We, too, at 'Food to the Art'. After all, one can't miss cooking events: to improve oneself one must always be up-to-date and to do it at one's best the only way is to be there; if then the event in question is produced by RCS and supported by Expo 2015 then it is a duty to attend.
It is difficult that anyone still doesn't know what it is about, given the widespread publicity promoted, in any case, for those few remaining, we remember it to be a path of meetings, workshops and tastings within the culture of food, hosted by the 'Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology' in Milan, between March 14 and 23.
The agenda of the event is very busy, so it would be impossible to attend every meeting, no matter how interesting; therefore, I decide to focus on the conversations: the first one on Friday 14 with Davide Maria Oldani and Piero Galli (General Manager Expo Milano 2015 Management Division) mediated by Dario di Vico, the second one on Friday 21 with Carlo Cracco and Matteo Gatto (Director Expo Milano 2015 Thematic Areas) moderated by Beppe Severgnini.
Below is the report on the first meeting.
On Friday 14 I arrive very early (I won't tell the time to avoid general hilarity), because I really don't intend to miss the meeting, and knowing that Sala Biancamano is not too capacious and admission is free, I fear I will be excluded. Fortunately, I am among the first to enter and I grab a seat in the front row, just to have an optimal perspective.
Dario Di Vico, a journalist from the 'Corriere della Sera', opens the discussion, taking a very interesting fact as a starting point: in a year of deep crisis like 2013, the production and sale of Italian cheeses grew.
Piero Galli is the first to take the floor, emphasizing how important the figure is as an example of an improvement in Italian food excellence, regretting, however, that while it is true that Italy exports 35 billion euros worth of food, it is equally true that it imports 30 billion, a symptom that something is really not working and that the road to growth and improvement is still long. Unfortunately, the data are not encouraging, since the push must start from within, and in our country there has been a real collapse in consumption, amounting to 115 billion Euros. Of note is that in this same year, the obese have surpassed the undernourished in the world: inconsistent data that denote a totally erroneous culture of food not only in Italy but throughout the world. Expo, Galli explains, will be Italy's showcase for six months and it is therefore a duty to make the most of this opportunity to have the whole world look at us.
At this point, Oldani takes the floor and captures my attention right from the first thoughts. In fact, in his opinion, the growth of cheeses is an important fact to underline that artisanal products in Italy (he speaks of artisanal products, never of 'Made in Italy' which he considers an antiquated expression) remain an important economy to focus on; in fact, if he were asked to choose whether to invest in people or in the mechanization of the industry, he would have no doubt that the former would be the better option. Human capital and tradition are the engine: they need to be renewed of course, but above all, they need to be helped to grow. The key step, however, is to promote domestic consumption of the very products that are manufactured in our country. In fact, the question Oldani posed is very simple: why force us to export? First of all, it is essential to invest where we produce and only then to move on to export.
Di Vico seems to be annoyed, so much so that he specifies that while it is true that finished products are born in Italian companies, it is also true that for raw materials we depend largely on foreign countries: eggs, chickens and wine grapes come from Italian farms and crops but milk and meat do not. It is difficult, he adds, to consider our Nutella a boast if hazelnuts are imported, just like meat for bresaola. The real Italian strength is the culture of both industrial and artistic processing, which translates into the work of chefs.
Oldani agrees on the importance of Italian chefs, as they have added value to the products.
Galli confirms the key point of the conversation, the one on which they agree, namely that the national wealth is craftsmanship, a real art, on which to focus through tourism. With Expo it is estimated that as many as 20 million people will arrive, but the real purpose is not the universal exposition but rather the promotion of our country.
Oldani points out that the key principle for growth is first of all protection, as resources acquire greater value if enjoyed in the country of origin. Therefore, attracting tourists is key to bringing them to our best restaurants, just as we attract them for a visit to the Colosseum. The chef cites an example, which is that of Oscar Farinetti, patron of Eataly, whom he admires for the successful format of his chain of shops around the world, but he adds that the fundamental purpose is to bring people to Italy, to make them enjoy here the products that Eataly first sells abroad, as they acquire another meaning when consumed in the country of origin, cooked according to our tradition, in our land. The criteria for then moving to export should be regulated by those who make the laws in order to promote them in the right way.
Di Vico does not seem to agree on investing in Italy before abroad and as an example he cites Germany, which exports more than us.
Oldani retorts with a clarifying example: while it is true that Barilla also produces for America, it does so directly there, while production for Italy takes place within national soil, as the criteria for producing pasta for the two different states are different and require different raw materials, depending on the culinary culture of the respective state.
Galli points out, to mediate, that the two visions are not mutually exclusive but that both import and export should be promoted. The real problem is the type of hospitality provided: in fact, in all of Italy there is a flow of tourists of about 48-49 million each year, equal to those who pass through Paris alone in France. The presumption of those who make tourism in Italy has been that they can continue to live as they did in the years when they 'filled their bellies,' thinking that they can continue in this way without renewing or promoting themselves anew, adapting to the needs of foreign tourists, who now demand the tea machine in the hotel room instead of espresso at the bar.
Given the tense atmosphere, the chef decides at this point to downplay by asking Di Vico what recipe he needed, just on the spur of the moment, to arouse the general giggles of those like me who enjoyed this interlude of levity, before resuming the debate.
Di Vico joins the smiles and then presses Oldani with a new question, about the relationship between his cooking and the prices set.
His interlocutor tends to point out that his restaurant business with the opening of D'O in Cornaredo was started at a time when the crisis was only heard of as a possibility, it was not an entrenched phenomenon like the one we are experiencing severely nowadays, and clarifying that, with the times we live in, unfortunately there is no getting away from the fact that the ultimate goal of his work is to bring customers to the restaurant and thus make ends meet. To make sure, however, that D'O could be affordable (and here he is interrupted by Di Vico who asks for a specific: 'Are you talking about affordability?', a question to which he replies that the affordability in question is 'of taste'), he has followed a fundamental rule from 2003 to the present: the evaluation of the territory, that is, the adaptation to local, but also national, products according to seasonality. The foods adopted in his kitchen come only from Italy, and the purpose of his cooking is to study a menu according to the possibilities that these products offer. Several times, he admits, he has been asked to open as a franchise, but he finds it impossible to recreate the same cuisine in different places. Quite different would be to open another restaurant that, however, takes shape based on the people who work there and give life to an intensive study. He then adds his disagreement with the general pessimism that has been building up and that does not help, especially if explanations are given to Italians in 'politicalese' to aggravate the situation: the chef senses the need to be heard by many people and then speak clearly and simply so as to get a positive return. In relation to the importance of making his cuisine accessible, he proudly recalls the invitation to the American University of Harvard, from which he had been called to speak about the taste-price ratio. To conclude the topic, he adds that the compliment he prefers to receive from D'O's customers is the fact that, given the quality proposed, the prices are low.
(And here I assure you a spontaneous applause was born)
Galli shares and brings in this regard an interesting example, inherent to the organization of Expo: in fact, he explains that the culinary offer proposed in the different pavilions seems to be absolutely inconsistent with the prices that the exhibitors themselves are adopting. To explain this, he compares the fact that you know it is correct that Oldani is offering a taste experience and commensurate the price with that experience, but many countries that are exhibiting are pointing to the sole pretext of the event to raise prices and making the inconsistency between offer and expenditure a negative but persistent fact, which follows an all foreign mentality that is difficult to share, according to which one must charge for access to the event in terms of physicality, of presence, making the true meaning of the exposition irrelevant. This is actually a cultural factor that stems from a mentality whereby either you spend a lot or things are worth little, a view that does not value the culinary experience, but one that is being tried to change with extreme difficulty.
Oldani brings the discourse back to the kitchen, explaining that in the days when he started working, there were few prominent names, while today a real community of top chefs has formed, in which he includes himself, and which constitutes an engine to be nurtured, to be supported and motivated for constant growth, but also a resource for restarting.
At this point, Galli is reminded of an emblematic episode regarding the importance that food has acquired in recent years . The call for entries for the creation of the Expo mascot, he explains, was won by Disney cartoonists, who specialize in cycles, in those studies on the characters most in vogue in a given period, and just as they had identified magic as the strand of reference for the last ten years, they are now beginning to focus on food for the period that is opening, proposing precisely as the mascot of the event 'Foodie,' a puppet composed of fruits and vegetables.
Di Vico changes the subject and then asks Oldani for his opinion on the fact that Barilla and Mac Donald have started to produce pasta salads, catching the chef unprepared on the subject: Oldani admits that he has not followed the affair, but all he can say is that he agrees in the event that the initiative was promoted to further the quality of the products, not for profit.
We then return to the subject of chefs and what they represent in the Italian system, but above all their role in comparison with that of Oscar Farinetti and whether theirs can be considered as a kind of 'substitution.'
Galli believes that they are two quite distinct figures and that Farinetti can be credited with having promoted a format that later proved to be successful, in a unique format, positive about many issues such as that of biodiversity. (Here he opens a parenthesis, recalling that this topic will also be addressed extensively at Expo, so much so that an entire pavilion will be dedicated to it. He then adds that the problem of large industrial distributions has been that they have literally killed this biodiversity: to demonstrate this, he recalls that if at the beginning of the 1900s the types of apples consumed were estimated to be 100, roughly, nowadays they are limited to 7-8) The strength of chefs, on the other hand, is that they are holders of an important and consistent culinary culture: the relationship is biunivocal, culture attracts high-level chefs and vice versa.
Oldani makes his contribution, adding an explanation of what nowadays is called 'R&D'( Research and Development in English) laboratory, which is used to invest in one's work, allowing for a longer-lasting activity, but pointing out that the interest in this study should be nurtured by the chefs themselves right here in Italy.
Galli interjects and specifies, however, that the issue of promoting support for food culture can only be fomented abroad.
Oldani retorts that a country's best chefs often stay in their own nation, just as the French stay in France, the Spanish in Spain and the Italians in Italy, so such promotion can only start from within, since the ever-growing group of outstanding chefs are a true feather in our nation's cap that must be safeguarded.
Di Vico poses one last question before closing, asking the chef for a comment on his cuisine, the one now universally defined as 'pop.'
Oldani responds confidently this time as well, specifying that his work is not just the service of food, which is tasted but finished, but it is the consistency, the constant attention to many small things that respect the person, the collaborators with whom one works daily, and whom one must allow to operate in the best conditions. Just to promote a bit of healthy publicity, Oldani explains that, in this regard, a line he personally designed of 12 thousand pieces will be presented at the upcoming Salone del Mobile, which focus on the efficiency of the tool adopted to work, rather than its aesthetic value.
Before taking his leave, he then offers a taste of rice pasta from the company Viazzo, which provides high-end, totally Italian products, and in this case pertinent to Expo: uncooked, thus easily usable, and qualitatively optimal.
