Tag: contemporary

Made in Italy cuisine is contemporary – Italian Cuisine

Once upon a time there was the dining room, an intimate, small and spartan corner, a prelude to the most noble dining room.
Do you know? Prehistory, it seems.
Today, there is no break in continuity between the sofa and the stove, the environment has been reborn and the kitchen is the S.ignore home.

What must be taken into account now when designing the kitchen?

Fabiana Scavolini, CEO of the family business, explains it to us in a collaboration, since 2016, with Carlo Cracco, with whom they designed the model My. "The main need is to have multifunctional spaces even in small sizes and to facilitate the interaction between furnishings and technological devices. We will therefore have to imagine a kitchen equipped with all levels of comfort for cooking, but also for working and socializing. Ergonomics are also important: in Mia you can move the bases by keeping the plinth set back from the top: this makes it much more usable ".

Why the name "Mia"?
«Personalization is contemporaneity. Carlo Cracco opened his kitchen to us, to create something that would represent him .

What materials can be defined today as "contemporary"?

"We focus on the functionality of steel or on performing and sustainable solutions such as biomalta: water-based, it is made up of 40% of inert materials from certified recycling".

Contemporary Sbrisolona: the recipe – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine

A classic of Lombard cuisine, in a double-layered version filled with Nutella®. Because in Milan you are creative with everything, even with tradition

Milan is a city in constant motion: it is in a hurry to do, to change, to reinvent itself. It is the city of creatives, young entrepreneurs, fashion and design. But it is also the city of aperitifs, gourmet restaurants, brunches and new rituals. Because Milan reinvents its traditions, even at the table.

The Milanese are diverse, they come every day from the hinterland, they move from all over Italy or from other continents, but they all have one thing in common: they changed their lives and came here to follow their passions. Regional cuisines, spices and flavors from the world, Milan is a cosmopolitan city that does not set limits to the imagination, and that is not afraid of breaking the rules to write new ones. From yellow risotto to cutlet, nothing is sacred and everything is a matter of experimentation – sbrisolona included.

The sbrisolona is one corn and almond cake typical of Lombardy: it is an ancient dessert, crumbly and with a rich flavor and which, as the name suggests, crumbles easily. It is broken and eaten with your hands, it is prepared very easily, and to give it a contemporary touch, we have revisited its shape, making it even more delicious: a two layers and stuffed with Nutella®.

To do this we asked two genuine Milanese for a hand: Sergio and Monica, designer and founders of a Milanese accessories brand, iconic and now famous all over the world. Is Milan reinventing its traditions? They started by rethinking the sad computer covers and the usual neoprene, finally giving it a style (and a soul). For us they reinterpreted the sbrisolona.

Ingredients for 6 people

125 g soft wheat flour
100 g shelled almonds
100 g sugar
75 g corn flour
110 g ointment butter
1 egg yolk
a pinch of salt
Lemon peel
1/2 pc vanilla pods
90 g Nutella®
powder sugar

Method

Coarsely chop the almonds. In a bowl, combine the flour and butter and crumble with your fingertips, add the sugar and continue to knead. Add the yolk, the grated rind of half a lemon and the seeds of half a vanilla pod, lastly the chopped almonds and a pinch of salt. Distribute the dough, crumbling it into 2 cake pans (ø 16/18 cm) lined with baking paper, rolling it out in a 1.5 cm layer. Bake at 160 ° C for 25 minutes in a static oven.

Once cooked, remove from the pan, let it cool and spread Nutella® on one of the two cakes, remaining one cm from the edge, lay the other sbrisolona on top and press lightly.

Before serving, add a light dusting of icing sugar on the surface.

Credits:
Protagonists: Monica Battistella – Sergio Gobbi
Production house: MIA production
Executive producer: Vanessa Valerio – Luca Caliri
Director: Alberto Cozzutto
Food stylist: Elisa Lanci

Ligurian cuisine becomes contemporary – Italian Cuisine

Nothing against tradition. Indeed: it is the basis for Marco Visciola. At Marin di Eataly, this young cook who loves his land is rewriting one of the most underrated kitchens in Italy, with lots of sea on his plate. And pleasant designer touches: here they are

Making one contemporary regional cuisine in addition to technical skill and knowledge of history, it requires a fair dose of madness. The custodians of the (often fake) truth are ready to impale progressives, always citing Tradition. This happens mostly in those regions where there are no flagship restaurants that even if they focus on creativity, at least manage to move the system. There Liguria it is one of these, poor in starred places for a long time, and substantially little suited to changes, not only in terms of cuisine. A shame considering the validity of the products (fish, oil, vegetables are the first that come to mind), the historicity of some recipes – the focaccia and the savory pies are there to confirm it – and the pleasant contrast between seafood and land cuisine, which is the most interesting. This is why what a young chef – from Liguria, this is important – is doing, does not go unnoticed Marco Visciola at the Marin, Eataly's restaurant on the Porto Antico. Curiosity: the sign bears the name of the breeze that crosses the Maritime Alps and reaches the Langhe, the beloved land of the Farinetti family.

He worked in Korea

Son of Bogliasco, 35 years old, Visciola entered the Eataly world at just 22 years old. He worked with Fabrizio Tesse and Enrico Crippa, moved to Korea to open and manage the Seoul office (an experience which he considers essential) and returned to Italy. A couple of years in Turin and in 2011 here he is at the Marin, first alongside Enrico Panero and autonomously since 2016. Little by little he built his vision of cooking, linked to tradition, but with a new gear. "I love this land and its products, and I am lucky enough to work with a lot of instinct and intuition thanks to the experience that, from an early age, I was able to live following the teachings of my grandfather cook: he transmitted to me a memory of the ingredients that is very important for my work explains Visciola, whose family continues to produce oil. The place is in tune with the idea: the light enters through the huge windows from which you can see the Porto Antico, the large ships and Renzo Piano's bigo that seems close at hand. The beautiful tables, the essential and refined mise en place, the hospitality make you forget in a few minutes that you enter through the shelves. Eataly's shops and restaurants. It's not a drama, sure that a direct entrance from the port would be the final touch of class …

Great reinterpretation

Visciola interprets the culinary symbols of the territory very well. Ultimately, only the focaccia (round in any case and not rectangular) is faithful in taste. Instead, a good part of the card hides behind familiar names the pleasure of a light, precise reinterpretation, without prejudices. We mention only a few dishes, so as not to spoil the surprise: Tortelli stuffed with pesto, creamy potatoes and green beans; Capponmagro 2.0 (complex, with many innovations starting with vegetables that are not pickled, but fermented, in the Korean way); Finanziera from the sea where the fifth quarter of fish that remains in the kitchen is used, with separate cooking and a substantial addition of snails. But the chef also knows how to paint on white canvas, separating himself from tradition, as in the case of Sepia (marinated as lard and accompanied by fennel) or Spaghetti Martini where the olive and the Taggiasco gin interact perfectly with the caviar. Fantasy and technique, with an oriental rigor as found in Fried in two servings (one part in flour and the other in tempura) that immediately wins over.

Local winery

Two tasting: eight freehand proposals (80 euros) and Fuoco (minus Liguria and flavors of embers mostly at 65 euros) with the possibility of choosing three or four dishes from the menu. All accompanied by a cellar where along with the Pigato and Vermentino series labels, there are also surprises from Levante and Ponente. Trust the good sommelier. Moral: hats off to the Farinetti family who chose this guy for the restaurant in the Porto Antico. The Gran Mercante Oscar, famously, considers Ligurian cuisine as one of the best ("if not the best") in Italy, so he couldn't go wrong. And they say the quotations on Genoa and Liguria by Fossati, De André and so on, over the open kitchen, let it be his sack flour. Very credible.