Tag: music

Culinary harmony, when music tells the story of Gualtiero Marchesi – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

What if Gualtiero Marchesi had he not been a cook, but a musician? This alternative vision is suggested by the format Culinary harmonya special dinner in which its historic dishes are expressed through the music proposed byAlinde Quartet. The debut took place on the evening of 94th anniversary of the birth of the Maestrolast March 19, in the only restaurant in the world that brings his authentic gastronomic works to the menu, the Gualtiero Marchesi Terrace at Grand Hotel Tremezzo.

At the table I was lucky enough to be in the company of co-protagonists of this important piece in the history of Italian cuisine: on the one hand the Maestro’s son-in-law and right-hand man, Enrico Dandoloand on the other i Mr and Mrs De Santis, owners of the hospitality facility and family friends. There are many unpublished anecdotes that paint a portrait of Gualtiero Marchesi much more human than what the books want us to believe – for example, those evenings concluded with chocolate ice cream and Crêpes Suzette despite diabetes, described affectionately by Mrs. De Santis (also a great fan of La Cucina Italiana).

Investigating the human side of great figures enriches official portraits with even unexpected nuances: hearing from Enrico Dandolo as he knew Simona Marchesi (volunteering in the Red Cross was a prisoner) and he asked the Master for her hand is exciting to say the least. Enrico was indispensable for 27 years alongside his father-in-law, going from computer scientist to his right-hand man, to put it simply – after all, it was he who computerize the Marchesi restaurant at La Rinascente first, then at the Fondazione. «He came to the office in the morning with a new idea, when there were 100 others still to be developed!, Like the (mis)adventure of Marchesi signature sandwiches for McDonald’s in 2011he says smiling, aware of the great treasure that together with his family he is destined to protect and disseminate.

Seeing your eyes shine Simona Marchesi in the memory of his father he is engaging as are the words he chooses to describe him with disarming sincerity: a harmonious, sweet, affectionate, refined, elegant, always light-hearted, optimistic, humble, simple person with brilliant creativity, very determined and courageous, above all a man free from preconceptions, open and very curious about life, in search of beauty – a man of intellect in search of essentiality. And yes, adds the Master’s daughter, perhaps cooking was not his ambition, but a way of expressing his need to search for beauty and therefore to make the dish immortal through the sublimation of the cuisine used: «as he himself maintained, the cuisine of truth, the cuisine of form, the cuisine of matter. Attracted by art, music and adventure, Gualtiero Marchesi felt the need to develop his inclinations and passions, so he cultivates his artistic talent through frequenting artists, painters, sculptors and musicians. He even starts studying the piano, ending up marrying his teacher, Antonietta Cassisaa wonderful pianist, daughter of art, who becomes his muse.

Casa Sanremo 2024: what will the artists eat at the Ariston Theatre? – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Casa Sanremo was born in 2008 and is the “home” where artists, journalists and professionals come every year to refresh themselves or just relax with a snack before, after and during the Italian song festival. «We have been at Casa Sanremo for five years, explains Lucio Camisa, head of the Food Area and director of Il Mulino della Signora, a restaurant-resort in Sturno owned by Gianfranco Testa, in the heart of Irpinia, in Campania. «We take care of the restaurant part of the roof, offering national cuisine dishes every day, a menu that changes from time to time, based on the ingredients available, adds Camisa, who will work closely with the chef, Maria Carmela Tarantino and the sous chef Vito De Luca. «There is no predefined menu because it changes based on the ingredients made available by the various regions of Italy that sponsor Casa Sanremo. There will be bread from Altamura, pasta from Gragnano and many other specialties that the chef and sous chef will promote at the table and through a television format, the cooking show Italy in the Showcase«with connections from all regions to talk about national gastronomic excellences.

A dish by chef Carmela Tarantino of Il Mulino della Signora

The Arena of taste

On the lower floor there is, however, the “temple of pizza”. For the fifth consecutive year, the Arena del gusto is in charge Enzo Piedimonte, Neapolitan pizza chef transplanted to Sicily, in Rodia, Messina (he owns the Piedimonte 1.0 pizzeria). Defined as the “pizza artist”, Enzo told us some anecdotes and which pizzas were created specifically for the Sanremo event. «We have to manage around 50 pizza chefs who come from Italy and abroad, but all Italian, and who we divide into three different time slots. The selection is made year by year. «But we often reconfirm the best ones based on speed, cleanliness and ability to converse with guests, which I assure you is not easy at all.

The most requested pizzas

By far the most requested pizza is the Amadeus, «the one dedicated to the artistic director could not be missing, with smoked buffalo provola to which we add speck and potato chips. Last year it was also very popular there Ferragni, «with cheese and pepper cream, smoked provola, and on the way out purple porchetta potatoes and send them, but she never stopped by and therefore didn’t taste it. Another best, the Ornella Muti «with San Marzano tomato, fiordilatte, cooked ham, burrata and fried basil. In short, rich pizzas. But some artists prefer them “light”.

The “light” pizzas

Cooking and music: what do they have in common? The winning combinations – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

What are the agreements and disagreements between cooking and music? There pasta calls parmesan (or pecorino) and rejects the polenta; L’roast call the garlic (and rosemary) and repels basil; The cotechino calls the puree (or lentils) and rejects the salad. These are the “food associations” that Fernand Braudel spoke about, underlining the need for those who study the history of nutrition not to focus on the single ingredient or single product, but on their combinations; the “associations”, precisely.

Designing a few years ago for the M9 museum of Venice Mestre the exhibition Taste! Italians at the table 1970-2050together with Laura Lazzaroni and Marco Bolasco we thought of dedicating a special one section on the theme of “agreements”, that is, the ingredients that in the gastronomic field – just like notes in music – are recalled almost automatically, as if they were “natural” associations. Which, however, are not “natural”, because there is always a cultural choice in preferring and choosing a certain agreement rather than another. This applies in cook like in music: parallelism that we have already discussed, which I am happy to return to. In music, a chord is the combination of some notes that are played together and appear “right”, well harmonized with a dominant note: in tonal music, if I start from C, the simultaneous sounds will be E and G. Other cultures, ancient and modern, they love different combinations. Something similar happens in the kitchen, where a certain cultural tradition – for example the Italian one – will get me used to associating it butter and sage with low-fat tortelli, tomato and basil with spaghetti. German culture will not fail to associate frankfurters with mustard, speck with gherkins (in turn combined with vinegar), boiled pork with potatoes and sauerkraut…

The parallel between notes and flavors is recurring in literature. It was suggested, among others, by the Englishman John Evelyn, who at the beginning of the eighteenth century published a treatise on salads largely derived from Italian works. «In the composition of a salad he wrote, «each plant must play its part (…) in the same way as musical notes. In this search for harmony, even dissonances are welcomed, because they “strike and enliven, so as to distinguish and make the rest emerge better”. It was the ancient principle of the contrast of flavors, not only a gustatory theme (a pinch of bitter makes you appreciate the sweet better), but also nutritional: Galenic medicine taught that each flavor expresses a different quality, and putting them together (the qualities) is good for your health. For this reason, Salvatore Massonio from L’Aquila – one of Evelyn’s sources – recommended mixing herbs “adjusting the hot with the cold, the humid with the dry, the sour with the sweet, the bitter with the sweet”. Here then are the dissonances, the “agreements-disagreements”, not only between one herb and another, but between all sorts of products: melon and ham, cheese and pears… tasteful solutions that have remained over the centuries.