In his life, he’s always done two things, with a special determination: sweets for contests and contesting silly things. The latter are those written by journalists echoing chefs who mix up flavours with aromatic tastes. Or those of people asking for a diet cake, or, worst still, those who speak of natural cuisine denying centuries of agricultural experience revolutionising the concept of nutrition and diet. According to Iginio Massari those who speak bad, eat bad. So it’s best to start afresh and tidy up a bit. A mission to which the master of pastry chefs has dedicated his entire life, deserving a homage to his career in the 12th edition of Dossier Dessert, born from a collaboration between Identità Golose and l'Ecole du grand Chocolat Valrhona.
Massari with Gianluca Fusto and Fabrizio Galla
On stage,
Gianluca Fusto and
Fabrizio Galla, respectively pastry making globetrotter with
Fusto Consulting; at work in San Sebastiano Po, on the hills outside Torino. The two pastry chefs prepared Tiramisù, a classic, but with an ultra-contemporary making, while
Eleonora Cozzella had the difficult task of summing up the list of awards given to the born-to-be-famous pastry chef. Born in Brescia on the 29th August 1942,
Iginio Massari won over 320 awards on a national and international scale. A couple of examples: six times world pastry making champion and
Leone d'oro alla carriera in 2015 on the red carpet of the Venice Biennale (like
Jean Luc Godard,
Federico Fellini and
Clint Eastwood, that is).
Iginio Massari with Igor Maiellano of Valrhona Italia
On top of being the putative father of pandoro and panettone,
Iginio Massari is a Tiramisù fanatic and of course he even won a special prize, a gold medal in Parma (6th November 2012). So what has the most domestic cake got to do with such a high standard
maître pâtissier? «This cake belongs to every family’s mother and grandmother. It’s the Italian cake capable of making the sick better and children stronger, the image of the gift of energy», said
Massari to the audience in the Auditorium.
Eleonora Cozzella presents Massari
Because the work of a home cook or one with a vocation for fine dining is that of «creating for others and giving pleasure to others». Without this element of emancipation from one’s ego, you’re just a dull and selfish cook. Altruism, science and transgression. These are the three keywords in
Massari’s vocabulary: «Pastry making is science applied to cooking. Let’s remember that pastry chefs were the first to use a scale. But it’s also about transgression, because those who don’t betray and don’t transgress won’t move humanity towards progress». Last lesson before the next one. The
Massari show must go on.
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
