10 years, but it’s not the time for candle-blowing. The congress’ birthday cake will be made of projects and future. An intelligent yet tasty dessert, following the theme of the congress, illustrated by Paolo Marchi on stage.
Pino Cuttaia of La Madia in Licata (Agrigento), a path through memory
The first to open this edition was
Pino Cuttaia, author of the congress’ icon, the trompe-l’oeil made with egg and squid, which breaks the shell of a delicious illusion. His Sicily exploded thanks to the dynamite of contradictions, the contemporary non-contemporary as in
Ernst Bloch’s interpretation, which unites contemporary inspiration and ancestral poetry in the same dish. So it was a Spanish-like
trompe-l’oeil but without invasive techniques (the thickener given by the squid’s eggs), as if the memory was dressed up with the future, transforming the sac in egg white and the ink in egg yolk. Another in-lusion, another play with cooking, another tasty (and empirical) intelligence was given by the omelette made with squilla-mantis - so rich in albumin it can replace an egg. To finish, the fake pizza made with smoked cod and a potato mousse and the parmigiana-lasagna, where the pasta with squid ink simulates the skin of the vegetable.
Manuel and Christian Costardi from Vercelli: being children again
As for
Christian and Manuel Costardi, they brushed up on childhood taste. Starting from their first experiments with
Beatrice’s,
Christian’s daughter, Easy-Bake oven, the culinary game has found new motivation and evolved, developing new creative resources. To begin with, there was the childhood memory of the sandwich yet made with vacuum cooked tongue, served with two sauces (
bagnetti), following Tom Thumb’s path towards a successful street food. Then there was rice, milk and pumpkin, the first savoury dish eaten by
Beatrice, which was presented on stage as a dessert too, with nitrogen ice-cream. This is a recipe in which a child palate becomes something absolute as foreseen byphalanstère-creator Fourier, for whom 10-year-olds could teach the Parisian strict gastronomic critics. Finally, there was a millefollie dessert made with chlorophyll, Nutella, powdered dried porcini, liquorish and truffle-aromatized oil.
Yoshi Takazawa, Italian symbols in Japan
returned to one of his obsessions, following
Paul Valéry’s creed, who believed every author continues to write the same work. After the unforgettable kidney tartare served in the
dîner des soufflés with
Paolo Lopriore and the exemplary kidney with sea urchins, created together with
Matteo Baronetto, here comes the kidney warmed up on baking paper together with salt aromatised with spices, which are toasted inside the kidney, which is then braised. The garnish is made with spaghetti made with scorzonera truffle, fried with goji berries, plus a drop of veal sauce with an astringent extraction of red cinchona. It needs to be noted that the dish is served in copper casseroles, recalling a
guéridon atmosphere
. The dish is a work in progress that moves towards a new interpretation of
finanziera. As for the dessert, there was a
Blond chocolate Bavarian mousse with parsley, carbon and almonds, which makes us foresee a more linear post-
Baronetto phase.
Finally, a window was opened onto the world, with
Yoshi Takazawa and his global fusion: “The concept of my restaurant is the tea ceremony, therefore we only have a maximum of 10 guests. I believe it is important to stay close to the farm, to make people have fun with no prejudgements with regards to taste”. Italian cuisine, similar to the Japaneseone , when it comes to freshness, is re-interpreted thanks to spaghetti made with scallops, a tiramisu-looking crab with cocoa and liquorish, a carbonara pasta but made with pineapple aromatised with vanilla. This total act of estrangements a testimony of an incredible familiarity with Italian traditions.
