Identitá Golose 2008:
A New Modern Italian Cuisine Movement is Brewing

Milano, Italy
February 2008

Milano: a centuries-old hub of ingenuity and vision, and the home of the fourth annual Identità Golose. Founded and curated by Paolo Marchi, a native Milanese, journalist, and food writer, the inspiration for this year’s symposium was to reinvigorate the connections and influences between Milan, Italy, and the world. Thus, Identità Golose 2008 brought together 64 brilliant culinary minds, 48 of whom were making their debut presentations, from France, Spain, Slovenia, Finland, the U.K., the U.S., Brasil, and, of course, all over Italy.

Andoni Luis Aduriz, Heston Blumenthal, Carlo Cracco, and Jacques Decoret

The two stages at the Pelazzo Mezzanotte were constantly occupied by presenting chefs, pastry chefs, restaurateurs, bakers, butchers, and sommeliers over the four action-packed days (January 27th through the 30th) – it was an exhausting and exhilarating, sensory piquing, gustatory adventure. Here are the highlights from the main stage where we set up camp.

Gualtiero Marchesi kicking off the symposium.

Lectures and presentations – some bordering on performances – deliberated on the role of tradition, unveiled culinary innovations, exhibited techniques, scrutinized flavors, showed off equipment, expounded upon multi-sensory dining experiences, and shared food and, in a couple cases, aromas. Kicking off Identità Golose was Gualtiero Marchesi (Ristorante Gualtiero Marchesi, Italy), considered the godfather of modern Italian cuisine, who set the tone for the symposium as a whole, comparing chefs to musicians in their shared creative interpretations of classical pieces.

Davide Oldani (Ristorante D’O, Italy) followed with an appeal to Italian chefs to stay true to the trattoria, abandoning words like “bistro.” He continued with the story of his search for “the soul of a white truffle” in a classic preparation of a white truffle soufflé; he found that not cooking the eggs through gets the most flavor from the truffles. Oldani shared his revelation with the audience: he shaved truffles into the center of the soufflé, set it under a fan, and blew the aroma into the audience. White truffle essence lingered in the room for hours afterward!

Andrea Berton syringes ragu puree into liquid nitrogen.

Andrea Berton (Trussardi all Scala, Italy) played molecular scientist on stage with a demonstration of his “lentils.” A ragu puree was pushed through a syringe into liquid nitrogen to form what looked like small buttons; more liquid nitrogen was poured over top and transformed the bits of puree into semi-solid individual pieces resembling lentils.  

Enrico Crippa (Duomo at Alba, Italy) and Stefano Baiocco (Villa Feltrinelli, Italy) each graced the stage with dish demonstrations. Crippa focused on game meats, including lamb with goat’s milk cream, hare with beets and olives, pigeon with red cabbage sauce, and piglet with chocolate and coffee. Baiocco’s “Mis-en-place” presentation/tasting went from simple to complex: an herb salad with crispy pasta sheets and champignons to sous vide fish with olive powder, lemon butter cream, and caper brittle.

Monday started with the dynamic duo behind three-Michelin-star rated Le Calandre, near Padua, Italy, Massimiliano and Raffaele Alajmo. The thesis of their lecture centered on the concept of the world as a showroom for Italian cuisine, and the need for support from the Italian national government. The afternoon demonstrations got down to specifics, namely Gannaro Esposito (Torre del Saracino, Italy) elucidating the “reason and romance” behind his smoked fig risotto made with oil and fish stock.

Sat Bains (Sat Bains, England), the consummate showman, entertained the audience with his dish demonstrations: corn ice cream with popcorn served in a mason jar and the modern English version of egg with peas – traditional thoughts with advanced techniques.

Representing further North in Europe, Hans Valimaki (Chez Dominique, Finland) spoke of a new wave of Scandinavian cuisine where chefs are getting inspiration for their dishes from the frozen landscapes. “If outside all winter is frozen, so must be the pot,” declared Hans. Snow grouse, arctic porcini (which resembled a satellite dish), and golden yellow and orange-colored arctic raspberries with white meringue graced his plates.

The Italian-American connection was represented on stage and in the flesh by mother and son team Lidia and Joe Bastianich. They discussed their experience operating multiple Italian restaurants States-side over the last 30 years. It goes without saying that in the early 70s when it came to Italian food U.S. palates weren’t as accustomed to much beyond spaghetti and meatballs – all laden with garlic. The pivotal moment came in 80s when Italian delicacies started to be imported into the U.S. From that point Italian restaurants, like Felidia, started to flourish.

The Santins' stuffed pasta purse, tied with chives.

Ezio and Maurizio Santin (Antica Osteria del Ponte and La città del Gusto del Gambero Rosso, Italy) showed off a golden colored steamed prawn-stuffed pasta “purse” and a deconstructed twist on the ubiquitous tiramisu (involving coffee caramel, chocolate crème, and a soaked wafer of sponge cake).

The theme of tradition and interpretation was carried on by the Alciati family, Lidia, Piero, Ugo, and Andrea (Torino, Santo Stefano Belbo, and Pollenzo, Italy). They shared their delicious agnolotti, a dish steeped in Italian culinary tradition, and showed their innovative side with a vacuum-sealed eel with dry caramel and lemons. It was a great testament to the strength of family-owned businesses and their ability to carry the torch of culinary traditions.

Davide Scabin (Combal.Zero, Italy) took the crowd back to the elements: contemplating cooking as a science and concept. He discussed developing his “scales” of cooking, tastes, and flavors (the Scabin Scale, Scabin Salt System, and Atala Scale); breaking down flavors into levels of intensity. Scabin also announced his upcoming 3-year sabbatical to contemplate Italy’s “national rebirth” in cuisine.

Heinz Beck's prawn paste rings coated with grains

The southern, mountainous region of Abruzzo was the focus for several discussions and demonstrations. Abruzzo was the Identità Golose Italian host region; presenters represented their culinary heritage, trends, and innovations in full force. Heinz Beck (La Pergola del Cavalieri Hilton, Italy) exhibited a novel approach to fritti di mare (fried fish) piping prawn and calamari pastes into a bed of grains, coating them, and then deep-frying in olive oil. The crispy fried prawn “rings” and calamari “sticks” were presented in an edible cone of dried red pepper “paper.”

The young turk Niko Romito (Reale, Italy) likes to reinterpret modern Abruzzian dishes, and he shared his technique for cooking veal shank via video from his restaurant. The shanks were seared, roasted, cooked sous vide, steamed, injected with gravy, glazed with a reduction, and then cooked again until falling-off-the-bone tender. His second dish was that of a tongue cooked slowly – for six hours – in milk. 

The calls for preserving tradition and recognizing regional Abruzzian cuisine were echoed by the husband and wife pair Marcello and Bruna Spadone (La Bandiera, Italy) who prepared an 8-hour dish of hen in broth. Fabrizio Camplone (Pasticceria Camplone, Italy) gratified the audience with generous and delicious samples of pecorino ice cream drizzled with honey and dotted with bits of pecorino cheese.

The final day was packed with powerhouse stagings from Spain, the U.K., Italy, and France. The lineup included Andoni Luis Aduriz (Mugaritz, Spain), Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck, U.K.), Carlo Cracco (Ristorante Cracco, Italy), and Jacques Decoret (Decoret, France) – this quad was dubbed the “ABCDs of Creativity of Europe.”

Aduriz set the tone with a series of neo-classic dishes that bordered on ironic, including clay-coated potatoes mocking pebbles, carbonized fern leaves, curd “hay” with pumpkin, grilled dried watermelon posing as carpaccio, blue fish with alginate-based bubbles, and beef marinated in vegetable dyes.

Heston Blumenthal pouring perfume-infused water over dry ice.

Blumenthal got down-right reminiscent speaking about dishes creating emotions and using gadgets and technology as triggers to engage diners’ senses of sound, touch, sight, smell, and taste. His quest to capture the memory of Christmas sent him around the globe in search of frankincense, myrrh, and gold; he bore gifts for the audience – taped under the seats in the auditorium – an edible film strip of frankincense (to “convey the feeling of tasting a smell”) and a paper disk scented with milk and myhrr (“the babe in the manger”).

Next he filled the room with the aroma of a dish he created from one of his own sense memories: his uncle’s red leather armchair, his pipe, and a lit fireplace. He used hot water infused with the aromas of leather, fire, and whiskey and poured it over dry ice set around bouquets of roses to disperse the scents into the auditorium. Blumenthal displayed another dish of seafood set in a sandbox with an i-Pod playing the sounds of a beach nestled into a seashell.  

Carlo Cracco’s LavAzza coffee “lenses.”

Carlo Cracco, joined by Miss Italia as a taster, demonstrated his famous pasta al’uovo (egg pasta), wafer paper “risotto,” and coffee contact lenses. The eggs for the pasta are treated with a salt and sugar mixture for several hours, dried, and then rolled into sheets. They are orangey-gold in color and transparent – and totally unique. Cracco’s un-risotto is made from rice-like pellets made from rolled pieces of wafer paper (the same that’s used with torrone; made from dehydrated potatoes) – Cracco’s favorite ingredient to date – and it takes just three minutes to cook. Coffee contact lenses literally came in a contact lens case, and were passed out to the audience as well. Cracco’s playful innovations were a delight and inspiration.

Jacques Decoret contemplated the textures of roasted chestnuts with a three-layer multi-texture chestnut emulsion served in a disposable cup to emulate the paper cones from the chestnut street vendors. He followed that up with a mushroom soup served tableside inspired by Aduriz. Decoret started by making a mushroom paste with fried bread and garlic powder. The paste was rolled out, dried, cut into a ring, and set inside the soup bowl. A deeply-colored clear mushroom broth was poured into the bowl and onto the ring which dissolved upon contact and melted into the soup bowl – a beautiful effect.

Two British chefs (one cooking in England; the other an ex-pat in Copenhagen) stood out with their impassioned, and in one case very personal, discussions. Shane Osborne (Pied-à-Terre, London) spoke about his professional and personal crisis when he was diagnosed with severe allergies to multiple foods. The allergies nearly took his life, and changed his career, his family, his diet, and his approach to food and cooking at large. It was an incredibly moving call for greater awareness and responsibility to educate staff to take food allergies seriously.

Paul Cunningham's Oysters, Shellfish, Sea Vegetables with Gelled Water.

The British transplant, Paul Cunningham’s (The Paul, Denmark) presentation was part video part cooking demonstration. The video featured his son and a langoustine adventure, while he prepared grilled rabbit with langoustines from the Danish island Laeso. His second demonstration was a seafood plate with assorted sea greens and water gel; he referred to it as the “rockpool of my childhood” – another dish evoking memory. 

From sous vide to stuffed pasta to liquid nitrogen; from every corner of Italy to Finland to Brasil; from traditional to modern to flat out philosophical, Identità Golose 2008 did not disappoint. It was clear from the gamut of demonstrations and presentations from Italian chefs that a culinary movement toward a new modern Italian cuisine is afoot. Sous vide’s foothold in Italy, and Europe at large, is stronger than ever with nearly every chef using this slow and low technique, even for the most traditional dishes. Thermomix, the temperature controlled high-power blender, is equally popular (though yet to pervade kitchens across the Atlantic). And the British chefs at the symposium (Osborne, Bains, Blumenthal) certainly reinforced that the U.K. continues to be a culinary force to be reckoned with.

There is no doubt that Italy’s culinary roots grow deep, nurtured and tended to by traditionalists like Davide Oldani, the Alajmos, the Alciati family, and the Spadones. And like Marchesi said in his opening speech, classics are made to be interpreted, with Berton, Beck, Romito, Scabin, and Cracco at the Italian forefront. 

View Pictures from Identita Golose 2008