CIVILTÀ DELLA TAVOLA N. 307 l SEPTEMBER 2018 ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLACUCINA C iviltà ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLACUCINA ISTITUZIONE CULTURALE DELLAREPUBBLICAITALIANA FONDATA NEL1953DA ORIOVERGANI www.accademia1953.it DELLA T

avola

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

N. 307, SEPTEMBER 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS

L’ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA è stata fondata nel 1953 da Orio Vergani e da Luigi Bertett, Dino Buzzati Traverso, Cesare Chiodi, Giannino Citterio, Ernesto Donà dalle Rose, Michele Guido Franci, Gianni Mazzocchi Bastoni, Arnoldo Mondadori, Attilio Nava, Arturo Orvieto, Severino Pagani, Aldo Passante, Gian Luigi Ponti, Giò Ponti, Dino Villani, Edoardo Visconti di Modrone, con Massimo Alberini e Vincenzo Buonassisi.

FOCUS 5 The pleasure of sharing Civiltà DELLATavola ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA 2 Counterorder, comrades! (Elisabetta Cocito) The Mediterranean diet INTERNATIONAL EDITION is dangerous 7 The perfection of the egg September 2018 / n. 307 (Paolo Petroni) (Myriam Fonti Cimino)

Editor in chief 9 Futurist cuisine Paolo Petroni CULTURE & RESEARCH (Roberto Branconi) Copy Editor Silvia De Lorenzo 3 The red revolution (Morello Pecchioli) Layout Simona Mongiu

Translator Antonia Fraser Fujinaga

This issue includes articles by Roberto Branconi, Elisabetta Cocito, Myriam Fonti Cimino, Morello Pecchioli, Paolo Petroni.

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Publisher Accademia Italiana della Cucina Via Napo Torriani 31 - 20124 Milano Tel. 02 66987018 - Fax 02 66987008 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.accademia1953.it

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Monthly Magazine Reg. n. 4049 - 29-5-1956 Tribunale di Milano On the cover: Graphic elaboration of Still Life with Fruit Basket (1850), by Paul Cézanne, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Rivista associata all’Unione Stampa Periodica Italiana F CUS Counterorder, comrades! The Mediterranean diet is dangerous The UN wants to tax olive oil and cheese, including buffalo mozzarella.

by Paolo Petroni President of the Academy

hose who are past the first bloom of youth may remem- well dumb down food labels by law, getting rid of those pesky ber the surreal cartoon series entitled “Contrordine numbers. How about a nice big traffic light, with red meaning T compagni!” (Counterorder, comrades!’), published by “stop”: eat this little chunk of parmesan at your peril. It’s too Giovannino Guareschi in the magazine “Candido”, to poke salty and fatty. The same applies to buffalo mozzarella, not fun at blind, prompt and absolute obedience to the Commu- to mention the pernicious prosciutto and other cured meats. nist party. This old exhortation sprang to our minds upon Even Neapolitan pizza, also recognised by UNESCO, would learning that the UN wants to tax olive oil and cheese for be verboten, and wine would be off-limits. In short, the ful- health reasons. The counterorder now aimed at us morons somely lauded Mediterranean diet would in practice be recast is clear: the Mediterranean diet, recognised by UNESCO as as unhealthy and hazardous. But since we are not, in fact, an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010, is be- morons, we can easily perceive what is behind all this: the neficial to health and longevity. This diet favours fruit, cere- overwhelming interests of food multinationals, combined als, vegetables and olive oil while permitting moderate use with indifference from our politicians who usually jerk awa- of dairy products and wine. Nonsense! The World Health ke in disbelief when the fat is already in the fire, presumably Organisation instead wants to tax olive oil, grana cheese and accompanied by excessive salt. Halt! Red card. Given its po- wine. A formidable attack on Italian products and a windfall sition, the Academy will strive hard to contain this folly, even for the ‘light’ or ‘diet’ products of gargantuan multinational by involving the Académie Européenne de la Gastronomie, industries. And since we are, indeed, morons, they might as though time is truly running short now.

“The School of Athens” by Raphael

page 2 CULTURE & RESEARCH The red revolution Perhaps it was the volcanic fire under its roots, or the sunlight of Campania - whatever the reason, the tomato emerged from the earth as flawless as Venus.

by Morello Pecchioli “Franco Marenghi” Study Centre

y cup runneth over - with an volution and 147 before its Russian word, or both, can be pluralised. When abundance of tomato sauce, counterpart. It was a blood-red revo- Garibaldi, after encountering the first Mmarvellous gift of the gods, lution, but the only blood spilt was that King of Italy at Teano, retired to Capre- most delectable of condiments, which of the vegetable that had taken root in ra with a sack of onions, his men, the ardently returns our devotion. It lunges the volcanic earth of the Sarno river renowned Thousand (Mille), returned at us if we plunge in the fork and reel plain, with superb views of Vesuvius. home with San Marzano tomatoes in in the sauce-drenched spaghetti with There it had found its patron saint, San their packs. Italians adopted the toma- famished urgency. Its joyous tears find Marzano, and chosen a people to whom to, originally from South America, as the spots left uncovered by our napkin it would pledge loyalty in life and in their own, improving its appearance, if we avidly mop up the scarlet remain- death: the Neapolitans. colour and flavour, disseminating der in our plate with a piece of bread. Because we are, in some ways, all Ne- throughout Europe and then the world If we covetously approach the pot whe- apolitans, the tomato also gathered the the newfound colours of the Italian flag re it simmers and burbles, a sudden rest of the Italians into its embrace. through their cuisine: green, white and splat leaps out and leaves its mark. Grateful for such love, we have repaid tomato red. Food historians agree on 1770 as the it by giving it, alone among all vege- The opening salvo of the tomato revo- year of the tomato revolution, five ye- tables, three plurals: pomidori, pomi- lution was fired by Felipe Manuel Caye- ars before the American Revolutionary doro, pomodori; for ‘pomodoro’ means, tano de Amat y Junyent, appointed War began, 19 before the French Re- literally, ‘golden apple’, of which each viceroy of Peru by Charles III of Spain.

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Felipe sent Ferdinand IV, king of Naples and son of the very same Charles III, a cornucopia of Peruvian gifts to ingra- tiate himself to his sovereign’s son. These included the tomato seeds that had originally arrived from America two centuries earlier aboard the ships of Hernán Cortés, which at the time had not garnered the success anticipa- ted by El Supremo Conquistador. These new-world ‘golden apples’ arri- ved in Italy slightly later, docking in Puglia. Those first sprigs bore a yellow fruit that shimmered gold under the sunlight. Beautiful to behold, it was considered dangerous to eat, and was used only ornamentally. A long-lasting yellow tomato still exists in Salento, nish sauce’. However, Neapolitans the heart of a queen, Margherita, to which local scholars identify as the continued eating pasta sans tomato whom the Neapolitan baker Raffaele origin of the name ‘golden apple’, even- until well into the 19th century, which Esposito dedicated the eponymous tually extended to all tomatoes. would half elapse by the time tomato pizza. Since then, tomato and pizza Let us return to Ferdinand IV whom would finally incarnadine the Neapo- have been inseparable. we set aside clutching his Peruvian to- litans’ fingers (used in lieu of a fork, as Tomato sauce has become the glue that mato seeds. The king ordered them in Totò’s film Miseria e Nobiltà). holds together the Italian family, the planted in San Marzano - a most fruitful If the Neapolitan tomato became inte- mortar unifying the Italian peninsula, decision. Whether because of the rud- gral to the Mediterranean diet, much the ink of our best poets and writers - at dy volcanic fires under their roots or credit is due to the Piedmontese Fran- least those who came after our voyages the crimson sunlight of Campania, the cesco Cirio, whose slogan “Come na- to America. Writing to his daughter tomato emerged from that earth as tura crea, Cirio conserva” (“Made by Linuccia, Umberto Saba recalls his wife perfect as Venus rising from the Aege- Mother Nature, preserved by Cirio”) is Lina with boundless devotion, remem- an foam: slender, curvaceous and well-known in Italy. He pioneered tin- bering the delicious meatballs that she silken, shining deep red (the tomato, ned San Marzano tomatoes in the se- prepared: “The meatballs with tomato not the goddess) and with a playful, cond half of the 19th century, and so which neither of us will ever taste again whimsical ruff embroidered on its un- the tomato, overcoming any remaining in this world were prepared in two dif- derside. Who can fail to love such a doubts, invaded the market and con- ferent ways. Your poor mother ate them creature? Domenico Rea, a Neapolitan quered our kitchens. warm, without sauce, and I, cold, in a writer and journalist of the first half of The red revolution transformed our dish brimful of tomato”. the 20th century, even penned a decla- lives. “The discovery of tomato”, writes Ugo Tognazzi, excellent actor and cook, ration of love to it: “Its beauty is extra- Luciano De Crescenzo, “was to food confessed in his autobiographical re- ordinary: after the Venus de Milo the- history what the French Revolution was cipe book: “Good food runs in my veins re is nothing in the world as perfect as to the development of a social conscien- - which no doubt contain both red and a San Marzano tomato”. ce”. Plates and kitchens acquired a white blood cells, but in my case, also The marriage of pasta and pummarola vermilion glow as this Aztec fruit, its a considerable admixture of tomato tomato sauce was not automatic. This American roots forgotten, assumed a sauce”. nightshade, not yet welcome on weal- starring role in the Way of Italian Food, Tomato figures in an anecdote from thier tables, was already known in the alongside pasta, wine and extra-virgin Pellegrino Artusi, the father of Italian poorer kitchens of southern Italy, and olive oil. cuisine: “A priest in a city in Romagna Antonio Latini’s seminal cookbook Lo Following the pronouncements of Sy- habitually stuck his nose into other Scalco alla moderna, ovvero l’arte di ben nesius of Cyrene (In Praise of Baldness), people’s business, interfering in every disporre i conviti (The Modern Steward, our tomato shed its outer layer to offer family’s domestic affairs. The locals had or the art of the well-arranged banquet), the best of itself in the form of concen- cleverly nicknamed him Father Toma- published in Naples in 1692, contained trate. It did not even become conceited to, because tomato goes well with every the earliest surviving recipes for toma- when in 1889, joining forces with whi- food; indeed, a delicious tomato sauce to sauce including the so-called ‘Spa- te mozzarella and green basil, it won is a formidable asset in every kitchen”. page 4 CULTURE & RESEARCH The pleasure of sharing A conception of hospitality in which environment, cuisine and service harmonise in a project where everyone plays a role, including the diners.

by Elisabetta Cocito Turin Academician “Franco Marenghi” Study Centre

n a time and a society marked by rank of gurus or philosophers imper- widespread selfishness and egotism, vious to contradiction. Barthes himself I a dissenting movement is gaining maintained that in a pleasure-based momentum. Indeed, many increasingly society, food sheds its nutritional value desire a return to a more social and in favour of ‘ancillary values’, which communal lifestyle in which desires and may account for the above tendency. ideas are shared. This phenomenon Food, however, is a form of culture, in encompasses every arena, from work terms not only of what but of how we to leisure to culture. Food, one of the eat and in what environment. The table foremost expressions of a shared life- has always been a forum where societal style, could hardly remain untouched. mores and fashions are expressed, and Conviviality was, after all, well-known it is therefore no coincidence that the to the ancients, though recently it has current restaurant scene displays this often been supplanted by haughty, often new tendency towards sharing, recalling chilly preparations aspiring to aesthetic the communal board of yore in which perfection at the risk of becoming af- all diners partook of the same food. fected and incomprehensible, someti- Turin has recently witnessed the inau- mes assuming the aura of chemical guration of a new venue, set like a jewel formulae conjured in distant laborato- in the new multipurpose La Nuvola (‘The ries by remote figures elevated to the Cloud’) centre designed for Lavazza by

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the architect Cino Zucchi. The restau- rant’s name, Condividere (‘Sharing’), was entrusted to the experienced hands of chef Federico Zanasi and manifests the new food philosophy. It was born from a collaboration with Ferran Adrià, who spent two years training the chef with a view to offering diners new sen- sations and above all a new, or perhaps rediscovered, conception of cuisine. Zanasi has organised his work around the new principles and ideas acquired through this two-year tutelage. Thanks to a spacious kitchen in plain view, diners can witness the creation of their food. Though this is not unpre- cedented, one cannot fail to be impres- and origin of ingredients: his recipes of Apicius are recalled with Spanish sed by the smiles, fluid rhythms and are informed by that scholarship, that capicola cured meat cooked in a josper collaborative timing of the young ki- knowledge of raw materials and their (a Spanish charcoal oven) and brushed tchen crew as they ply their trade. organoleptic properties and therefore with garum, or rather, the reinterpre- Nowhere can we see the tension and their best culinary uses. Zanasi was also tation of garum, the fish sauce consi- exhaustion which often characterise alongside Adrià through the conception, dered indispensable in ancient Roman kitchen work. opening and inauguration of his first cuisine. It is at the table that the project’s fun- restaurant in Barcelona, including all Dessert also honours tradition while damental principles are best expressed. its managerial and financial aspects. exhibiting exoticism through spices or Here diners are drawn into the ethos Adrià did not, therefore, exert himself original presentation. The star is the of sharing. Equipment is minimal: no to create a ‘chef’, but a ‘manager’, with Tropézienne cake, a homage to a dessert longer the standard setting of cutlery cultural and historical expertise in the which graces many Sunday family ga- and individual plates, but a small plate culinary realm. therings in Turin, the signature creation with tongs, reminiscent of chopsticks, The ‘Sharing’ restaurant’s first aim is to of a noted local bakery. The service also for each diner, and a communal serving make the people of Turin feel ‘at home’, deserves praise: youthful, swift, know- dish for each course. This is probably offering them familiar traditional dishes ledgeable, attentive and engaging. inspired by Asian ‘family-style’ dining, creatively revisited, leaving their basic The chef paid particular attention to aiming to make the meal more commu- flavours perfectly recognisable yet com- training and motivating both service nal, thereby encouraging interaction plemented by aromas from Asia or and kitchen staff, promoting transpa- and comments about the food. It is Spain, with some incursions by other rency and collaboration between teams. probably no coincidence that the tables Italian regions and even ancient Rome. Everyone has roles and responsibilities, are round or oval, with no ‘head’ posi- So we have Turin-style bread sticks with and though minor lapses in formal ser- tion, eliminating physical and hierar- Spanish cured meat; steamed bread vice are forgiven, this does not transla- chical distances among diners. with cunza modenese (lard, garlic and te into shoddiness in welcoming and Cuisine has, I believe, its roots in ancient rosemary sauce from Modena); the paying attention to customers. I consi- cultural practices, in which the best classic roast pepper with tuna sauce der this crucial, though it is frequently nourishment is derived from blending spiked with cured roe; or tongue in neglected even in prestigious establi- distinct, even contradictory flavours. cinnamon-infused green herb sauce. shments. These combinations and contamina- And more: three-meat agnolotti dum- Condividere is a project marked by a tions only appear bold, and are by no plings with broth on the side, served al hospitality concept which I hope will means coincidental. tovagliolo (‘in a napkin’) embodying find new converts. Indeed I believe that Surprisingly, in his two-year training hallowed Piedmontese tradition, but any restaurant that aspires to grow with Adrià, Zanasi was never tasked steamed and presented in a bamboo should foster the sense that the ventu- with cooking, in which he was already basket like dim sum, displaying the ge- re as a whole, encompassing its am- an expert, but rather with learning the nius of cross-border fusion cuisine. biance, approach, cuisine and service, history of cooking since antiquity. Much Finally, a homage to France with Kys results from a harmony in which attention was dedicated to the study of oysters from Brittany, and to chef Adrià everyone, including the diners, has a regional Italian cuisine, and the nature with spherified olive pearls. The recipes role to play. page 6 CULTURE & RESEARCH The perfection of the egg Indispensable in many recipes, it has fascinated artists with its flawless form.

by Myriam Fonti Cimino Naples Academician

he gigantic eggs which tower an egg. It basks in our admiration of its legendary mastery of the Fabergé jewel- over the roof of Dalì’s house in form, which even bewitched Modiglia- lers that entranced the empress Maria T Port Lligat (Cadaqués), the ea- ni and resurfaced in the ovoid shapes Feodorovna, enchanted by the golden sternmost town in the Costa Brava, pay of his work; it demands respect, becau- hen concealed within the Easter egg homage to a food whose form has long se even the slightest clumsy move could received from her husband, Alexander fascinated and intrigued me. I was break it, revealing its red heart. III. Symbolising the birth of life, the egg always mesmerised by the wooden eggs Is there truly an egg underneath Castel figures in both Jewish and Christian, which women in the old days turned dell’Ovo (Egg Castle), the imposing including Orthodox, religious celebra- over and over in their hands while me- structure where Virgil apparently once tions, giving rise to the chocolate Easter ticulously darning socks, and by the resided? How fascinating! Another od- eggs of the mid-19th century. Its Latin egg-shaped lamp created by Fontana- dity is that in Italian, it is masculine in name, ovum, is probably etymological- Arte, with its distinctive luminescence the singular and feminine in the plural, ly related to avis (bird). This precious which inspired both wonderment and representing its adaptability. little foodstuff is a female gamete, en- serenity. This is the same sensation that The egg even played an important role closing all that is necessary to create a we feel when holding and gazing upon in the Russian court, captivated by the new life. It is one large cell, whose nu-

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cleus, the yolk, is richer in highly nutri- tious proteins than any other food. The yolk is also rich in various fats and con- tains a high percentage of cholesterol, offset, however, by lecithin, which plays a role in clearing the arteries. The claim that egg yolk causes high cholesterol has been debunked. On the contrary, it is now demonstrated that it favours liver activity. It contains complete proteins, minerals (calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium), and vitamins A, D and B. The yolk is rich in fats, of which 30% are saturated (unhealthy) and 70% unsaturated (he- althy). All told, the egg is small but surprisingly substantial in terms of po- sitive qualities: it is as nutritious as meat but more digestible; soft-boiled, it re- quires an hour and a half to digest, com- pared to three hours for pasta and four for roast meat. Elders should be parti- Milan shows that the higher price of solid white and liquid yolk); lightly boi- cularly grateful because eggs help to free-range eggs is due to greater costs led (boiled slightly longer than soft-boi- retain youthfulness by providing sub- for maintaining security and hygiene led); hard-boiled (seven minutes from stances including phospholipids, which standards. the water’s boiling point); in tomato protect cell membranes from oxidation After all this praise, let us find some sauce; scrambled; and poached (for and ageing. And the egg is indispensable flaws in the egg! It is crucial that it be delicate stomachs: in slightly salted for vegetarians! Yet it must be consumed extremely fresh, since it rapidly dete- water with vinegar, the egg is gently in moderation, especially considering riorates and is highly sensitive to envi- tipped into the water from a small dish its presence in many foods including ronmental factors including tempera- and boiled for 3 minutes or so). pasta, cakes and creams. So: a maximum ture and humidity. Its freshness can be Dante considered buttered eggs the best of one egg 2-3 times a week. Only chil- tested in the traditional manner: if it food, while Gabriele D’Annunzio de- dren, athletes and convalescent patien- makes no sound when shaken, or sinks scribed the frittata as ‘sublime’, writing ts can eat eggs daily. A particularly when placed in salt water, it is fresh. to his cook Albina that the 15th century modern food, since, though small, it is Another difficulty is presented by sto- culinary expert Maestro Martino (Mar- even branded, its shell being marked rage: eggs must be kept whole, apart tino da Como) advised in his Libro de with useful information about its geo- from other foods, in stable conditions; arte coquinaria (The Art of Cooking) that graphical origin and mode of pro- they are best stored in the back of the it should be prepared “with a little wa- duction: organic, open-air (where hens fridge, not in the door, which is exposed ter and a little milk to make it softer”. can run outside for several hours a day), to greater temperature variation while To stimulate the most refined palates, free-range (indoors but without cages, being repeatedly opened. eggs can be used in an omelette, the where eggs are laid on the ground and The egg is a precious companion becau- French version of the frittata, containing then gathered by the farmer), or in ca- se it is found in so many recipes: it never the semi-liquid interior called baveuse; ges or batteries (where hens are confi- goes out of fashion and is often a life-sa- or to create the delicate Italian crêpes ned 4 to 6 to a cage), laying eggs on to ver, because it can compensate adequa- called crespelle (from the Latin crispus, a conveyor belt which transports them tely for shortcomings in the pantry. It ‘wavy’) or various flans. Eggs can also to packing facilities under controlled can be eaten raw, which in Italy is called be combined with flour to make egg conditions of hygiene. Here we must ‘oyster style’, with some lemon juice, pasta, cakes, doughnuts and rolls. clarify a frequently overlooked fact: eggs and is a crucial ingredient in many sau- A very distinctive technique is that of from battery hens are not nutritionally ces and creams and as a binder in bat- sand-cooked eggs: a layer of sand is inferior to free-range eggs, thanks to ters. Its most common uses are: baked disposed in an earthenware pot, fol- increasingly suitable plant-based diets. (salt only on the white, melted warm lowed by the eggs and then another, A study by the Department of Science butter on the yolk, then baked in the thicker layer of sand, and the container and Technology at the University of oven); fried; soft-boiled (with barely is then placed in the oven. page 8 CULTURE & RESEARCH Futurist cuisine Artistic presentation, combination of disparate flavours and raw materials, emotional tasting: an inheritance of which today’s cuisine still bears the mark.

by Roberto Branconi Viareggio Versilia Academician

n this brief overview of futurist cu- end of this outline, let us examine some palettes, and forks were abolished to isine I would like to suggest a aspects of futurist cuisine. In Italy, its encourage samplings and tactile deli- I reflection on Italian cooking. It se- ideological ancestor was undoubtedly ghts. The futurist restaurant Taverna ems to me that we could use a metaphor Tommaso Marinetti, who in 1930, in a Santopalato (Tavern of the Holy Palate) comparing it to a living system, endowed radio broadcast [quoted in Guido An- had aluminium-panelled walls and was with DNA, inherited through a long en- drea Pautasso (ed), Cucina futurista, redolent of eau de cologne sprayed by vironmental evolution which, as with manifesti teorici, menu e documenti (Fu- waiters armed with vaporisers, while every living organism or system, is turist Cuisine: theoretical manifestos, the rumble of an aircraft’s combustion subject to mutations (often random, as menus and documents): Abscondita, engine served as background music”. in the Darwinian biological model, or 2015], forcefully declared “down with As we know and readily perceive throu- cultural, economic or political). Accor- pasta!”. gh these words, the pillars of futurist ding to Darwin’s theory, these are then In 1913, in the Manifeste de la cuisine cuisine almost all derived from ideas of selected according to environmental futuriste (Futurist Cuisine Manifesto), technological innovation, synaesthesia, advantageousness, and then, if useful Marinetti and the French chef Jules experimental combinations, and sensory and viable, transmitted to subsequent Maincave set themselves the goal of and mechanical dynamism. generations. This appears to happen revolutionising gastronomy through Here is the intriguing menu, re-defined, even in the food world, with the emer- unconventional experimentation with of course, as a ‘list’, of the first futurist gence of fashions, concepts and inno- ingredients, aiming to create a “glad- meal served in the Taverna Santopalato vations which either vanish or are in dening, optimistic, dynamic and qui- in Turin, on the 8th of March 1931. some way assimilated. ckening” cuisine. Returning to the Intuitive appetiser: little baskets made Following this premise, which obviously ‘psycho-logical’ dimension of futurist of orange peel containing rolled ham, does not aspire to explain but merely to cuisine, Pautasso notes: “Dishes and stuffed olives, oil-pickled artichokes, simplify, and which I shall revisit at the foods were transformed into colour and sweet green peppers. Inside were

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Carneplastico (‘Meatscape’)

it sculpturally alluded to Italian land- the cook Ernesto Piccinelli, was a me- scapes. It reportedly consisted of a large at-based broth. Three eggs were beaten cylindrical meatloaf made of roast veal in the soup tureen and then three small (which, alongside chicken and sausage, glasses of Marsala, a spoonful of oil, the honoured the three meats produced by zest of one lemon, parmesan, salt and Italian pastures) stuffed with eleven pepper were whisked in. Yellow or oran- different cooked vegetables (represen- ge vegetables (for example, carrots and ting Italian agriculture). The cylinder, even lemons) floated in this liquid. positioned vertically in the centre of the I would like to end by returning to the plate, was crowned with honey (homa- metaphor offered earlier to describe ge to the garden) and supported by a Italian cuisine. It has emerged unsca- ring of sausage resting on three golden thed from various bizarre and I daresay chicken spheres. Its vertical stance was extravagant experiments, or, metapho- intended to counteract the weak, un- rically, ‘mutations’, but the way I see it, manly and artistically vacuous horizon- it was able to assimilate some of their tal disposition of pasta. functional elements over time: for in- Pollofiat (Fiat chicken), also named stance, the insistence on a properly lit slips of paper which were spat out, ope- ‘steel chicken’: its name change was al- kitchen clearly visible to diners (Main- ned and read aloud to the assembled legedly requested for transparent mar- cave’s Futurist Cuisine Manifesto decla- company. They expressed futurist slo- keting reasons by the managers of Fiat. res that “Futurist cuisine forbids food gans such as “Futurism is an anti-histo- Chicken stuffed with red zabaione (za- preparation in subterranean darkness”); rical movement” or even “Physicians, baione custard with Marsala and full-bo- the possibility of experimenting with pharmacists and undertakers will be died red wine) covered in approximately combinations of disparate flavours and rendered unemployed by futurist cuisi- 200 grammes of silver-coloured spheri- raw materials, already expressed in Bril- ne”. cal bonbons. Diulgheroff’s first version lat Savarin; and the concept that am- Aerovivanda (‘Aerofood’): a composi- used steel ball bearings which were biance, furnishings and efficient service tion of fruits and vegetables, olives, removed after the chicken was seaso- are indispensable elements in a convivial fennel and candied chinotto orange, ned. meal. And finally, the principle that ar- eaten with the right hand without cut- Ultravirile (‘Ultra-virile’, served only to tistic or at least aesthetic presentation lery (considered distracting) while the ladies). Veal tongue, thinly sliced len- of food and its dishes and colours is left hand stroked a textured tablet clad gthwise, was disposed on a rectangular crucial to what we now call taste, which in sandpaper, velvet and silk or satin as plate. Over this, roast prawns were ar- is not simply the combination of the four an orchestra played noisy futurist music ranged in two rows parallel to the length or five fundamental flavours (sour, swe- (perhaps the equivalent of our heavy of the dish. In the centre was a lobster et, bitter, salty and umami) but a com- metal) and waiters sprayed an intense with green zabaione (zabaione with plex synaesthesia of smell, touch and carnation essence on the nape of each asparagus purée), and finally two halves sight, perceived by deep-seated and diner’s neck! of a boiled egg were placed at the base ancient areas of our nervous system Carneplastico (‘Meatscape’): conceived of the veal tongue slices. before even reaching the gustatory cor- by the futurist painter and poet Fillia, Brodo solare (‘Solar broth’), created by tex. In a word: emotions...

THE ACADEMY SILVER PLATE An elegant silver plated dish engraved with the Academy logo. This symbolic object may be presented to restaurants that display exceptional service, cuisine and hospitality. Delegates may contact the Milan Headquarters ([email protected]) for more information and orders.

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