We arrive in Bahrain for the 16th step of La Vita è Dolce World Tour and we will stay there for a week where Chef Christian Frigo will feature in his menu the Torta della Nonna at the Primavera Restaurant, Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Spa where he is the Chef de Cuisine.
Previous to his assignment at Primavera, Christian served as Italian Chef de Cuisine at the restaurant Favola of Le Royal Meridien Shanghai. Besides that he used to work in the same position at the Intercontinental Hotel Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman where he was involved in the strategic planning of the opening of the hotel’s Italian restaurant: Tomato. Chef Christian also brings with him an extensive international background from working in Europe and culinary skills which have been crafted since he started his career 15 years ago.
Torta della Nonna with poached pears in red wine,
cinnamon and rosemary
“Primavera is a truly unique Italian restaurant. Authentic flavors burst through risottos, homemade pasta and fresh seafood entrees. The air is scented with fresh breads and guests are invited to enjoy a culinary journey showcasing the different flavors of fine Italian cuisine,” says Christian Frigo. “My culinary creations reflect specialty from all over Italy; from the north, from where I came from, to the south”, he adds. Primavera´s customers will have the chance of tasting this week Chef Frigo´s version of the special dolce: Torta della nonna, pere marinate al vino rosso, cannella e rosmarino or Grandmother´s cake, poached pears in red wine, cinnamon and rosemary.
The Truth about the Torta della Nonna
The truth is that Torta della Nonna, as popular as it may be, has a simple family based history. That’s why the news and sources about it are very scant. It is a sweet born out of the great “minor” history, the one in which courts, wars, governments are not involved, but it’s not less important. Torta della nonna was born between home walls. The name itself, “grandmother’s cake”, anoints this familiar environment, in which the grandmother had an affective leadership. When was torta della nonna born? There are no reliable documents available. We can only guess a date, based on the main components of the sweet, indeed all milestones of the Renaissance pastry art: shortcrust pastry, Pan di Spagna (genoise) and crema pasticciera (confectionary custard). Though rudimental custards were already made by ancient Romans, the one used in Torta della nonna, known as confectionary custard, crème patissiere in French, gained popularity only in the 18th century. Pan di Spagna as we have seen in the history of zuppa inglese began to be known in Italy at the end of the 16th century and roughly at the same time pasta frolla, shortcrust pastry, started to be regularly used in Europe. It’s likely that the three components were mixed at a much later stage; possibly well into the 19th century. Some authors say that the initial torta della nonna was filled with ricotta and not crema pasticciera, so it was a cheese based cake. In such a case it could have been a descendant of these sweets made by the Romans (and Arabs at a later stage), such as cassata al forno in Sicily. In reality, although there are some similarities, ricotta cakes definitively belong to another category of sweets. Torta della Nonna is now common all around Italy but according to tradition it has a special connection with Tuscany and in effect is often presented as a Tuscan sweet.
Bahrain
