VERSATILITY IS THE “KEY” TO TOMORROW’S CUISINE, SAY THE EXPERTS AND RESTAURATEURS AT THE FOCUS EVENT IN CONTADI CASTALDI ORGANIZED BY GIACOMO MOJOLI (POLYTECHNIC OF MILAN): “WE MUST LOOK AT WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE THROUGH NEW EYES”

The only certain thing is that nothing is certain and that a lot of changes need to be made, even in the Italian restaurant world. Over the last 20 years the key word has been “territory” which tagged the kitchen, dining out and also food and wine communication. The key word for the future may be “versatility”. It’s a rather vague term, which however is beginning to be defined, as outlined at the focus group event, ”Versatility: hard to be” held at the Franciacorta Terra Moretti Contadi Castaldi cellar and which is the brainchild of Giacomo Mojoli (Polytechnic of Milan).

“We must look at what we already have through new eyes” said Mojoli, who invited 50 of the most prestigious inns and influential personalities of the Italian wine & food world. Oscar Farinetti, president of Eataly, said that in times when “we are headed towards a real revolution, which in my opinion, I fear, will also bring strong social tensions, versatility means thinking locations for everyone where there is no tacit “prohibition” for some social or ethnic categories or incomes. It also means focusing on transparency, because although the price of goods is one part material and one part abstract (which is important but it will change in the future), the customer will be much more attentive to the material aspect”. In other words, the customer will respect raw materials, as the success of two Italian restaurant owners in Puglia, Pietro Zito and Peppe Zullo, has proved. They cultivate two vegetable gardens for their restaurants (Antichi Sapori in Andria and Piano Paradiso in Orsara). The vegetable garden will most likely be a model for versatility: the vegetable garden takes us back to nature, back to the culture of work and it stimulates the creativity of the chef who has to invent dishes depending on what’s available that day. “When customers perceive exactly what is behind the raw materials,” explain Zito and Zullo, “the work it takes to put it on the table, they go crazy over a simple omelet with wild herbs”. Simplicity, yes, but we need study and knowledge, so it does not become a cliché.

Culture, then, but also respect for nature, explained Paola Gho, curator of the “Inns of Italy” Slow Food. “It’s hard to find another idea that has the same power as “territory”, which still has room for development. The cuisine of our aunts and grandmothers is being handed down to the younger generations, but we need effective ideas, otherwise we run the risk of unintelligent contamination. Versatility may be the common denominator for many cuisines, methodically sound for the uncertain future we are now facing. It is mainly a mindset to correct fundamentalism and smooth over differences. It must take into account the trend that calls for naturalness, enhancing a way of eating that is clean, healthy, and transparent, traceable and seasonal - without fundamentalism”.
Fundamentalism hides the fear of diversity, as Vittorio Castellani, aka Chef Kumalè explained, “With so many foreigners coming into our kitchens, we must understand how to trust them and convey our knowledge so that it isn’t lost, but is innovative with intelligent contamination. There is a risk of an uncooperative alliance between xenophobes and the orthodox Made in Italy to barricade themselves behind the characteristics and a profoundly “mutant” identity. The history of food is the result of meetings and social exchanges. It is an unstoppable phenomenon”.

It also shows the evolution of the concept of tradition: “In the last 20 years the goal was to “invent” a tradition”, said Alberto Capatti provocatively, Dean of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo. “I say invent because the entire history of food was put aside to make way for an anti-historical concept: tradition. Tradition was used to avoid the discussion on the modernity of food. The discussion began in 1992 with a law that protects the PDO and PGI products. To be protected, a product must have a dossier that tracks the last 20 years of its history, so we have files on food that have little to do with ancient history and roots. What, then, is our future? Certainly not the past, which unless we recover its historic value with strict rules, will lead us to rely on scenarios of seduction and imagination that are unlikely to be practical”.