Tag: interview

Max Mariola’s carbonara: interview, recipe, trick – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Let’s start from carbonara by Max Mariola to go around history and return to the carbonara of 1954, when The Italian kitchen publishes the “requested” recipe with garlic, bacon and gruyere. Carbonara or carbonare? Nowadays, we are increasingly moving towards the plural in defining this dish, even if there exists, almost by convention, a codified version from Lazio, or more specifically from Rome, which involves the use of the classic 5 ingredients: egg yolk, bacon, pecorino, salt and pepper, in addition to pasta of course. A codification “conquered” over years of variations and adjustments, which make this dish one of the richest in history and stories, among those today associated with the Italian gastronomic tradition.

On the occasion of the Milanese event organized by pasta makers of Unione Italiana Food dedicated to the 70th anniversary of carbonara and the upcoming one eighth Carbonara Day, chef Max Mariola cooked the two versions of yesterday and today for his guests. From here, the starting point for a chat together.

The ’54 carbonara? It’s good!

On this occasion, we asked chef Mariola what did you think when you first read the recipe published on The Italian kitchen of August 1954, in a short interview, here’s what he told us.

Chef Mariola saw the first carbonara recipe on the pages of our newspaper: what did you think when you read it?

MM «I felt bad! Guys: there’s garlic, there’s Gruyere… and smoked bacon! I said to myself, but it’s not possible, but what happened? It’s a trick, it’s impossible… What have you done…”

Have you tried cooking it? Did she like it?

MM «Yes, I tried it: and I must say… it’s good too! (he says it in Roman dialect, ed). Especially if you eat without thinking about today’s recipe, without being influenced, in short.”

So, are you in favor of imagination even when it comes to carbonara?

MM «Absolutely yes, we are Italian, creative, convivial and gourmets!

We brought you the original recipe from 1954, will you give us your contemporary version?

“Certain. And also some advice: pay attention to the “carbocream”! It must be cooked a little, because it must reach a particular density, smooth and enveloping, a bit like that of an English cream. The question of cooking the egg is one that is often debated, when talking about this fantastic dish, one even thinks of using a boiled egg. However, I have experimented and this short cooking is what characterizes my version. Seeing is believing!”

Allan Bay and the praise of eating with your hands: interview – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Food journalist, historian, writer, Allan Bay he has just put down on paper in a book what many (if not all) think, but which we often don’t have the courage to say. At least not in public (so, let alone doing!). She remembered that eat with your hands it is one of the great pleasures of life, and how and why we should do it whenever we can, except for rare exceptions that make it impossible to use the thumb and forefinger to touch food, smell it and bring it to the mouth.

Is titled Praise of eating with your hands (The Assayer): clear from the title, it is a cultured and entertaining historical and anthropological journey that clears this very satisfying gesture that over the centuries social conventions have made appear “exotic”. Indeed – let’s say it – in certain circumstances a little rude.

As you will discover by reading it, until recently, forks didn’t even exist: they arrived on the tables of the European bourgeoisie only in the 19th century, after being invented in China. Then etiquette began to dictate the rules, limiting them to one There is a very narrow circle of foods that can be eaten without cutlery. This too is an entirely Western affair, considering that there is half the world – with many Asian and African countries leading the way – that often willingly do without cutlery. Allan Bay also tells this story and, to move from theory to practice, he gradually suggests tasty dishes recipes from «conlemanisti. Or rather, as he explains in this interview, “indications”, which certainly make reading his first “personal” book even more pleasant.

Interview with Allan Bay

Why is it a “personal” book?
«It concerns a passion of mine that few of my friends, the real ones, know about: eating with your hands, in fact. I have written many books, especially recipe books, which as such had a basic objectivity. This book is different precisely because it talks about me.”

What makes eating with your hands so enjoyable?
«As children we discover the world – and therefore also food – first of all through touch and smell, and this physical contact with what we eat remains the greatest enjoyment. But over time we tend to deprive ourselves of it because as we grow up we are taught that we have to use cutlery: we lock ourselves into patterns. The purpose of the book is to get out of these patterns and clear, when possible, this great pleasure of eating with your hands.”

How many would like to do it but don’t have the courage to do it or even just say it?
“I do not know. However, I know for a fact that several of my friends love to eat with their hands and that many use cutlery even in cases where there is no need. I think, for example, of those who eat pizza with a fork and knife and of the astonished looks of the pizza chefs while they do so. And then in Naples even spaghetti was once eaten with the hands: remember Totò?

Ciro Di Maio, not just the Mano de Dios pizza for Maradona. Interview – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

We reach him in one of the few, very few, breaks he takes from work. «I go into the pizzeria at 9 in the morning and leave at 1 in the morning. I haven’t taken a day in months and I’m happy like this”, He says. And so it has always been: 33 years of which 19 were spent kneading, Ciro Di Maio started making pizzas at a very young age, at 14, because even then he needed another path. An alternative after a complex childhood in the popular buildings of the suburbs of Naples with a father with a stormy past. A father who then in turn found a new path and gave him an example, showing him that a better life also comes from helping those in need. Ciro now does the same in his own way with prisoners, with the kids who live in the disadvantaged neighborhoods where he grew up, with those who knock on his door. He teaches an art that is for many still the path to redemption, training new generations of pizza chefs to whom he explains that pizza can also be a way to tell about oneself and one’s origins. Like he did with the Hand of Godin conclusion. We talked about it in this interview:

The interview with pizza chef Ciro Di Maio

As well as on Instagram, did you like Mano de Dios pizza in real life?
«It’s going very well, customers like it, partly because it’s scenic and partly because it’s good. Many Neapolitans who live in Brescia ask for it, but also many people from Brescia.”

Is the football quote immediate for everyone?
«Of course, it is impossible not to know Maradona. He was an idol. I grew up watching Maradona. I still remember that when I went to school on the bus they showed videos of his goals. Maradona was not just a footballer. He was a love for football, for life, for people. He united Naples and Argentina. I once asked an Argentinian client “why are you so good at football?”, and he replied “because we have Italian blood”.

Do you have other special pizzas like this on the menu?
«We make the classic cartwheel, in all the classic flavors and with typical Campania products. This Mano de Dios is one of a kind not only for the shape, but also for the culture it contains. For me it’s a way to talk about Naples.”

What did it mean for you to bring the art of Neapolitan pizza outside of Naples?
«For me it meant many things: not only making real pizza known, but also the true Neapolitan culture. There are still many unjustified stereotypes about Naples and those who live there, which with our work we can help to dismantle. Naples is beautiful and ugly at the same time, like people who can be good and bad at the same time. Certainly if I hadn’t been born in Naples I wouldn’t be who I am. There is a saying that “Oh Neapolitan if it’s bad but he won’t die“, that is, “the Neapolitan can become skin and bones but not die”. We know how to resist, even in absolute poverty. Like we all have to learn, but I believe that the uniqueness of Neapolitans also lies in the ability to get up again. A bit like I I made it”.