Igles Corelli

It's me the one who has to say "Thanks". Because people like me exist because you are there, with your expectations, with your stimulating questions, with your appreciations. I enjoyed to be here, really, and I wish that Pia will keep me up-dated with the discussions. I can't promise that I'll learn English, as I can't ensure Pia that I'll be on a diet for the next 12 months ... , but I promise, provided that someone is going to help me with translations, to pop up from time to time on this Forum. So long, guys! It has been great to meet you! Igles

Francesco, I think that we should be grateful to you for the rest of our lives!!! We (me, Pia, oher colleagues, friends) have been discussing and thinking so many times of how a restaurant should have been, to be "Italian". We couldn't accept the "trattoria" style. There is nothing wrong with it, when it is not stereotyped (you know the Chianti fiascos, salami and garlic hanging everywhere and the owner singing with the mandolino), but if the "competition" is with gastronomic restaurants in other countries, we should be in some way comparable. And what we have done up to know, as far as gastronomic restaurants are concerned, has been to copy the French style. Mirrors and glasses and silver and brocades and nozy waiters with white gloves, warm as a sorbet ... We have been following a model that did not belong to us, but that was also indicated as "the model" by the media and the gastronomic critics. Cantarelli was alone and too avant-guard to become a model. If his restaurant had survived him, probably our restaurants would be different today. But you are right. This is the way to the Italian gastronomic restaurant. We had the solution under our nose and weren't able to see it. Thank you Francesco. And ... who cares about Michelin (it's not true, we do! )! Anyway, they are not treating Italian restaurants with a benevolent eye, even now. Only 3 3-stars restaurants in Italy? Less than in other countries? There is something that doesn't fit! Igles PS. Yes, without Michelin recognition survival is hard. It means about 30% plus or minus in your annual turn-over. Why other guides (Italian) haven't been able to become more important than Michelin in the consideration of restaurant owners and chefs, of customers, of the media in general? Why all these people are always referring to Michelin awards to describe sintetically the "standard" of a restaurant?

Because we are not as good as French or Americans are with marketing, PR and communication in general.

Ciao Mucca! So here is where you live your virtual life! Did you find fresh and good grass on these pastures? Nice to meet you once more on the web. You know that my top-ten of favourite food starts with pizza, salami, nutella Indeed your listing includes food that represents Italy abroad, and probably more could be done on this respect. I think that I've already commented this somewhere on this thread. Why young chefs are not expressing their creativity with pasta, rather than foams and jellies? I don't know ... maybe it is because we are so conservative about our traditions ... Although, thinking of this, I recall some interesting dishes that came out from chefs' experiments over the years. The "Raviolo aperto" ("open"), actually a "lasagna", created by Guasltiero Marchesi. The idea was more conceptual than innovative: to bring the stuffing outside. The "Raviolo" stuffed with the raw egg-yolk, a signature dish from Valentino Marcattilii of San Domenico in Imola. The many kind of Raviolis, stuffed with fish, quite common today but not in the tradition. The Raviolo stuffed with tomato, created by Fulvio Pierangelini, if I'm not wrong, of Gambero Rosso in San Vincenzo, where the sauce is hidden "inside" the pasta, and the stuffing becomes a sauce. Or, a raviolo, once more, stuffed with jelly. Who was the author? Maybe Massimo Bottura from La Francescana in Modena. And, if I can quote myself, the Crispy lasagna, the Paccheri filled with shrimps and ricotta cheese, the Deep-fried egg-noodles or the semolina pasta cooked as a risotto are also ideas about how to cook pasta in a different way. Nothing so revolutionary, but different. Pasta, and pizza too, are so neutral and versatile at the same time ... It's possible that any house-wife along our history has already invented everything. Creativity doesn't mean just "strange". It has more to do with "unexpected". Quite often creativity relies on combining exixting things in a way different from ordinary. It is difficult and rare, to invent something really new. You may play on temperatures (something usually eaten hot is served cold) or on textures or consistencies (something hard is served soft), on the contrasts, on inusual combinations etc. etc. ... With pasta all this has already been done over the centuries. Think of the traditional (and ancient) Torta tagliolina, a sweet cake topped with thin egg-noodles, that become crispy after being cooked into the oven: pasta used for a dessert, crispy rather than soft! Or to the many "Pasticcio di pasta" popular all over Italy: pasta becomes the filling, inside a dough case. I'd like to stress one important point written by you. We need more education on food and more self-esteem concerning our products. We need also to promote us more effectively. As you said, it is a long-term investment.

I'm not against marinades in general, I'm not in favour when game meat is concerned, if the purpose is to cover the wild natural taste and when they are used before cooking. I think that in this case they are useless ... but I use marinades instead of cooking, for instance with fish or I use them when they may add some flavour that I feel that is matching the original ...

John, what I like of game, is that the meat has so many different tastes, depending on what the animal has been eating. The breeded animals are not that way. If you smell a partridge you feel the berries and the moor. If you smell a thrush you feel the juniper ... Can you imagine what it means for a chef to rely on such ingredients?! When I cook them, I try not to cover their natural taste. Besides wild animals I also love wild fruits and vegetables and they are often an ideal accompaniment. Although it's not easy to find them, in my restaurant I'm dealing with birds, mainly those living in humid environments, such as wild ducks, widgeons, coots, pochards, shovelers, teals, snipes, but also woodcocks, wild geese, hares ... I hope that this reply, together with the one given to Pedro is satisfying you. I've just published a book about my game recipes, but I'm sorry, it's only in Italian. I'm feeling the pressure of the expiring deadline and I'm not sure until when I'll be able to reply to all questions ... there are still 5 or 6 missing and now I have to leave, because we are both tired.

Dear Katia and Ronald (are you two ?), you are right. Mentoring is not so common in Italy, or maybe was not. Things have been changed. For many years chefs have been divided and jealous of their secrets (!???). Some people working in restaurants were not moved by passion, but by the need of a job. In our past we have been afflicted by people without any kind of professionalism, just confident that, without specific competence in any field, they could have managed a restaurant. What's so difficult in cooking food as you do everyday in your house?! If somebody couldn't do any job, he applied as a waiter ... It was also easy to avoid paying taxes, therefore running a restaurant was a good business. It is not like that anymore (except for waiters, they are still a problem. Good ones are few and very difficult to find). Many chefs that I know are mentoring the young people that work with them. I'm always doing it to such an extent that sometimes I'm not able to get rid of them!!!! I'm joking, of course. It's nice to deal with people who feel affection for you and that come periodically for a visit or to refresh their knowledge. I know people that own more than a restaurant, but they are not chefs and their restaurants are more on the business side rather than the quality&care. The problem seems to be that in Italy, chefs and owners of small gourmet restaurants (usually it is the same person) are not managing their restaurants as a business but as a hobby. Let's say that a gourmet restaurant in Italy is not a good investment, unless it is useful to generate business elsewhere. It's the case of La Pergola at Hilton Hotel, of Vissani, even of myself. La Pergola, Heinz beck and his achievements ar a wonderful promotion for the hotel, me and Gianfranco too would not be on TV, or wouldn't be asked for consulting, events etc. without a restaurant with some visibility. When you read that a chef has opened a second restaurant it usually means that has given his name to the operation. I know only a couple of colleagues able to manage directly more than one restaurant. One is Moreno Cedroni, who besides his restaurant Madonnina del Pescatore, has opened Aniko, a fish delikatessen and take-away, a seasonal bar, Il Clandestino on the beautiful shore of Portonovo and is also managing a laboratory for the production of jellies and jams. The other is Enrico Cerea, Da Vittorio in Bergamo. If you think that there are chef-owners that close their restaurant if they are called elsewhere!

[...] I'll give you a recipe for woodcock later. Igles ← Here is a possible recipe for woodcock. WOODCOCK WITH CEPS PUDDING, TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR SAUCE Ingredients for 4 persons: Meat: 4 woodcocks - 200 g of duck foie gras - crepinette - extra-virgin olive oil . salt - pepper Pudding: 200 g ceps - 1 clove of garlic - fresh leaves of "pimpinella" (salad burnet?) - 240 g of cream - 1 egg - 2 yolks - 50 g of grated Parmesan cheese - extra-virgin olive oil - salt -pepper Sauce: 1/2 shallot -2 tbsp white wine - 100 g of woodcock broth -4 teasp of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar - extra-virgin olive oil - sal - pepper Slice the foie gras in 4 slices and and brown them on both sides, in a pan, without any grease, at very high temperature and for a very short time. Season with salt and pepper. Make a sandwich with the two halves of the breasts of the woodcock and the foie gras in between (Use the legs to prepare the broth and bones and trimmings for the stock). Wrap the breast sandwiches with the crepinette and cook it as explained before. Slice the mushrooms, stir them quickly in a large pan, with some olive oil and the garlic. Salt and pimpinella at the end. Remove the garlic and process the ceps in a blender. Filter the blended mushrooms through a seeve. Pour it in a casserole and let it reduce on the fire. When it is warm, add and mix all other ingredients for the pudding. Apply some melted butter into 4 moulds and pour the mixture for the pudding. Cook them in a steamer for about 18 minutes or until they become firm. Prepare the stock, roasting bones and trimmings in a pan with some oil. Add the minced shallot, stir it, ad the wine and let it reduce, add the broth and let it reduce of 1/3. Crack bones in order to obtain more taste. Filter through a sieve and reduce on the fire by half. Remove from the pan and blend the stock with Balsamic vinegar. Remove the puddings from the moulds and put them into the dishes, add the woodcock breasts and the sauce, complete with caramelized cherry tomatoes and garnish with some fresh leaves of pimpinella. Igles I hope that I translated it properly. Pia

Just before leaving for a couple of hours, thanks Chefzadi ... with all my simpathy!

Pedro, I love cooking game in general and beccaccia (is it woodcock in English?) is the queen of all game! Actually I think that I owe to game part of my "fame" in Italy as a chef, because I was cooking it when it was unusual to find it in restaurants in Italy and because I was cooking it in a way far different from tradition. Tradition means long faisandage, marinades and long cooking, in order to "reduce the wild taste" . I was puzzled by this at the time. If someone is eating a wild food, why should wish to cancel its wild taste?! So I started my experiments and found my way to game cuisine. Game meat is stiff, compared to that of farmed animals, because they use their muscles and have very little grease between the fibers. So adding some fat, was one point. Tenderness of meat, of any kind, depends also on the size of muscolar fibers. The thinner they are, the tender the meat is. Young animals have thin fibers because they haven't abused of their muscles yet. They can be easily broken, therefore the meat is more tender. So looking for young animals, was the second point. When you expose meat to temperature the gresy cells starts to melt and help to separate fibers. These start to reduce in thickness. At about 55°C (I don't know the figure in °F!) they begin to shrink, reducing their length. Increasing the temperature the cells expel the liquids (which amount to about 75% of their composition) and the meat becomes drier and drier. At about 80°C it is almost completely dry. 3rd point was not to overcook meat, so it remains juicy and tender (let's say about 60°C at the core) because fibers are shorter and thinner and fragile, but still humid and there is no need to exceed with grease ... Faisandage contributes to the decay of fibers, therefore it is necessary with "old" animals but it is useless with young wild animals and with breeded animals (as they are grown today, unfortunately, with the animals kept often immobile for their short life), above all if you cook the meat at the point. Marinade has the same purpose. The acid substances contribute to the decay of fibers, they are hopefully expected to reduce bacteria contamination and spices cover the taste of rottening. As you may have understood I'm against excessive faisandage (2-3 days in the fridge, maximum, is what I do for some animals, no faisandage at all for others), totally against marinades, and in favour of short cooking time, starting with high temperature. I never serve animals with bones and all, in my restaurant. I love to eat skewers of small birds, cooked whole, wrapped in lard, over the fire but in the restaurant I feel that people expect less complications. Therefore all the wild birds that I cook (there are so many varieties, in the right season) consist of their breasts (the most tender of all parts) stuffed in some way (rolled or as a sandwich) with the minced meat of their legs (stiffer). I may add something greasy into the stuffing (lard, pancetta, foie-gras) or wrap the roll with pancetta, lard or crepinette. I roast it quickly in a pan at high temperature, for few minutes, then I usually complete cooking into the oven at about 180°C for about 8 or 10 minutes. When I remove the meat from the oven I let it rest for about 5-6 minutes on a griddle, so the juices, extracted towards the outside from temperature can be redistributed among the fibers. The griddle avoids that meat-crust softens. I use all caramelized juices to add flavour to the sauce. This is the way I usually work, with all kind of meat. Now, dinner is ready for Pia, so I'll give you a recipe for woodcock later. Igles

Boris, It is a stimulating proposal. If more people are interested we could talk about making this an official eGullet event (therefore something we could organize on the Forum). I'll ask Igles and Pia for the practical detials and I'd suggest that anyone interested contacts me in private. Anyone interested should kindly refrain from posting any further comments to this idea on this thread [...] On our side ... it's possible to organize it and it would be a pleasure. Albiston you know how to get in touch with us.

On the homepage of the Locanda, there's a mention of a cooking school. "Not being sure if this is OK with the new policy" , I'm ventilating the idea of a day with an "eG class" there. I know it's completely unrealistic or downright impossible, but OTOH the wholism presented here is something that touches my soul, hence I couldn't resist. Gals and guys, just to think about it is a pleasure. Dear Pia and Ingles: If passionate, professional chefs say something like this, a taoist would know that they are already pretty close ... ←

Thank you Robert. We look forward to meet you as well as all other eGulleters who'll pass by. Igles & Pia

Thank you, Joe. Food is so subjective! Even Italians have the same attitude as your friends ...

This is my reply to Chefzadi. I’ll try to comment all your posts with this one. In my slow pacing through all questions, I finally reached yours. First of all thank you for your appreciation. I’m really honoured by your estimation. I would love to have you cooking for me. I’m not planning a trip in US in the next future, but if you are planning to visit Italy, we may do this: We stay together in my kitchen, I cook one dish for you and you cook one dish for me! Until we can’t go on eating! What do you think? >> When I read your thoughts on Haute Cuisine (Cuisine Gastronomique) and terroir based cuisine (Cuisine du Terroir) and mama’s home cooking, I am instantly reminded of Lyon. As I mentioned it is the center of cuisine du terroir in France. It is also a city with a tradition of female chefs (les meres) who introduced home cooking to the restaurant scene. […] << What strikes me is that you are from Lyon. For some reasons I’ve always thought that Emilia Romagna (where I’m from) is the Italian Perigord. Am I wrong if I say that cuisine in both regions has something in common? As you say “terroir” and women, earth and sensuality. Both are cuisines of substance, rich and “good humoured”. I think that what Boris has written about northern Italian cuisine applies as well to that of Lyon. In Italy we are starting maybe in these recent year to have a distinction between Cuisine Gastronomique and Cuisine du Terroir, and the funny thing is that they seem now to coincide. In older times Cuisine Gastronomique for us was French or International cuisine and everything else was home-style cuisine. >>[…] I apologize for bringing up France here, but the example was too obvious for me […] No need for apologizes! What is beautiful about cuisine is that exchanges, intrusions, mixing are the rule. I think that food can bring people together and, as I already said, give a great help to understand and know each other better. >> I understand that you are involved in the education of the next generation of Italian Chefs. What is your advice to them about the work and the business? What qualities does a successful chef have? << Yes, I’m co-ordinating and teaching at the Master for future chefs at Gambero Rosso School in Rome and in some public professional schools here in Ferrara. I’m usually mentoring my students. My kitchen is always open to those who wish to make some experience after the school or I contact my colleagues looking for stages for the students. What I like of all this is the relationship, the connections that remains for ever, I would say. Many of them call me often for advices or greetings, some come periodically and stay with me for a couple of days, sometimes longer, just to refresh their training or come to help when we organize some committing event. In addition to that I organize amatorial classes or professional training periods in my restaurant, but since there is a specific question about this I’ll be more precise there. To my students, the first question is always: “Are you really sure that you want to become a chef? Do you really know what it means?” And then I insist because they must know the basics, before starting to fly with creativity. Pia, who’s responsible for the planning for many schools (Gambero Rosso’s Professione Cuoco is her creature) has created an effective method. She has been trying to reduce theory to the minimum and planned a progression of practical lessons, during which the same theoretical topics are developed and expanded while working. Recipes are functional to this and, of course, become increasingly more complex. Since the beginning, students prepare complete recipes, because it is important to see (and taste) the results of what you have been doing all day. She insists about respecting tradition without altering it, because if you want to change the rules you need to know them very well. Obviously tradition is performed according to all modern techniques that are used today in professional kitchens. Anyway since I’m a chef, here is my recipe … Ingredients (for let’s say about 85 kg of chef) Inclination, made with · 6 kg of well trained palate (by a skilled mother and by subsequent gastronomic experiences) · 12 kg of passion for the job and for life in general · 9 kg of curiosity, well trimmed by all sort of prejudices · 4 kg of equilibrium balanced by 4 kg of bravery · 9 kg of sense of taste and knowledge of aesthetics, matured by specific studies · 8 kg of managing skills Experience (to be aged for at least 10-20 years) made with · 9 kg of knowledge of ingredients · 9 kg of knowledge of techniques · 8kg of knowledge of regional, national and international cooking traditions · 7 kg of research and experiments · a pinch of ambition, but never more than the dose of modesty Mix together inclination with experience until is well blended, season with plenty of creativity, being careful because the result is never stable and tend to change his composition, with the same risk of good or bad results. These depend on how attentively the product has been preserved and matured.

Local, therefore seasonal is the best choice, to me, on behalf of quality and, to some extent, of safety, too (you may know and "control" the producer). This is a very extreme statement and it's not in my nature to be so strict. It's true, but it would imply too many limitations. I grow some vegetables in a small garden in front of my kitchen and I try to buy my fruit and vegetables as much as possible from the producers in my village. They let me select my pumpkins, my zucchini, my watermelons and melons directly on the field. It would be time-consuming to do the same with small fruits, like strawberries, tomatoes or apricots and in that case I rely on their harvest. So, for some products, I'm really using the freshest possible, and often also the best available on Italian market. The area where I live is famous for pumpkins and melons. But in northern Italy, the weather in winter is not helpful. All year round not all varieties of fruit & veg are grown here, therefore if I wish, as I do, to use the widest range of flavours and textures I must accept that these products come from far away and, indeed, today moving fresh goods from one place of the world to the opposite is just a matter of hours or, maximum, few days. This doesn't apply to vegetables only. Fish, is very much the same. It's seasonal, it's perishable when fresh and its taste varies, depending where it was living and what has been eating. The northern part of the Italian Adriatic is sandy or muddy, with shallow water. The Tirreno is deeper and rocky, with a great variety of sea-weeds. We are now buying most of our fish at Anzio market (next to Rome) because some species of fish have a richer taste in the Tirreno Sea, compared to the same fished in the Adriatic. But when I buy a eel I want a wild eel from Comacchio and not those farmed and imported from France that are usually available at fishmongers even here in Comacchio. Why? A wild eel from Comacchio reaches the market when it is at least 7-8 years of age. The skin has a lighter grey colour and the belly is silvery. The flesh is greasier, soft and juicy. A farmed eel is ready for consumption in 3-4 years. Quality often means patience, care, time and higher costs. Concerning season, I think that besides what nature does (and this can be by-passed importing seasonal products from other countries) there is also a season for the consumption of some food. I'm not eager for cold, maybe raw food in winter and I'd never eat a boiling soup in summer. I associate for instance meat ragout with cold weather and a tomato sauce made with fresh tomato iwhen it's warm. And I'm also happy with the expectancy of the forthcoming season, with its gifts. Igles

... just to show the evidence of how ignorant we (Italians) can be about food & restaurants and how neglected great chefs can be, this is a sentence just written on Gambero Rosso Forum on a thread about Vissani (where peolpe, rather than discussing about his cuisine, is fighting about prices and speculate about their managing costs): L'Italia è famosa per i ristoranti, le trattorie, i gnocchi della nonna e le orecchiette della zia ... vissani e pierangelini sono uno dei tanti che buttano la pasta! (Italy is famous for restaurants, trattorie, grandma's dumplings or aunt's orecchiette [a pasta traditional from Puglia] ... Vissani and Pierangelini [two among the greatest chefs we have in Italy are just some of the many who cook pasta! Sic!

I think that my opinion on this subject has already come out on this Q&A. I agree entirely with Francesco's considerations about the way most Italians feel towards food and restaurants. His analysis is perfect and the way he describes his experience at Vissani is really enjoyable and true. I know Vissani since ever. His genious as a chef simply can't be discussed, but Italians do. Even worse, you should expect a daily pilgrimage to his restaurant ... but it is not so. The only "wrong" thing writtten by Francesco is to think that the restaurant is usually working below its capacity, with about 20-30 customers per day. It is working far far below. 2 or 4, 6 people per day, even on Saturdays, that's the reality. And it is not like that only for him. The knowleadgeable few Italian gourmets, are too few to fill the many good, innovative and usually quite expensive restaurants everyday. Only Michelin 3-.stars are always fully booked, and I guess this is because being so few they get the attention of foreigners. Most people in Italy discuss Vissani and his cuisine, without even knowing what he cooks. Some of the gourmets criticize him (and others chefs, too) because he is not always present in his restaurant and don't understand that he must get his money somewhere else. I think that he should be appreciated because he his investing everything in the restaurant. So, when you say that I'm running a successful restaurant, well ... it makes me smile and hope it will be so! . On this respect, I'm in the same position as Vissani (and many others). Me and Pia have 2nd, 3rd and 4th jobs! Tv shows, teaching, writing books, organizing events, consulting etc. etc., so we can support our restaurant (well we also enjoy other commitments, but nevertheless...) Why Italians are so conservative about food, generally speaking? I think it has to do with our long and rich tradition (sometimes it may be a limitation to accept creativity) and also with our poor "education" concerning food and its quality. Since most people are convinced to know how to cook and what is good, very few accept to be so "humble" to discover, accept or learn something different or new. How do I deal with creativity? I think that you can't force yourself to be creative. Either you are or you are not. And its OK in both cases, provided that one follows his nature. Non-creative but skilled chefs are a gift from heaven. The keep the memory, they keep the connections with the roots, they prepare good food that reaches the purpose: simply pleasure, easy understanding, no cerebral complications ... it's relaxing. Creativity is exciting and fatiguing, both for the chef and the customer. It claims for attention, understanding and it may go beyond pleasure. It may be "disturbing", and right because of this, even more satisfying, because it compells you to eat also with the brain ... When I was younger my creativity was in some way more glamourous, "forced" by the desire to give surprise and shock. Now it's subtler. My aim is surprise and pleasure. In the past my dishes were very very complicated, with many ingredients, different techniques required ... now I'm more in favour of an apparent simplicity. Igles

Yes, I DO!!! I couldn't describe the cuisine of my region and of the Northern plane in general in a better way. It's like our "azdore". Do you now the word? It's dialect and it defines the women who "run" a family, they are the "managers". They take care of everything concerning the family and the house and, of course, they prepare (or, more correct, prepared) the daily "sfoglia" (egg-dough) together with the rest of the meal. If I should describe the typical "azdora" I'd talk about a strong female, not too skinny, with a strong character, pragmatic but at the same time extremely sensual. "Azdore", and Emilia Romagna express a kind of cookery they I would also define soft, juicy, maternal before being feminine and sensual. It's buttery, creamy (these are the regions where butter, milk, cheese, cream have been widely used in cookery, since ever). Indeed cuisine reflects the way of life of a country and its culture. I've always thought that if you want to know other people (not only from other countries, if you think of Italy, for instance) you need to know what they eat and how they eat, even before knowing something about their language. What you say about "arte di mangiar bene" in Italy is extremely true. Both of us (I mean Pia and me) still remember a beautiful post written by a female e-Gulleters some months ago, concerning eating in a Italian familY. Sorry that none of us is able to remember her name, we can't search it now, but for sure you all know who I'm talking about, because she is a frequent and gifted contributor to the discussions. The scene that you recall it's absolutely true and typically Italian. It's funny, we never eat anything without talking about food: what we are eating, the way it should have been, how our grand-mother, mother, aunt, wife was or is doing it, what we ate the day before ... and so on. You are right, though, we always talk about food while we are eating (and often even when we are not), but food is not the main thing, without conviviality. Eating together is a way to share a pleasure. Eating together, for many Italians, implies intimacy and complicity. This is maybe one of the reasons why Italians don't like to share their table with people that they don't know. Concerning the un-solicitous atmosphere of our restaurants, I couldn't agree more. I think that I've already expressed my feelings about this subject on a previous reply, but let me say that Francesco has clearly shown me the way we were looking since the beginning of our experience as restaurant owners: the Cantarelli's style! The solution was there..., we were circling around it ... OK I'll try to clear my ideas on this subject by answering directly to Francesco (but not tonight, it's late, once more!).

I had a busy day today ... I had the serious intention of replying to most of questions, but I'm tired (and Pia too). I'm sorry for those who are still waiting for an answer. We'll continue tomarrow. Be confident! Good night! Igles

Hi DonRocks. I'm with you! This is an interesting point. May I call it subjectivity or relativity of judjements? I'm not sure if that same wine, in other circumstances, with different surroundings, with you in a different mood would have tasted the same ... but in that precise moment and place it was really so, and this is what matters. I feel the same, about food, and wine as well. Thanks to your words, it comes back to my memory one of my greatest gastronomic experiences. Some years ago, when our little children were not born yet, me and Pia went for a week of sailing school in Sardinia. Feeling young, athletic and enthusiastic we decided to ride there by bicycle, so we brought our sleeping-bags with us. Lodging at the school was very austere, small rooms crowded with 6 mates. We wished some intimacy , so we decided to sleep on the beach with the stars of Sardinian sky over our heads. Wake-up call was at dawn, "ringed" by the swashing of the sea. If some of you knows how the sea is in Sardinia, knows also that it is like being in heaven. Our breakfast? Sea urchins just picked from the sea and eaten on the shore ... Definitely the best breakfast in my life! Then we went for our hard sailing class, 4 + 4 hours of infinite pleasure and fun. At lunch and dinner we were served very simple, "heavy", nutritious food in the school's mess. The menu changed daily, but peppers, onions, cucumbers and garlic were always massively present, cooked and raw. I had been eating them rarely up to that moment, because, for me, they were difficult to digest, but the chef, with whom we became very good friends, had a passion for these vegetables. I loved (and digested) every bit of the food. It was delicious and after so many years I can still feel the vivid flavours in my mouth. What is the meaning of all this? Food is important, but not in itself (unless it's a matter of survival). People who do my job sometimes find hard to accept that what we cook is not what really matters. Of course it HAS to be good, but it will never be as good as it could be if everything around it is even better. And this fact makes our job even more difficult, because you can be careful in respect of the quality of what you prepare, of the way you serve it, how you welcome your guests, how comfortable the atmosphere is etc. etc. but there isn't much you can do if the people who sit at your table had a bad day or are there with the wrong person. One day a couple entered my restaurants. As I saw them, I had the feeling that there was some electricity between the two. That day we had only other 2 couples for dinner, so I had time to take care of them. We have a very small wine cellar (Pia calls it the telephone booth), next to the normal dining room. It has just a small table for 2. Instead of lighting up the lamps, I filled it with many many small candles. It looked so romantic and intimate! I felt the lady's surprise and I noticed that she started to soften. Their edginess melted away at the same rate of the wax of the candles. At the middle of the dinner they were chatting languidly, as if they had just met. You can't imagine how happy and proud I felt of myself!!! Food would have been the same that night, but without that atmosphere they would hardly have appreciated it. Igles

It's late now and I have to leave, for the moment. I'll be back ASAP. Chefzadi, be patient ... slowly slowly, but I'm reaching also your questions

No, but I think it is possible to have a great cuisine also outside of Italy!

Ciao Pan, che domanda difficile!!! There has been a huge discussion on this subject on Gambero Rosso Forum and I can't say that we've been able to find a precise answer. Indeed Italian cuisine IS REGIONAL. This is a fantastic peculiarity (by the way, I agree with you that in US Italo-American food derives from Southern Italian heritage). If the question is "Is there a dish that is unmistakably Italian at first sight (or tasting)?" a straight answer would be pasta and pizza. Pasta (or better "primi piatti"), in the way we serve it, is only Italian. For us, it is as important as the proteic main course. All other countries using pasta or rice, as far as I know, consider it as a side-dish, to accompany the main course. Pizza is a "piatto unico", a full meal. It is unusual for an Italian to eat pizza after a pasta, or before a main course. Pizza has been adopted almost everywhere in the world, and it is possible that now belongs to humanity, but it is Italian. You know what's funny about pizza? You can buy frozen "American" pizza in Italian stores!!! . The box has Stars and Stripes on it and the pizza topping includes a wide variety of ingredients: corn, sausage, peppers, cheese, tomato, of course, maybe onions, olives etc. etc. But, to be precise, Pizza is from Naples (although in many other regions there are flat breads, plain or topped with various ingredients) and pasta may differ enourmously from North to South. In the Po plane, and mainly in Emilia Romagna, pasta is only fresh made, with the egg-dough and it is served with meat or fish sauces. In the South it is mainly dry semolina pasta, served with fish or vegetables sauces. When it is fresh it is made only with wheat flour and water, without eggs. Obviously pasta is common everywhere in Italy, but I'd say that vegetables and legumes soups are traditional in Central Italy. Rice is mainly Northern, especially if cooked as a "risotto". Concerning the degree of differences among regional cuisines, or between them and another country traditions, I think that the answer should be different case by case. Political borders are different from cultural ones. So traditional Piedmont cookery resembles more French Savoy cookery than any Southern Italian cuisine. Liguria's tradition is not so different from Provencal style. There are French and Spanish influences in traditional Neapolitan cuisine and Arab and Spanish in Sicilian (due to history). There are some recipes present in almost all regional cuisines, with slight differences, such as the fish soups, grilled fish, roasted meat, vegetable soups. And there is now a unifying typical ingredient, that is extra-virgin olive oil (although it is different from region to region, or even from province to province). I wrote "now" because in a past not too far, olive oil was scarcely used for cooking purposes. Except main producing regions, like Liguria, Tuscany and Puglia, elsewhere butter or pork fat was mainly used for cooking. Olive oil was only for seasoning salads. And in the North, where olive trees were scarcely grown, people didn't even like its taste, considered too "strong". We owe to Trattorie Toscane, almost the only example of regional cuisine exported in other Italian regions, if olive oil has started to be appreciated in Lombardia, Veneto or Emilia Romagna, for example. Trattorie Toscane were very popular in the bigger cities during the 70ies and the '80ies, before being totally replaced by cheap Chinese restaurants. Who knows ... Maybe the future trend will be a wide-spread use of soy sauce? Being serious, a trend could be the attention given more and more to territorial ingredients. This doesn't mean necessarily to cook according to traditional recipes. It's positive, in my opinion, because you know deeply what you are dealing with, and you are safer concerning freshness and quality but, in excess, it could be as well a limitation for the future development of our cuisine. Since in our past in was "traditional" to get ideas, products and habits from other cultures with which we had contacts, I think that being "sensible" to what arrives from the rest of the world it is still an advantage. The issue is "are we able to deal any kind of product, any idea, any technique in an "Italian" way? Honestly, I don't know. If I have to judge from the many copies of Adria's foam and jellies or from the "japanese" look that many dishes have, the answer is maybe "No, we risk to loose our identity". But on the other hand I'm wise enough to know that it is too soon to judge. Ideas need some time before being digested. Igles

Hello Irodguy! My replies to Francesco and Fifi are a partial answer to your question. Rigoletto is an outstanding restaurant. I know Gianni Amato quite well (by the way, he's not skinny at all!!! ) and let me say first that he is not precisely from Emilia Romagna. He moved in Reggiolo few years ago from Aulla, a small town on the border between Liguria, Tuscany and Emilia. This could be one reason for which his cuisine doesn't comply with expectable Emilia's standards. To answer about my food, I'd rather know how is Emilia Romagna food in your expectations. I may guess that you refer to Tagliatelle with ragù alla bolognese, or Lasagne al forno, Cotechino con lenticchie, Tortellini in brodo etc. etc. These are traditional dishes. I prepare the "ragù" in the traditional way (minced pork and beef meat stirred in a vegetables "soffritto", and a quite prolongued cooking after adding tomatoes) and I use it, together with béchamel to stuff Lasagne, but my Lasagna is cooked in single portions, with an unusual shape (it is not a flat and soft square, made by layers of pasta and sauce) and it is served with a parmesan cheese sabayon, flavoured with a bit of nutmeg. I usually prepare the ragù for Tagliatelle with a cooking technique diferent from the traditional one. Each ingredient is cooked separately in a pan, at high temperature and for a very short time. I wish that colour and consistency don't differ too much from the original. At every passage I degrease the pan with stock (vegetable or meat) and let the liquid reduce. In this way I obtain almost a sauce, enriched by the flavours of each single ingredient. I put them together only when I season the pasta. The result is that you may feel the typical taste of each ingredient, on a basis which is the combination of all. I hope that you succed to understand me. To do it is much simpler than to explain. Igles