CIVILTÀ DELLA TAVOLA N. 321 l DECEMBER 2019 ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLACUCINA C iviltà ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLACUCINA ISTITUZIONE CULTURALE DELLAREPUBBLICAITALIANA FONDATA NEL1953DA ORIOVERGANI www.accademia1953.it DELLA T

avola

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

N. 321, DECEMBER 2019 Table of contents Civiltà DELLATavola ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

December 2019 / n. 321 Focus of the President

Editor in chief Paolo Petroni 2 New York, like California, Copy Editor bans the sale of foie gras Silvia De Lorenzo (Paolo Petroni)

Layout Simona Mongiu L’ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA Translator è stata fondata nel 1953 da Orio Vergani Antonia Fraser Fujinaga e da Luigi Bertett, Dino Buzzati Traverso, Cesare Chiodi, Giannino Citterio, Ernesto Donà This issue includes articles by dalle Rose, Michele Guido Franci, Gianni Mazzocchi Cesare Dami, Bastoni, Arnoldo Mondadori, Attilio Nava, Morello Pecchioli, Arturo Orvieto, Severino Pagani, Aldo Passante, Paolo Petroni, Gian Luigi Ponti, Giò Ponti, Dino Villani, Andrea Vitale. Edoardo Visconti di Modrone, con Massimo Alberini e Vincenzo Buonassisi.

Photo credits Traditions l History Adobe Stock. vvv The history of the croissant 3 intertwines with legend Publisher Accademia Italiana della Cucina (Cesare Dami) 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

Cuisine l Products l Food Technology

Traditional sweets 5 (Morello Pecchioli)

Regulations regarding personal data protection

The Italian Academy of Cuisine, in its capacity as data controller, hereby informs its members that their personal data are handled with respect for On the cover: Graphic elaboration of the work the principles of integrity, lawfulness and tran- “Madonna of the Book” (c. 1480-1481) sparency as well as protection of privacy and members’ rights, to implement the management by Sandro Botticelli, Museo Poldi Pezzoli of Milan of the member-association relationship as deline- ated by the Association’s Statute and By-laws, and l l for any related purposes where applicable. The Health Safety Law processing is carried out by authorised parties, in paper and computerised form, in compliance with the provisions of the aforementioned EU Food expiry dates regulations and current national legislation. To 8 (Andrea Vitale) view all the information provided under EU regu- lations, and in particular to learn what members’ rights are, please visit the Association’s website.

Rivista associata all’Unione Stampa Periodica Italiana Focus of the President New York, like California, bans the sale of foie gras

by Paolo Petroni President of the Accademia

In Italy, as in most European countries, its production is forbidden, but unfortunately not its sale.

his just in: from 2022, in all restaurants and shops in the city of New York, it will be illegal to serve or sell T foie gras, the fatty duck or goose liver obtained by unacceptable methods. This decision, though not immediately implemented, was strongly championed by the rest from geese. The EU has granted PDO status to the mayor Bill de Blasio and follows those adopted some time foie gras produced by traditional methods in south-eastern ago in California and Chicago. This provision will affect France. Hungary is the second largest producer worldwide. approximately a thousand restaurants, mostly French, and Other substantial producers are Bulgaria, Canada, the USA many chefs are preparing for battle, abetted by local and, just for a change, China. producers. Let them do their worst: the fact remains that this food is produced by intolerable means. Foie gras is not the only product we should This food is produced by intolerable means eliminate from our tables

Foie gras, alas, is not the only product which we should Indeed, foie gras is produced by force-feeding ducks and eliminate from our tables. Recall the horrors associated geese in a process called gavage, while confining them with battery hens, farmed salmon, shark fins, whale to tiny cages which prevent them from spreading their tongue, bluefin tuna, juvenile fish such as whitebait and wings. This causes an abnormally enlarged liver, up to 10 baby eels, and migratory birds. times larger than normal, through hepatic steatosis. Foie I would like to remind Academicians of the crucial article gras is currently restricted in all EU nations (except France, 5 of our Code of Ethics: “The Academy opposes any form of obviously) and in India, Israel, and Britain. These countries mistreatment of animals, be they farm-raised, bred, or hunted ban its production but hypocritically permit the sale of the (including fish, crustaceans and molluscs) and adheres to the imported product, thereby endorsing its presence in shops European Convention on the Protection of Farm Animals. The and on restaurant menus. These countries include Italy, Academy prohibits the gastronomic use of endangered species though luckily most supermarket chains have removed as provided for in European and national legislation.” foie gras from their shelves. However, its import volume We can happily celebrate and honour our culinary prowess remains very high. France is the largest producer and without foods obtained through methods which inflict consumer of duck and goose foie gras (accounting for suffering on animals, even if they are in France or other approximately 70%), of which 96% is derived from ducks and countries.

Page 2 Traditions l History The history of the croissant intertwines with legend

by Cesare Dami Academic for Montecatini Terme-Valdinievole

Viennese pastry chefs ugene of Savoy was born in Paris into the city centre to seize it from with- in 1663 and died in Vienna in 1736. in. However, they had not considered called their invention E He was a son of Eugene Maurice the bakers, who, hard at work in the small of Savoy Carignano, Count of Soissons, hours, noticed suspicious movements kipferl, whence and Olimpia Mancini, a niece of Cardinal and raised the alarm. the Italian cornetto. Mazarin. On his father’s death, he was raised by his grandmother, Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons, who To celebrate the victory intended for him to join the clergy. In- over the Turks, a crescent-shaped stead he became one of the best military sweet was invented in Vienna strategists of his time, whose victories and political acumen allowed the Habsburgs and Austria to increase their After defeating the Turks and winning power in Italy and central and eastern their freedom, it was time for the Vi- Europe. He strenuously defended Vien- ennese to celebrate. What better way na from the Turks, thereby gaining the to honour that victory than to invent a title of Prince. At this point, history sweet shaped like a crescent, symbol of blends with legend. the Ottoman Empire? The croissant is said to have been cre- Thus emerges the arcane secret of the ated to celebrate a clever feat of der- croissant, which we would eat every ring-do. The setting is Vienna in 1683, morning if only we could. besieged by the Turks and fiercely re- On the same occasion, legend has it, the sisting, holding fast within its walls. escaping Turks left behind substantial To undermine the Viennese defences, supplies of coffee. The beans burning the Ottoman troops dug tunnels leading in the fires of the retreat filled the coun-

Page 3 tryside with their distinctive aroma, favourite breakfast - so much so that Viennoise in rue de Richelieu, in Paris. unfamiliar to Jerzy Franciszek Kulczy- when arriving from Austria she had That small establishment specialised in cki, a Polish officer with Hungarian an- brought the recipe for kipferl which the Austrian cuisine, including kipferl. cestry, who was thereby inspired with pastry chefs of Versailles adored and Its name, however, could not remain a new idea: to open a café. Why was adopted, having first increased its dos- German. So the French, inspired by its this a novelty? Because there were still age of butter. crescent shape, used their imagination no cafés in Vienna, but ‘thanks’ to the Another perhaps less glamorous tradi- and christened the delicious pastry crois- Turks, Kulczycki opened the first, initi- tion attributes the pastry’s migration sant, which means ‘crescent’, recalling ating what, in the 19th century, be- from Austria to France to an Austrian the moon which rapidly grows, just like came a fully fledged European fash- official, August de Zong, who crossed leavening dough. ion. Such cafés probably also served the the Alps and opened the Boulangerie Cesare Dami very first croissants. Viennese pastry chefs called their inven- tion kipferl, ancestor of the Italian cor- netto, still far from the famous croissant.

The French christened it ‘croissant’: ‘crescent’, like the moon

The French name originates from an ill-fated marriage: that between the French dauphin, the future Louis XVI, and Marie Antoniette of Austria. It may be untrue that the French queen, learn- ing of the protests leading to the revo- lution of 1789, replied “They have no bread? Let hem eat croissant”; but it is known that she could not give up her

Page 4 Cuisine l Products l Food Technology Traditional Christmas sweets

by Morello Pecchioli Honorary Academician for Verona

A mouth-watering s it sinfully gluttonous to enjoy Christ- even the poorest peasants indulged in mas sweets? Heaven forfend! The slice the luxury of adding sugar to a water journey through Italy’s Iof with a snowy layer of con- and flour dough, shaping it into sym- fectioner’s sugar, the slab of panettone bolic shapes: the star, the infant, the hut, Christmas recipes. studded with raisins and candied fruits, the angel and so forth. For example, this or any other sweet is a blessing sancti- is how, long before the pandoro whose fying the year’s most gorgeous festivity, ancestor it is considered, the nadalìn of the delicious amen which closes the Verona came into being: a five-pointed circle of family affection. The Christ Child star of eggs, flour, water, lard (now re- himself, in his manger, blessed the placed by butter), sugar and a drop of sweets and those who offered them: aniseed. there, in front of the crib, stand the shep- herd bearing a humble doughnut, the farmer with a basket of oven-fresh bis- Italy abounds in sweets: cuits, the housewife proffering flatbread soft or dry, leavened or not, wrapped in a warm cloth. Italy is a for- with raisins or candied fruit midable repository of ‘holy’ sweets, cre- ated in monastery kitchens between a Personent hodie and an Adeste Fideles or Christmas after Christmas, century after cooked under ash or over charcoal in century, the Italian peninsula has pullu- modest country hearths. During Yuletide lated with , torroni, panforti, pan-

Page 5 dolci, pandori, pan di Toni, pan degli an- geli (‘angel bread’), and doughnuts. Dry or soft, leavened or not, sugared or honeyed, with candied fruit or raisins, using wheat, maize or chestnut flour. In Lucania, the Carmelite nuns created linguette, large Christmas biscuits with cooked grape must and cocoa recalling the m’stazzuoli (mostaccioli) present throughout Basilicata. In Calabria, rich in Christmas sweets, mustazzuoli appear alongside susumelle (honey biscuits), turdilli, fried gnocchi immersed in honey, and the venerably ancient pitta ccu pas- suli: a with raisins, walnuts, , honey and spices. The name derives from the Greek pita, ‘flatbread’. Curiously, pitta citrons and lemons was their ‘doping’. The Not all Christmas sweets have religious ccu passuli has the same shape – a con- steeping citrus fruits lent their acidity to roots. A few are originally secular, such centric series of roses – as the rose cake the concoction, which was renamed as the parrozzo from , created from Valeggio sul Mincio. It also possess- panis fortis (‘strong bread’). This Christ- nearly a century ago by the pastry chef es the same richness and caloric density mas sweet from Siena underwent numer- Luigi D’Amico from Pescara using flour, as the zrtuséin, also known as certosino ous tweaks over the centuries. The num- starch, milk, sugar, eggs, minced al- or panspeziale, created in a monastery ber of ingredients is crucial: 17, one for monds and orange peel. D’Amico per- oven in Bologna. Similarly to the Calabri- each of the city’s feisty districts. formed the final brush-stroke which an version, pitta calabra, it is a generous In Sardinia, pabassinas, biscuits with al- covered the zuccotto cake with pip- mass of honey, almonds, pine nuts, raisins monds, raisins, cooked grape must, cin- ing-hot dark chocolate. It was a success. and cinnamon. It contains no eggs, but namon, candied citrus peels and sugar Musicians, writers, artists and poets fell makes up for it with an abundance of glaze, vie for popularity with suspiros in love with it. Gabriele D’Annunzio candied fruit and chocolate. Its recipe, from Ozieri: scrumptious biscuits made dedicated a madrigal in Pescara dia- historically reconstructed by the Acade- of minced almonds with a crackly glaze. lect to D’Amico. my, has been certified and notarised. Say ‘Sicily’ and think of . For these, A secular ‘designer sweet’ is the anello too, we must thank pious monastic hands. di monaco (‘monk’s ring’) from Mantova, The Dominican nuns of Santa Caterina, invented by a pastry chef with Swiss Legend and reality in Palermo, are famous for their huge origins, Adolf Putscher, in the late 18th of the thousand-year-old cannoli. Over Christmas, sweets burst century, drawing inspiration from the from Siena forth in the entire Trinacria area like al- German kugelhupf. This is a dough- mond trees blooming in February: pas- nut-shaped cake with a white glaze, tries and shortbreads, biscuits and cakes, reminiscent of a snow-covered volcanic Similar in terms of compactness, calorie fritters and marzipans. Traditional sweets crater. density and ingredients is the thousand- include cobaita (honey, toasted almonds, A which takes the stage year-old panforte from Siena. According sesame), mustazzoli (again!), sfinci, frit- from the Alps to Punta Raisi in Sicily is to legend, a little boy had gone to the ters with honey, innumerable sweets with , a large doughnut whose hut in Bethlehem to offer the Holy Infant dried figs, Christmas , and nu- name originates from the Latin buccella all he had: bread and almonds. St Joseph catili, characteristic biscuits with honey (‘morsel’). It has the same shape, with blessed these gifts, which were trans- and a filling of hazelnuts and walnuts. more or fewer ingredients and similar formed into the first panforte. In Siena Particularly prized are those of Palermo, names, in Liguria, Tuscany (“Chi viene a it is said that (‘peppered prepared since the 16th century by the Lucca e ’un mangia il buccellato è come bread’), as it was formerly called, so re- nuns of Santa Elisabetta. The sweet cous- se ’un ci fosse stato”, says the proverb: vived the flagging Sienese Ghibelline cous of Agrigento merits a standing ova- “Coming to Lucca without eating a buc- troops at the battle of Montaperti (1260) tion. First ‘baptised’ centuries ago by the cellato is like not coming to Lucca”), Cal- that they defeated a vastly superior Flor- nuns of the Great Abbey in the Spirito abria (where it’s called muccellato) and entine Guelph army. The pan pepatus Santo monastery in Agrigento, it is pre- Sicily (cucciddatu). With a central hole prepared with medicinal substances, pared by them today following un- it is found in the Veneto, Lombardy, Fri- pepper, various spices, almonds, oranges, changed methods. uli and Emilia regions bearing similarly

Page 6 materials were lacking after the League of Nations decreed economic sanctions against Fascist Italy, leaving housewives without sugar or chocolate. The publi- cation La Cucina Italiana (Italian Cook- ing) suggested the autarkic recipe for sanction biscuits: “You can make excel- lent, substantial, nutritious, flavour- some and crumbly biscuits of higher quality than English biscuits in your own homes. In a quarter-litre of very hot milk, melt 100g of butter and allow it to cool. Combine 400g of flour with 60g of potato starch and a sachet of Italian ‘Delizia’ brand starch. Mix these well and sift them twice, forming a hill- sounding names: bussolàn, bossolà, are the same: flour, yeast, eggs, sugar ock on the chopping board. Into this buslàn, bisulàan. A common feature of and butter. Variants may include al- make a depression and pour in the buccellati and bussolàni is their popular monds, pine nuts, walnuts, raisins or cooled milk and a grated lemon zest. origin. Born poor, they became wealthy candied citrus fruits. Knead these ingredients together into over time and with changing economic a compact and firm dough. Roll it out circumstances. Frequent ingredients are to a thickness of approximately 2 mil- flour, yeast, sugar, raisins, eggs and butter. ‘Sanction biscuits’ limetres; make shapes with a The Sicilian cucciddatu abounds in dried (biscotti sanzionisti) recall cutting wheel and bake in a medi- figs, pistachios, almonds, walnuts, spices, difficult um-hot oven. Remove them when they fruit, candied citrus fruits and coloured begin to brown slightly”. sprinkles. Given current circumstances, sanction The putàna from Vicenza does not have Let us conclude with a reminder of strait- biscuits may tempt us again. Merry a Christmas-inspired name. A sweet of ened Christmases: biscotti sanzionisti Christmas, whether it be autarkic or peasant origins whose name’s etymol- or ‘sanction biscuits’. They emerged from abundant. ogy is unknown, it was once prepared the grim festivities of 1935, when raw Morello Pecchioli for feasts in a terracotta receptacle, un- der the coals in the hearth, using stale bread, lard and a generous amount of grappa. It has become genteel in mod- ern pastry shops, which substitute stale bread with cornmeal, and lard with but- ter. And the grappa? It is now a ‘fra- grance’. Also cooked on charcoal was the grilled fugassìn from the environs of Verona, likewise containing lard, but now practically extinct, outcompeted by pandoro. Rather similar in shape and ingredients to panettone is the Val d’Aosta region’s mecoulìn, a sweet bread originating in the Cogne valley. Zelten, a classic Yule sweet from Trenti- no and Alto Adige, has a German name. Its recipe is traceable to the 18th century. Zelten derives from selten meaning ‘rare- ly’: it was formerly prepared but once a year, for Christmas. Its ingredients vary from valley to valley, but the basic ones

Page 7 Health l Safety l Law Food expiry dates

by Andrea Vitale Honorary Academician for Milano Navigli

The difference between rticle 2 of Regulation (EC) 178/02 Food safety is a responsibility shared by defines a food as any substance all food handlers including those in all foods with a brief shelf Aor product, processed, partially phases of food production and distribu- processed or unprocessed, intended or tion. This regulation’s fundamental prin- life and foods which likely to be ingested by humans, also en- ciple is to forbid sale of a food which can be consumed compassing drinks, chewing gums, and may be considered risky, meaning any substance, including water, intentio- even potentially damaging to human with impunity having nally incorporated into foods during pro- health or unfit for human consumption. duction, preparation or treatment. Final consumers of these foods are the reached or passed This definition, however broad, is crucial, intended beneficiaries of these legal their expiry dates. as it is enshrined in the aforementioned protections, and must, at the time of European Regulation which sets food purchase, be able to verify the nature of safety standards, definitions and general products and their ingredients, pro- rules for all food handlers. duction chains and safety.

Page 8 to avoid the problem lest they incur san- ctions; hence they may fail to differentia- te the two forms of ‘expiry’, preferring to withdraw all products upon their expiry dates. Italian law (article 5 of Legislative Decree n. 283/62) forbids and criminalises only the sale of foods unfit for human con- sumption, a condition independent of ‘expiry dates’, which, as discussed above regarding DMDs, may occur long there- after.

Consumers may be induced to discard products which are not in fact expired

In light of the above, it is essential that preserved in oil, frozen foods, jams, bott- It should be emphasised that through foods avoid even potential risks when led water, cured meats, or dehydrated Legislative Decree n. 231/17, Italian law placed on the market, and retain this fe- powdered foods. states that except in cases which are not ature throughout their ‘lifespan’, which Obviously safety does not continue infi- proscribed as delineated above, anyone according to popular belief ends on their nitely after the DMD, and good hygiene giving or selling foods past their expiry so-called ‘expiry date’. practices suggest consuming foods wi- dates will be fined from 5000 to 40,000 thin a time ranging from 1 to 12 mon- Euros, without mentioning foods labelled ths after the DMD, only after tactile and with a DMD, but merely establishing For expiry dates, the presence visual examination of the product in que- another fine for incorrectly displayed or or absence of the phrase ‘best stion, which must be discarded in cases absent DMDs. before’ makes all the difference of suspicious odours, mould or insects. Concluding in less technical and juristic The distinction between ‘use by’ and ‘best terms, and holding to the unwavering before’ is not, therefore, meaningless, but principle whereby every regulation - a However, there are two types of expiry this is often sadly unknown to consumers, fortiori those governing matters involving dates. In this regard, article 24 of Regula- who may consequently discard and refrain vastly varied expertise, cultural parame- tion (EC) 1169/11 specifies that an expiry from using products which have reached ters and customs, such as the sphere of date following the phrase ‘use by’ is for or recently passed their DMD, thereby consumption - must be as clear and foods whose high microbiological peri- contributing to food waste, a frequent easily comprehensible as possible to shability could swiftly pose an immedia- and well-known problem of our era. avoid generating doubts or contending te danger to human health. Such foods Major distributors, familiar with such interpretations, we hope that the above must be consumed by this date, and it is matters, have tried to solve this problem distinctions affecting expiry dates will unambiguously illegal to sell, reclaim or by discounting foods on or approaching be eliminated, either by introducing distribute them after their use-by date. their expiry dates, but statistics reveal low ‘unambiguous’ expiry dates even for pro- Different provisions govern products purchase rates in such cases, ascribed by ducts with long shelf lives, or by manda- labelled ‘best before’ or ‘best before end’, experts in the sector to two fundamental ting that the labels of such products which, according to the aforementioned reasons: mass-market retailers (MMRs) should include not only DMDs but also Regulation, indicate the Date of Minimum often have return policies whereby expi- the later dates of maximum durability, as Durability (DMD) applicable to products ring products return to producers or di- required by the most updated food hy- which remain fit for consumption on or stributors who replace them with newer giene standards. after such a date if stored safely and with goods; and consumers are not attracted Such knowledge belongs to a corpus of intact packaging. by products which according to popu- studies and research which is constantly These are generally packaged and sto- lar belief are at the end of their ‘life- updated and codified by operators in the rable goods, such as dried pasta, rice, spans’ and therefore feel safer purchasing sector, and which can therefore be con- couscous, packaged sweets or snacks, the same products with later expiry dates. sulted with ease. flours or cereals, ground coffee, oils, foods Operators in the sector also often prefer Andrea Vitale

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