Pepe in Grani in Caserta is top pizzeria If you are heading to Italy any time soon and are looking for the best pizza that you can eat anywhere in the world, then you need to take a look at 50 Top Pizza. This is the name of a new website and initiative to discover the best pizzerias in Italy and therefore the world. The website, that has just been launched, is the brainchild of Albert Sapere who believes that the pizza movement in Italy is like the NBA for basketball. Sapere is curator of the site together with Luciano Pignataro, a journalist and Italian foodblogger as well as Barbara Guerra who with Albert created Le Strade della Mozzarella or On the Mozzarella roads which aims to raise awareness about mozzarella di bufala campana around the world. According to Sapere, Italian pizzerias play a 'world championship' between them because not only are they exceptional artisans but also because Italy is the country which has the best produce for pizza. In total 100 inspectors, … [Read more...]
Inside the magical world of Enrico Crippa’s garden is the secret to his legendary salad
For a food lover or chef, visiting Enrico Crippa’s garden just a few kilometres outside of the town of Alba is a bit like visiting the magical world of Roald Dahl's chocolate factory. To understand the Italian chef of Piazza Duomo in Alba, one of the best restaurants in the world, you need to understand this garden. Ideally, you need to wake up early and visit it with him. Because it is here that you will discover the secret to his success, to his flavours and to his story. His ‘Insalata’ or salad as it is known is the stuff of legend. A lot has been written about it, photos taken and he describes it as the best dish he has ever made. “But there is no cooking or preparation,” he smiles. You may have come with preconceived ideas about the dish but nothing prepares you for the experience. A table of eight people including Zaiyu Hasegawa, the Japanese chef of Tokyo restaurant Den, Andrea Petrini, one of the co-curators of The Gelinaz! and host Roberta Ceretto representing the … [Read more...]
Blumenthal, Bains, Bosi and Atherton in fourth Mountain Gourmet Ski Experience
Curator and co-founder of the fourth Mountain Gourmet Ski Experience Heston Blumenthal has invited his friends Sat Bains, Claude Bosi and Jason Atherton to join him in Courmayeur this weekend for three days of skiing, mountain experiences, rustic regional cuisine and two dinners created and preapred by the chefs and their teams in mountain venues as the true highlights of the event. In all, 15 British chefs will be creating two dinners on the mountains of Courmayer. Blumenthal said: "This year I have invited two new hugely talented guest chefs, Claude Bosi and Jason Atherton, to join Sat Bains for another unique collaboration & incredible alchemy for our 2 mountain dinners. Courmayeur quickly became one of my favourite ski haunts as it offers such amazing hospitality in its mountain restaurants: big plates of regional antipasti, bowls of homemade pasta, great wines and grappa. I realised it was my perfect holiday. Over the last 3 years, I have invited a few of my chef … [Read more...]
Honorary degree for Massimo Bottura in Bologna
Massimo Bottura, the chef at the helm of Osteria Francescana, the world's best restaurant, was this evening honoured with an honorary degree in Management from the University of Bologna. Bottura got the degree for setting an example by merging entrepreneurship, culture and technique and that helps to spread Italian culture worldwide. The Modena based chef, who has three Michelin stars and is number one in the World's 50 Best Restaurant list has also set up the Refettorio Ambrosiano during the Milan Expo. Since then he has opened refectories to feed the world's poor in various cities including Rio. In summer, a soup kitchen will open in London in the Chelsea area and he also has plans to open one in Berlin. Bottura belives that chefs can make a difference today because they have a voice unlike in the past. An honorary degree to a chef is not common but Bottura says that even Harvard have studied the way they work in the restaurant. The restaurant today receives 2,000 … [Read more...]
Interview with Fulvio Pierangelini: ‘It is time to relearn everything’
Among food lovers of a certain age, Fulvio Pierangelini needs no introduction. Only a few years ago, he was considered to be one of the most influential if not the most influential Italian chef of the 2000s. He has left a very important impact on the food world and has advocated collaboration and exchange between chefs for at least 10 years at a time when this was unheard of. So when Fulvio says that it is time for us to relearn everything about food we should sit and listen and also reflect on the state of the food and wine world today. "In history, there was a time when the rich were fat and the poor were thin. Today, the opposite is the case and we need to ask ourselves why this is the case and whether this is good because clearly we have a problem," he says. "We have reached a stage where we need to relearn everything. We need to have more respect for ingredients, all ingredients. People may feel sorry for a lobster or a lamb but ultimately we need to remember that even a … [Read more...]
Lunch with Fulvio Pierangelini: The main ingredient of a perfect tomato sauce is love
The main ingredient of the perfect tomato sauce is love. It is love for the main ingredient, the tomato, and love of the process and what it takes to make a perfect sauce. The colour, texture and taste of a tomato varies. It depends on the variety, it also depends on the sun and the season when it is picked. Making a tomato sauce might sound like the most trivial thing to do. Most would not even hesitate to open a tin of tomatoes to make a sauce. Spaghetti with tomato sauce is the food of childhood memories. If there is one dish that takes us back in time it is this. And today, it is also a staple on children's menus in restaurants. The spaghetto al pomodoro by Fulvio Pierangelini is legendary. Some years ago, when his restaurant Gambero Rosso was still open, he had lectured university students in Bologna about the significance of a great tomato sauce. He had told students that he had a responsibility to cook a great tomato sauce because ultimately everyone could cook a … [Read more...]
No new 3 Michelin star restaurants in Italy
There were no new three Michelin star restaurants in Italy when Michelin announced its list for 2017. The eight 3 Michelin star restaurants have all retained their stars. While there were 5 new 2 Michelin star restaurants announced, the number of new entries in the one star category was 27 bringing the total of starred restaurants in Italy to 343 in total.There are now 41 two star restaurants in Italy and 294 one-star restaurants. Rome did particularly well in the one star category with five new restaurants. These are The Corner, Magnolia, Bistrot 64, Per Me Giulia Terrinoni and Assaje. The three Michelin star restaurants in Italy are Piazza Duomo(Enrico Crippa), Da Vittorio (Vittorio Cerea), Reale (Niko Romito), Dal Pescatore (Nadia Santini), Enoteca Pinchiorri (Annie Deolde, Italo Bassi and Riccardo Monco), Osteria Francescana (Massimo Bottura), Le Calandre (Massimiliano Ajamo) and La Pergola (Heinz Beck). The list of newly awarded restaurants is the following: New … [Read more...]
A future for Amatrice – how you can help
When the hilltop medieval town of Amatrice was recently devastated by the recent earthquake that rocked central Italy, the founder and president of Slow Food Carlo Petrini launched an appeal aimed at all restaurants around the world to help rebuild the town. "Through this iconic dish that is the gastronomic symbol of Amatrice we hope to share the values of solidarity and sharing," Carlo Petrini, president of Terra Madre and Slow Food said when launching a solidarity scheme to help the people hard hit by the earthquake and give them hope for the future by helping in the rebuilding of the town. Amatrice is known for a pasta sauce called 'amatriciana' which is made with 'guanciale', and pecorino which come from the same town, San Marzano tomatoes, white wine, pepper and chilli peppers. Slow Food launched an initiative called 'A future for Amatrice' using #unfuturoperamatrice as the hashtag and have asked restauranteurs around the world to include the iconic dish from Amatrice in … [Read more...]
Food as poetry: Massimo Bottura, the cultured chef at the top of the culinary world
When the World's 50 Best Restaurants announced earlier this week that Massimo Bottura's Modena restaurant Osteria Francescana had made it to the top of the list for the first time few in the culinary world were surprised. His rise to the top of the culinary world has been progressive and constant. What may have been surprising was the time it took for him to achieve the pinnacle of success. This was as much a victory for Bottura, his wife Lara Gilmore and his team as much as it was a victory for culture and creativity. The Italian chef could have easily been a poet or an artist. He says creating a recipe is an intellectual gesture that involves ingredients, technique, memory and the compression of everything in bites of edible culture. He uses food as his medium for creativity and the palate to transmit emotions. "In a world of obligation, you can lose your point of reference. The secret is to keep a small space open for poetry, to be able to jump into that space and … [Read more...]
Massimo Bottura’s soup kitchen is going viral
Massimo Bottura's soup kitchen is going viral. After the success of the soup kitchen at the Refettorio Ambrosiano in Milan which landed the Italian chef the award of European chef of the year, the chef from Modena will be working together with the Antoniano in Bologna to feed the city's poor in the evening. The Italian chef, famous for his award-winning Osteria Francescana in Modena, will be working together with Chef to Chef, a non-profit organisation in Emilia Romagna, to organise the evening service. The chef has recently announced that he wanted to replicate the experience at Refettorio Ambrosiano in different parts of Italy including Torino, Modena and in the Brazilian favelas during the forthcoming Olympic Games. The Italian chef worked throughout last year to raise awareness on food waste by creating the Refettorio Ambrosiano in Milan. The project was aimed at feeding the poor by using food that would otherwise have been thrown away from the pavillions of the Milan … [Read more...]