise, because what is important is cooking for people without letting one get influenced by fashion, although dishes can still be interpreted to different levels of complexity." Be this statement incoherent or provocative, Russo's talk gives plenty to ponder upon.

11:40 AM: what has arguably been the most interesting talk of the day for the public begins. Massimo Alajmo, chef of Le Calandre gows on stage: he is Italy's enfant prodige, the youngest European chef ever to obtain first two and then three Michelin stars. The theme of his talk is: "La ritessitura del cacio e dei vegetali", re-texturing cheese and vegetables.

As a Mozart at the stove, Alajmo proved his visionary talent to the public. His recipes were demonstrated by a short movie, which managed to be stimulating not limited to the audio-visual level. For his "gnocchi di provola e tartufo in brodo di gallina" (provola and truffle gnocchi in chicken broth), the chef choose monumental yet essential geometric arrangements and precise yet fluid lines.

While the black and white images of the movie slowly roll away, the air of the conference room takes up the aromas of pepper and basil, ingeniously diffused into the air to recreate the feelings and memories of the dining table. The different preparation steps, alternated by short musical moments, are explained with a calm and minimalist approach, carefully chosen, sophisticated yet in a never bloating. Incredibly the textural feeling of the dish can even be imagined if not perceived by looking at the manual preparation of the recipe, where the provola is used as a sheet: it is steamed, rolled out, filled and then closed in hot water just as if it were tiny mozzarella.

Alajmo's modernity incarnates the concept of Italian creativity and charms Europe, that appreciates increasingly his time-less view of cooking, which has one main aim: irony.

Even tomatoes and Tropea onions can be turned into sheets, yet steering away from easy fashions:reduced to puree and steamed they can be used to create ravioli to be fillet at ones taste. The result is one of visual and gustatory transparencies. Alajmo's impressive performance has had the ability to superimpose Italian cuisine on haute cuisine, moving between, classicism, informality and avant-garde, saving tradition as creative element.

Comments

[Ore]

Ciao Alberto,

I am glad to see that you are reporting on this. I am so excited to read on and I do hope the rest of the Identita Golose will show up in English on your site.

Have you come across a more detailed report with photos from the actual event.

Thank you sooooo much for your hard work in translating.

Did you make it to Milano for this?

Grazie,

Ore

[Alberto]

Ore, happy to know you're appreciating the translation. No, unfortunately I did not make it to Milan this year, but I really hope to do so next time.

I have added some new pics to the post and I hope to get a few more later.

[Lady Amalthea]

The pics are gorgeous. I can't wait to hear more about the conference!