Dear {NOMEUTENTE}Gina DePalma, who passed away at 49, on 29th December in New York, was not a fantastic pizza-chef but a pastry-chef. Her name is tied to Mario Batali’s Babbo. I remember her in this space because over the weekend the Wall Street Journal dedicated to her a page written by Charlotte Druckman with extreme levity. It’s never easy in these cases.
I recall her because the first sentence struck me. The journalist mentioned an episode that would make people understand what kind of person Gina was. They were lively discussing via e-mail about blueberries, when the Italian-American chef reclaimed her choices: «Sweetheart, you cannot walk through life thinking everyone will like you». That is to say you may be a good and important food writer, but I reclaim my choices. Whether you like them a lot, a little or not at all.
Everyone should apply this truth, especially those who hide and try to float without ever taking a stand. Luckily there still are those who defend their ideas and are direct, even mistaking approach. These are the people I admire. People we’ll also see at Identità 2016 and in terms of pizza the ideas will be very many. All worth respecting, especially those with which we don’t agree.
Paolo Marchi, content by Carlo Passera |
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Petra chef's box among the aromas of the oven  A chef in the middle, surrounded by the guests, fully immersed in the experience of the dish. Part cooking, part the story illustrating the ingredients which will unexpectedly twist and turn following the directions traced by the debate around the table. Like the links in an online conversation, sending to further analysis as the questions gradually arise. Like an online conversation twisting and turning along a network of questions intertwined between the links of the answers.
This is what the Petra Molino Quaglia space at Identità Golose Milano 2016 will be like. Designed so as to define, using unusual materials, the chef’s box with a perimeter of communication between chef and visitors, stimulating the debate during the preparation of the dish, without obstacles between ears, noses, eyes and palate.
A different experience from the halls, where the chef is on the stage and those listening are far away. There will be no screens projecting images and microphones diffusing words to describe the sensorial effect of food. We’ll try to get rid of the mental effort of transforming a description and an image into scents and tactile sensations. This is what we do everyday, when we experience what was packaged by computers. It will be a message of return to the contextual sensorial stimuli caused by food, capable as nothing else to make it possible for an experience with common features, defined partly by the words of the chef, partly by the answers to the questions of his guests, to be shared at the same time.
And in front, at the entrance of Identità’s main square, the aromas of the Mamapetra oven, where throughout the three days fresh bread for the congress will be baked.
Piero Gabrieli |
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Does pizza deserve a Michelin star? Twenty, this is the total number of pizza chefs who since 2008 have been speakers (or are about to be) at Identità Golose, not counting those chefs, such as Massimiliano Alajmo in 2013, and pastry-chefs, I’m referring to Corrado Assenza, who shared the theme of pizza with the apostles of margherita and calzone. These numbers strike me, in the first place, because I was born and live in a town, such as Milan, that has never paid too much attention to pizza. A masterpiece in Neapolitan tradition first and in Italian tradition in time, it’s always a jewel in a poor, street and desperate cuisine. Yet much has changed and for the past five years this has been clearer and clearer.
This year we went beyond the day dedicated to pizza. Not only Franco Pepe will also be among the speakers at Identità di champagne on Tuesday but Pepe himself will take part on Sunday in a moment I hold especially dear. Identità di Pizza will be preceded in the Auditorium not by a practical lesson, but by a debate. Renato Bosco, Enzo Coccia, Massimo Giovannini, Simone Padoan, Franco Pepe and Gino Sorbillo will be on stage. They will discuss a very clear theme: Stars, is it an impossible dream for pizza? They will not be alone. Sitting among them there will also be Roberto Restelli, who for many years directed the Michelin Italia. Knowing all its secrets and mechanisms, Restelli will help everyone understand how the inspectors’ judgement is formed, what guides them from one establishment to the other, what lights and turns off a star.
And there will also be surprises, because the world of pizza, everywhere in Italy, is so excited about this theme that many invest in it as never before. On Sunday night, for instance, at the opening of the new room at Pepe in grani in Caiazzo (Caserta), some people wished - laughing, of course, it was a joke – for the Michelin guide to wait a few more years. Why? Simple: the renovation of the building and the investment on research will continue to grow and clients will benefit from this as much as possible.
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Christian Puglisi: research, craftsmanship and freedom? The Identità di Pizza afternoon makes a head start with a giant in international cuisine, the same Christian Puglisi, previously at Noma in Copenhagen with René Redzepi, who – for instance – declared that the New Nordic Cuisine is dead and began to work on other things, presenting his pizza, as he explained here: «I’m not questioning tradition, I want to understand it, but I want to change the perception people have of a pizzeria. The possible development is in the details, in the dough, the topping. I don’t want to make pizza “noble”, but accepting its natural rustic character doesn’t mean forsaking quality».
He serves pizzas in his more laid-back restaurant, Bæst. And at Identità he’ll present recipes such as Pizza with cabbage, fermented sausage, tomato and mozzarella or White bread with n’duja (he’s originally from Calabria). |
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Ravagnan / The edge of a pizza becomes a cannolo After Christian Puglisi we move to Veneto, with Lello Ravagnan’s lesson. The master pizza chef at Grigoris in Mestre will present two recipes at Identità di Pizza, demonstrating how left over dough can be transformed into two starters you can serve in a pizzeria. A new way of conceiving sustainability, a much debated topic.
The outside of the left over dough becomes a crispy cannolo filled with ricotta salata, asparagus and candied fennel, while the inside is transformed into canederli with a leek sauce made with the green part, usually discarded, injected into smoked tea. The two recipes will be anticipated by a tasting of pizza made with the same ingredients. |
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Giovannini / The raviolo made with mother yeast  From Veneto to Tuscany. With his Apogeo in Pietrasanta Massimo Giovannini is the regional diamond point of new pizza. His lesson will be focused on a variation of Ravagnan’s lesson, that is to say on sustainability.
He will present a recipe with ravioli made with left overs from the dough used for pizza, worked as noodles, filled with a cream of beans, pork shoulder fat, stalks of candied cauliflower served with a cauliflower sauce. An idea so one can also serve a first course in a pizzeria, made with the same ingredients of a pizza. The recipe will be anticipated by a tasting of a pizza made with the same ingredients. |
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Giuseppe Rizzo / Pound cake balls  Leftovers, once again, the real fil rouge of the day – at least with regards to the pizza chefs working in Italy – are the focus of the next lesson. From Tuscany we move up to Lombardy with Giuseppe Rizzo, pizza chef at restaurant Dell'Angolo in Vittuone (Milano) – we wrote about him here.
The recipe he’ll present is a pound cake made by using the left over dough stuffed with candied artichoke stalks, almond flour and chocolate chips. An idea for a dessert to be served in a pizzeria at the end of a meal, thus using left over ingredients. The recipe will be anticipated by a tasting of a pizza made with the same ingredients. |
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Tony Nicolini / Pizza's sweet appeal The last speaker at Identità di Pizza takes us straight to the other side of the world. To Australia, to be precise. We spoke at length of Tony Nicolini recently, here and here. His story is a beautiful one, that of an Italian who finds success Down Under with pizza. And what pizza! He’s at the centre of a small network of Italian excellences, which thanks to him have pushed their way so far from Italy.
In Milan he’ll present three recipes (unfortunately we’ll be able to taste only two): Dolce Margherita, Senza Scarpe and Ben vestita. Let’s take the first one, a new take on a classic, with Petra 3, Spaccatella tomatoes, strawberries, acacia organic honey from Asiago, buffalo milk ricotta, Passito di Pantelleria, fried basil, buffalo milk ice cream. For the others, come and see in Milan... |
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Great protagonists at Identità di Pane and Panettone It’s not a question of reinventing bread or panettone, indeed it is not. Yet during the morning explicitly dedicated to these two products, on Monday 7th at Identità Milano (Sala Blu 2) we’ll explain how their use can be changed, their quality improved. New techniques, different ideas, revolutionary methods – this is true – applied to a daily food which is most often served in a banal way, even in restaurants; and applied to the Christmas dessert, as de-seasonalised as ever, which has already enjoyed a decade of great positive changes, but for this very reason now risks becoming banal, standardised. Industrial production, after having mortified it, has made space for many artisanal producers scattered around the country. Good. Yet the next step is: craftsmanship is welcome, but how?
These are important themes that Identità will develop together with Molino Quaglia’s Petra. Featuring prominent chefs.
Renato Bosco of Saporé, for instance, will open the work in the room at 10,15, presented, as all the others –by Francesca Barberini. The title of his speech is “Pasta Madre Viva” and is of course based on Bosco’s commitment for the certification of natural leavenings.
After Bosco, Lucca Cantarin of pastry-shop Marisa di Arsego (Padua) will get on stage at 11,10. His lesson is titled Panett’ONE and will be entirely focused on the importance of great leavened products in pastry making. Cantarin will explain an innovative concept and procedure. Variations on the Milanese cake through the use of aromatised shortbread to be inserted in the dough.
Third and final lesson at 1,20 pm, with Nicola Portinari of La Peca di Lonigo (Vicenza) and Giulia Miatto, coordinator of the technical and educational activities at Laboratorio del Molino Quaglia. The latter will present a new way of managing bread making inside a restaurant: a sole basic dough, capable of later making good products comprising the entire classic bread basket. A simplified and easy to manage process to which Portinari will add the touch of a great chef, recommending the ideal uses and pairings. |
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Franco Pepe, a lesson with pizza and champagne Pizza and champagne? A starred pairing to be illustrated during the first edition of Identità di Champagne, the new event within the Identità Milano congress, in collaboration with Maison Ruinart (in the exclusive Lounge Ruinart, every day from noon till 3 pm, only upon booking, sold out on Monday and with a few places left on Sunday and Tuesday, for info: iscrizioni@identitagolose.it.
It will be a true dialogue between Champagne and food, featuring great chefs. And among them, there will also be the super-pizzaiolo. Ruinart Rosé, 45% Chardonnay from Côte des Blancs and the Mountains of Reims and 55% Pinot Noir of which 18/19% vinified in red, will indeed be the focus of a lesson that on Tuesday 8th will also feature Franco Pepe and his gourmet pizza. It will be a meeting of sea and earth, a journey across Campania, what with fiordilatte made with local buffalo milk, emulsion of anchovy colatura on a heart of endive well aromatised with oven baked tomatoes. Between one dish and the other, some thin toasted slices of Pane Petra pulled out of the Mamapetra oven - which will produce all the bread for the congress - will also be served. |
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Pepe in Grani: new oven, dining room and in Geneve...  There’s lots of pepe, Franco Pepe, in this newsletter preceding the twelfth edition of Identità Golose. He’s one of the speakers, first on Sunday and then on Tuesday, but on 28th February he also opened a new space inside Pepe in grani in the historic centre of Caiazzo in the province of Caserta. It’s new because it was created out of a room on the first floor, but this is not the important part.
Franco opened a room with a couple round tables and even added a second oven on the ground floor for his restaurant: «I’ve always been afraid to add it because it must work as well as the first one. I serve 450 pizzas per night on average [it’s closed at lunchtime, expect on Sundays ], I can mistakes with no more than five, ten maximum. With two fires the timing improves but risks also increase». So he thought about it again and again until he was ready for the final yes.
The second decision is that of a space where to serve (only upon booking) only tasting menus to be defined soon, though they should include two choices of pizza in the menu and a third one free hand. Three tables per six, a total of 8 guests maximum. In one, in the middle, there will be a sort of well through which one can see the pizza chefs at work below, in the other two a screen on which videos will show the world nourishing Pepe. Franco also announced the opening of his first pizzeria abroad, Kitaly in Geneva, in a couple of week’s time. For the other news there’s a some time.
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A new Berberé is born, this time in Torino "Binaria" (Via Sestriere 34), don Ciotti’s new project, was opened in an old abandoned wing of the old Cimat factory, which in the Seventies was part of Fiat’s spin-offs and today hosts the Fabbrica delle "E", the headquarters of Gruppo Abele.
In this space there’s also pizzeria Berberè, fourth restaurant following the innovative format created by the young company from Bologna founded by brothers Aloe. Torino is a further step in the project born in 2010 with the goal of presenting a high quality pizza with seasonal ingredients, tasty and easy to digest, the result of a constant research on flour, fermentation, toppings, cooking methods and nutritional characteristics. Not a franchising, however, the management of the restaurants is always direct.
Berberè will be open every night, 7 days a week and at lunchtime on Saturdays and Sundays.
The fourth restaurant of brothers Salvatore and Matteo Aloe (in the photo with Ciotti) is born after the success obtained by Berberè light pizza & food, founded in Castel Maggiore (Bologna) in 2010 and replicated in September 2013 right in the heart of Bologna with the opening of restaurant Alce Nero Berberè in partnership with Alce Nero, and in September 2014 in Florence with Berberè craft pizza & beer. |
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Milano, what a lovely tasting at Lievità  It was a nice evening, a few days ago, at Lievità in Milan. What has now established itself as one of the best pizza places in town hosted a special event which had the involvement of the “home” pizza chef Giorgio Caruso, a young talented chef from Caserta just like the other one one, that is to say Federico Campolattaro, whom we met as "right arm " of Niko Romito, with Gaia Giordano (now at Spazio Milano), when they opened Spazio Roma.
For the past seven months instead he’s been working in Germany, partly for reasons of love. Yet he also loves Italian excellences: such as those served at Lievità, always with a light and digestible dough, with delicious toppings shared between Caruso and Campolattaro. Some examples? Pizza Pompei (in the photo), fried chicory, Piennolo del Vesuvio POD tomatoes, Provolone del Monaco POD and anchovy colatura from Cetara; Il Regno delle Due Sicilie, with an ancient tomato from Naples called Miracolo di San Gennaro, organic capers from Salina, anchovies from Menaica and fresh basil; Masaniello, with late radicchio POD, fiordilatte from Agerola, gorgonzola dolce POD, prunes, fresh thyme and veal jus; and finally the one we enjoyed the most, pure harmony (though they were all good) that is to say Un baccalà italiano in Germania [An Italian salted cod in Germany], with creamed salted cod, dried tomatoes, turnip tops, black olives from Caiazzo, fiordilatte from Agerola and lemon. Well done guys! |
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All the new recipes for 2016 in our special report  The special report dedicated by the Identità Golose website to the “new dishes” from the greatest Italian chefs resulted in a great collection with the best in fine dining for 2016. Among the chefs, of course we also had the best pizza chefs.
Patrick Ricci, Simone Lombardi, Leonardo Giannico, Antonio Pappalardo, Denis Lovatel, Alberto Morello, Ruggero Ravagnan, Simone Padoan, Renato Bosco, Matteo Aloe, Massimo Gatti, Gabriele Bonci, Stefano Callegari, Franco Pepe, Ciro Salvo, Enzo Coccia, Gino Sorbillo, Francesco and Salvatore Salvo, Gianfranco Iervolino and even chef Marzia Buzzanca, who for the occasion presented a pizza, all illustrated their new creations.
Here you can find the special report on the “new pizzas for 2016”, with photos and captions. |
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