Starting  next September 1st, the Mexican IVAC (Veracruz´s Institute of High Cuisine) will offer a course on Italian Cuisine: “2000 years of gastronomic history”. It will be taught by Silvia Bernardini: chef, restaurateur, historian and a member of the itchefs-gvci network. The aim of the course is to introduce students to the main aspects of Italian Cuisine which is extremely popular in Mexico for being very healthy, among other reasons. “The knowledge of the authentic tenets of the Italian Cuisine is among the indispensable tools needed by any contemporary eager cook or professional chef”, says Silvia Bernardini who owns the restaurant L’Incontro in Veracruz and hosts a gastronomic program in a local radio station.

La Credenza, the Michelin starred restaurant in San Maurizio Canavese (Turin) is the first Italian restaurant to have its wine list on iPad. The restaurant, owned by the chefs Giovanni Grasso (in photo left) e Igor Macchia, both members of the itchefs-GVCI network, has developed a versatile application allowing clients to choose their wines on the basis of many options: the price, the geographic provenience, the grape variety, etc. Actually, the client can even access the website of the winery that produces the label he/she is about to select or other related sites (La credenza has wi-fi connection in all its rooms). Of course, a sommelier is always available to integrate the information given by the iPad.

The application, which works for any restaurant, will be available starting next October (both in English and Italian). Nowadays, very few restaurants around the world have their wine lists on iPad but specialists foresee that many will take advantage of this tool, particularly Italian restaurants abroad. It will be a way to assist customers in the better understanding of the immense but well organized offer of Italian wines.

Massimo Falsini has a very challenging job: he´s Executive Chef of Formula Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the world’s first Ferrari theme park and the largest attraction of its kind, which will open next October 28. The Park will have hyper technological, multisensory attractions, built to attract fans, families and racing fanatics who will experience “the race”, the culture, the indulgence and the history.

Massimo, an itchefs-gvci long-time member, is responsible for the 6 food and beverage outlets that include an organic kitchen, a fine “high end” cafè and a Pizzeria making TSP authentic Neapolitan Pizza. “Our aim is to propose a F&B program of very high quality, literally to revolutionize the theme park industry”, says chef Falsini, who leads a team of 106 chefs (most of them with experience in Michelin starred restaurants) and 25 stewards.

The highlights of the program remain secret at the moment but Massimo says that, together with his F&B Vice President, they are working on the reinterpretation of street-food. “To go back to the origins, where each component of the dish had something to say”. Formula Rossa (blast away on the fastest rollercoaster on the planet strapped into the F1 cockpit) and Bell’Italia (a leisurely drive in a small-scale Ferrari 250 California, circa 1957, thru the best of Italia’s cityscapes, landmarks and racing venues) are the main attractions for the visitors that are expected at the Formula Ferrari World.

Marco Sacco, chef patron of the two-Michelin-star Restaurant Piccolo Lago (Verbania, Italy), has just announced his newest venture. He's about to open The River Club Restaurant in Beijing (China) together with brother Carlo and his family, in partnership with Eric Wang: respected local businessman. Marco has chosen as Corporate Chef a very gifted chef and senior member of itchefs-gvci: Andrea Tranchero, former Executive Chef at Ristorante Armani in Tokyo, Japan. Sacco was Guest Master Chef at the latest edition of the Italian Cuisine Asia Summit in Hong Kong (that Tranchero attended as well) and at the celebration of the International Day of Italian Cuisines in Stuttgart, both events promoted by itchefs-gvci.

Dishes from The River Club Menu Zero

Piccolo Lago Progetti, the company that will manage the new restaurant in Beijing, was launched at Sacco's restaurant in Verbania (Italy) with the presence of media representatives and authorities among which was Mr. Zhang Li Min, General Consul of China in Italy. For the occasion Andrea Tranchero prepared the River Club Menu Zero, a tasting of the dishes that will be served at the new restaurant located in China's capital city along the Yellow River. Sacco and Tranchero aim at creating a cuisine that will have a clear Italian traditional basis with an innovative twist, that is, open to the ingredients they may find in China as well as to some of the culinary traditions of that great country.

Left: Mr. Zhang Li Min (in the middle), General Consul of China in Italy
Right: Carlo Sacco and Eric Wang toast to The River Club

Photos by Claudio Sacco

Nicola Cavallaro is chef patron of the San Cristoforo Restaurant in Milan. He is widely recognised as one of the most talented in town. His neat, contemporary Italian cuisine, with some exotic twists, is strongly based on the quality of regional ingredients. Despite the many accolades he has collected (many believe he is close to get a Michelin star), Nicola, a GVCI Forum member, is seriously considering leaving Italy, to go to work as a chef abroad. The critical economic situation in Italy has made life even harder for fine cuisine restaurants such as the San Cristoforo. Nicola, who has worked abroad for almost ten years, including in New York, London and Hong Kong, has talked with itchefs-gvci.com about his decision in the following interview.

Why do you want to leave Italy?
When you do a cuisine of high level, the kind which I do, the required investments are considerable. To maintain a restaurant with significant ongoing costs, without financial backup, is quite difficult, if not impossible. It’s very difficult to work without an adequate economic reward.  Abroad instead – while only in rare occasions in Italy – there are serious and proper food businesses that invest in restaurants and chefs. Not to mention hotel chains that transform their restaurants into flagships of their companies.

Where would you like to go?
I’d like to go to Oceania or to South East Asia. The reason? I have already had the opportunity of working over there, even though only for short periods. I find those areas very interesting in terms of business and quality of life.

As chef or restaurateur?
I have already had some appealing proposals for a partnership in Australia and New Zealand, though nothing concrete.

What kind of cuisine would you do abroad?
I’d like to hold the name of our traditional cuisine high, however, open to some contamination, taking advantage of the local ingredients. I personally believe that the cuisine I am doing in Milan can be exported everywhere.

Would you work in a restaurant that offers straight traditional Italian cuisine no fussiness no experimentations?
Like it or not, cuisine progresses with the times in which it lives. Technology helps us, experimentation as well. I don’t discard any option a priori.

In your opinion, how much should an Italian Chef abroad earn?
I think his earnings should be proportional to his culinary and management skills. He must be a good PR manager of himself as well.

In Italy, a quality restaurant is often equal to small size, few seats. Abroad it’s another story. Are you prepared?
I’ve worked in a situation in which in a couple of hours we used to serve 800 omelettes Benedictine, scrambled eggs etc. When I was in New York, as a sous chef responsible for the lunch, we used to serve 200 customers without a problem. Of course the numbers must duly match the numbers of employees the restaurant has at disposal.

In Italy the number of kitchens run by non-Italian-born chefs is increasing. Where will Italians and gourmet travellers coming to Italy eat the dishes of tradition in the future?
The work of a chef is a tough one. Today many people after only a few years of cooking school or training consider themselves finished chefs. The foreign cooks who work for me here in Milan prepare dishes of the same level as mine. The secret is in the correct training. Of course, foreign chefs cannot understand completely the reasons behind some of the dishes of our tradition, but they can replicate them in a very adequate way.

Do you fear being left without the right ingredients if you go abroad?
I believe that it’s absolutely no difficulty to find the right ingredients everywhere with the exception of a few countries with special duties and regulations. There are also places in the world where it’s very easy to find as good ingredients as those available in Italy.

Another talented Italian chef, Igor Macchia of La Credenza Restaurant, San Maurizio Canavese, Piedmont, is about to go abroad, but for a limited period of time. He will travel for more than one month through Asia, leaving the helm of the kitchen of his one-Michelin-starred restaurant totally in the hands of his partner Giovanni Grasso. Macchia, a long term GVCI associate, will cook in some prestigious restaurants in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei and Huangzhou. In Hong Kong he will cook at the Mistral, where the chef in charge is Claudio Dieli, another GVCI associate.

Igor, well-known for his eclectic, contemporary Italian cuisine, based on ingredients of exceptional quality, is among the most promising young chefs of the Piedmont Region. During his Asian tour he will be Guest master chef at the Galaxy Hotel in Macao (April 27-28), at the Marco Polo Restaurant in Taipei (April 30- May 5) and at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Huangzhou, China.  Igor is not new to these lengthy tours in Asia, which he uses to promote his cuisine and quality Italian ingredients, as well as authentic educational trips, to increase his culinary knowledge and to broaden his mind.

Sante de Santis, Pietro Rongoni and Fabio Cappellano

The CNO (Consorzio Nazionale degli Olivicultori), a 40-year-old Italian National Organization of more than 200.000 olive producers, has chosen three renowned chefs from the itchefs-gvci network to launch it´s European campaign for the traceability of high quality Italian extra virgin olive oil. The chefs are: Sante De Santis, chef patron of the restaurant San Pietro in Stuttgart (Germany- 23. 03. 2010), Pietro Rongoni chef patron of La Serenata in Moscow (Russia- 27. 03. 2010) and Fabio Cappellano of Qualitalia, in Delft (The Netherlands- 29. 03. 2010), who has been supported by the Restaurant Artusi. During a week of tastings and Special Dinners, open to media, opinion leaders and industry operators, the chefs, accompanied by Rosario Scarpato, itchefs-GVCI Managing Editor and GVCI Honorary President have promoted the traceability system that the CNO has created and is implementing. Top representatives of the CNO have introduced the events in all three nations introducing the system includes a voluntary certification allowing to qualify extra virgin olive oil as ‘High Quality’, when the 120 guidelines and practical indications are met by the oil producer.

These guidelines range from soil preparation, olives harvest, milling to oil distribution and storage. In such a way the Consortium not only certifies the origin of the products, following the production path from cultivation to commercial distribution but it guarantees the application of the best production practices, in order to ensure both food safety and consumers alike.

High quality Extra Virgin Olive oil, each with its special taste and aroma, are tools in the hands of creative chefs, real ambassadors of quality, who make thousands of recipes mixing ingredients in perfect combination with the many nuances in taste of the different cru of extra virgin olive oil. Italy, second producer country, is leader with the richest number of cultivars (more than 500) due to the great variety of soils, microclimates and to the long commitment of olive growers during centuries of cultivars improvement. Such richness deserves to be enhanced and disseminated. This is why the Consorzio Nazionale degli Olivicoltori, has aimed first of all at implementing the traceability of high quality Italian extra virgin olive oil.

An extensive reportage on the CNO traceability system will soon be available in www.itchefs-gvci.com.