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No more cake design, it's time for blown sugar – Italian Cuisine

Italian identity and French mastery, the processing of plastic sugar is an art that is gaining ground and the world champion is the Italian Davide Malizia

It is the new frontier of designer decoration, but few know that the processing of artistic sugar has ancient origins and practical implications. And above all that it allowed us to beat the French in a "sport" in which they had been undisputed protagonists for decades. We talked about it with Davide Malizia, the new world champion of plastic sugar, the man who took the scepter from the French, this year conquering the Sucre d’Or, the Oscar of artistic sugar.

The history of artistic sugar

The art of sugar processing dates back to the times of the court of Caterina de 'Medici, daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici and consort of the French king Henry of Valois. We are in the sixteenth century and according to tradition, royal pastry chefs would have started decorating cakes for kings with a sugar processing technique borrowed from that of Murano glass. The Italy-France connection is therefore evident from the first stirrings of this art, even though the spread of artistic sugar until recently was practically the prerogative of the French.

The Sucre d'Or award

And it was the French cousins themselves, in 1997, who launched a prize for the best "tireur", the shooter of plastic sugar, the Sucre d'Or (literally, "golden sugar"). To bestow it, Déco Relief, a historic French company specializing in ingredients and professional materials for haute patisserie, which appointed Gabriel Paillasson as the first winner, considered a French pastry expert and inventor of the Pastry World Cup, which every two years sees the best of pastry challenge each other world. The intention of the promoters was to award this prize every ten years and Paillasson's successor in 2007 was Stephane Klein, another French master pastry chef, who has an atelier in Belfort, where he teaches his noble art to the new generation. However, ten years later, in 2017, no one was considered equal to these two predecessors and the promoters of the Sucre d'Or were waiting for the chosen one for three more years.

Award ceremony-Sucre-dOr-Davide-Malizia — Sucre d'Or award ceremony to Davide Malizia (center).

An Italian surpasses the French masters

And here comes the time to crown Davide Malizia, our local master pastry chef who has beaten the competition from beyond the Alps. "But it's not the first time, it's been a few years that Italians have been giving the French a hard time in international competitions," says the master pastry chef. And Malizia was always there: in 2013 she won the gold medal at the Artistic Sugar World Championship The Star of Sugar and gold at the Junior World Pastry Championship as the coach of the Italy team. Gold again as coach of the Juniores team in 2016 and in the same year Gold Medal at the World Pastry Championship in Paris, Mondial des arts sucrés, again as coach of the Italy team. The latest award, in 2020, is the world sugar Oscar, the Sucre d'Or, which is a band that Malizia will wear for at least ten years, just like its predecessors.

In short, this Italian pastry chef is one who, although he learned to master the technique of artistic sugar processing from the French, nevertheless surpassed the masters, or at least equaled them, both as an artist and as a coach. It took hours and hours of laboratory training, gritted teeth and iron tenacity to do so. In 2015 Davide Malizia founded Aromacademy, the pastry academy in Rome where he teaches this ancient technique to the new generation of pastry.

Technique and style: the secrets of Malizia

But be careful, because to become the best tireur you certainly need a great technique, but also style. “It's that extra something that distinguishes a good performer from a true artist and that makes his works truly recognizable,” he admits. Malizia probably had that extra something in her DNA, since, despite being born in Rome, she comes from a family of potters from Caltagirone, a plastic art, which also has some analogy with the processing of artistic sugar. In addition, Davide Malizia reveals a gem: "Do you know the stained glass windows or glasses that break in films, especially action ones? Well, they are almost always made of sugar, worked so that it looks like glass . And the connection with Murano returns strongly.

A rising trend

Windows that break apart, «today, explains the master Malizia, «artistic sugar is gaining ground also in Italy for the decoration of cakes in an important way. For years considered "useless" because the sugar sculptures are not eaten, artistic sugar is finally undermining the most massive sugar paste decorations in the ceremonial market. On the other hand, even cake design decorations are not really edible, unless you want to risk a glycemic spike. They also have a more pasty consistency, while on the contrary the artistic sugar, which is pulled like glass paste, can even be blown, becoming very light. It is therefore time for the gracefulness of plastic sugar, its bold colors and its potential in the creation of real sculptures.

Good Pastrami. In Turin it's done with the tongue! Recipe – Italian Cuisine

Pastrami, one of the symbolic dishes of American street food, of Romanian origin. Depopulated in New York restaurants and delicatessens, but not only. Because now in Turin ..

In Turin, the chef of the Sorij restaurant, Andrea Fasano, has created a Piedmontese version, with the tongue instead of beef. For a very local interpretation.

We asked him for the recipe, which he completed with that of rye bread, another ingredient that cannot be missed for Pastrami's sandwich. With pickled gherkins and mustard.

Chef Fasano and the whole Sorij team await you in the outdoor area for a tasting of the Pastrami language sandwich. For the pairing with the wine, ask the patron, Piero Primatesta.

Language pastrami

1 Language weighing 800 g / 1 kg
Spices mix (coriander, mustard, pepper, ginger, garlic powder and rosemary)
Dill, garlic, lemon
salt

Method

Clean the tongue well and peel it.
Pass it in a mix of powdered spices (Rub): for example coriander, mustard, pepper, ginger, garlic powder and rosemary.
Massage the tongue with these spices so that they penetrate inside and then let it rest (in the fridge) for the time necessary to flavor it (about 24 hours).
After the time, insert the spiced tongue in a 5% brine bath (1 liter of water and 5 g of salt) flavored with fresh dill, garlic and lemon for a whole night in the refrigerator.

The following morning, drain the tongue and leave it in the fridge (or ventilated fridge) for a few hours to dry completely.
Cook the tongue under vacuum, at low temperature, for about 6/7 hours, depending on the size, at a temperature not exceeding 85 °.
Finally finish cooking on BBQ using wood (preferably walnut). Keep 4/5 days in the fridge before serving.
The tongue will be accompanied with rye bread, with gherkins and mustard.

Rye bread

The chef explains the preparation of the bread step by step: «rye is an integral cereal rich in bran and absolutely almost gluten-free, mainly present in northern Italy or even more in the countries of northern Europe. Preparing bread with 100% rye is a fairly demanding job, which will lead to having a sweet, moist but little honeycombed bread .
Usually Andrea Fasano prepares it in boxes. The secret is to knead it very little. "I start with a polish and prefer to use the cold version because I find that rye releases all the original scents and characteristics. It is a cereal that has a very strong absorption so the bread I prepare has an 85/90% hydration. Kneading will seem to have been wrong for too much water while waiting a few minutes (time for the external bran to soften) you will notice a clear difference as it dries. In mass it will mature for 5/6 hours, without creating too many folds and working it little, it is placed in a box to rest for another 2 hours approximately. Scaling cooking (starting from 200 ° to ending at 170 °) without humidity according to the desired sizes.

How did you come up with the idea of proposing the language in Pastrami and the rye bread made by you?
"The idea of using the language in a Pastrami arises from the need to reproduce this difficult preparation by getting as close as possible to the taste experience in New York, but using a recurring ingredient in Piedmont. In New York, the preparation of Pastrami is carried out using Brisket (brisket and part of the capocollo), a fat and rich connective cut, suitable for long smoking and cooking. The language certainly does not have the same percentage in fat and connective, for this reason it was a challenge; making use of the low temperature vacuum cooking, I partially sidetracked the first difficulty. I also like the language and I chose to use it because it still has a texture that never gives up, on the tooth it has a certain elasticity, in short it is chewed. I chose the language because it was usually cooked in Piedmont; in the preparation I get this color of a beautiful red tending to shades of purple, which is then the color of traditional pastrami. In short, it seems that the result is very similar to the original, certainly in taste, because with a bite of the sandwich I return to live my trip to New York ".

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Book at the restaurant, but don't show up: because today it's even more serious – Italian Cuisine

The health emergency caused by the coronavirus has put – and continues to put – the Italian restaurants and trattorias to the test. That's why the "no show" is likely to further aggravate their situation

In the technical jargon of restaurateurs he is called "No show", but we could easily explain it even with a more generic "don't go to the restaurant after making a reservation". A serious problem? Absolutely yes, because it causes a loss of earnings. A new problem? No, not at all, but that at the time ofsanitary emergency it risks becoming even more serious. And why it is easy to say: since the premises have been forced to reduce – often also drastically – the number of their seats to cope with new anti-coronavirus regulations, the damage of an empty table has now further amplified.

A matter of respect

«Reopening after the lockdown was a mixture of emotions, something halfway between the first day of school and the start of a new job Maybe I could have waited a little longer, waiting for the situation to return a little more to the normal, but turning the lights on again was an act of responsibility for me: towards my employees, whom I love very much, as well as towards my customers . smiles Isis De Cesare, the chef who with his restaurant The little word jealously guards a Michelin star in that of Trevinano, a hamlet of the municipality of Acquapendente set on the hills of Viterbo.

"Respect, as far as I'm concerned, is a basic word," continues the chef. "So yes, when someone happens to book and does not show up without notifying us, I inevitably feel very bad, because the moral damage is added to the economic damage. In the past it has often happened to me, I remember some evenings in which only half of the customers actually showed up: I sincerely hope that after all we have had to suffer as a collective due to the coronavirus there is more attention to others, more awareness. It is essential, especially for restaurants like mine, which are not located in the center of a large city, in a place of great passage, and therefore therefore work almost exclusively through reservations .

Between black lists and credit cards

In short, today the "no show" can prove to be particularly problematic for all those restaurants dedicated to haute cuisine who face management, personnel and raw materials costs. Its impact, however, must not be underestimated also with regard to the restaurants. To remind him, in this case, is Daniele Persegani, known face of the television program The cook's test, which in addition to managing with his sister Nicoletta theOsteria del Pescatore of Castelvetro Piacentino inaugurated the format in mid-February Gustincanto in Fidenza, in the province of Parma.

"Covid-19 took my father away quite suddenly, and this mourning was already very difficult for me and my family to process," says the chef. «To this, then, were added all the difficulties of continuing with the work. We had inaugurated Giustincanto only a few days before the emergency broke out, and therefore this new adventure, which includes a restaurant, but also an academy, an event space, a fitness center and many other services, started uphill. A very steep climb. At the same time, even the situation at the Osteria del Pescatore was not easy: our restaurant in Castelvetro is located on the Emilian side of the Po, but we work a lot with our customers from Lombardy, Cremona and Lodi in the first place. THE regional borders blocked until the beginning of June they obviously affected our work a lot, as I imagine many border activities between different regions have happened ".

Even after the go-ahead for the passage between regions, however, a large part of the problems remained. "To date, as far as the Osteria del Pescatore is concerned, we have practically had to halve the place settings to ensure the spacing between the tables. Before there were about 80, today they are just over 40 , continues Persegani. «For this reason, those who book and do not show up really risk causing great damage. Luckily we have a hard core of our very loyal clientele, but I would like to remind everyone else of a very simple thing: just advise. A phone call is enough to say that there has been a problem and that unfortunately we cannot get there. It can happen, we would miss it, but to warn is an indispensable form of respect.

Any ideas to prevent the dreaded no show? «At the moment we only ask for the name and telephone number, but I would also be absolutely in favor of asking for the number of the credit card, just like in hotels, "says the chef. «Of course, the perplexity of Italian customers should be overcome, but it would only be a protection against rudeness. A black list shared among restaurateurs? Why not, it could be an idea, with names and phone numbers. Protecting yourself has always been important, and today, after what we all went through, it is even more important. Although, of course, one always hopes not to have to go that far, and to be able to trust people .

Technology against the "no show"

The digital booking services can provide concrete help to restaurateurs in identifying the cunning of the bin. It is an example TheFork, the most popular restaurant and similar booking app, which for several years has been committed to supporting locals in this fight. So, for example, the customer who makes the reservation receives a confirmation message that reminds him to cancel the reservation in the house of unexpected events (and that allows him to do it in a few taps on the screen). At the same time, the system prevents the user from simultaneously booking multiple tables for the same service, and keeps track of past no shows: in case of customer accustomed to the no show, the restaurant owner is notified through the application management program.

"Online booking is a tool that can help counter this," he explains Almir Ambeskovic, European manager and board member of TheFork. «Thanks to TheFork Manager, the management that we provide to restaurants when they join our service, merchants can automatically send reminders to customers and benefit from one-click cancellation which greatly reduces the rate of missed visits. In addition, for haute cuisine we plan to introduce a credit card booking soon, recognized by top chefs as the most effective tool to limit no shows ". With a possible penalty for cancellations not communicated.