Birra Moretti bring 2 star chef Massimo Bottura to London
I was invited to this lunch which was in conjunction with Identità London, the two day Italian food festival on 7th & 8th June, sponsored by Birra Morretti. It was an exclusive beer and food tasting lunchtime event with world renowned Two-Star Michelin Chef, Massimo Bottura.
It was fascinating to watch how Massimo introduced the dishes he was preparing for our lunch and also how he sources his produce. See below for the video on how he works with his producer for suckling pigs. As his roots are from the Emilio Romagno region, his cuisine is not a slave to the region which is famous for the Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Prosciutto di Parm.
He has taken the traditional Italian cooking and its famous food products and reinterpreting it with a new modern twist, not unlike Heston, leading to him being branded as one of the chefs pushing the boundaries of Italian cuisine. He has 2 stars and was voted 13th out of the top 50 best restaurants in the world.
Am now planning a trip to Italy next month to eat at his restaurant :
His restaurant is :
Osteria Francescana
Via Stella, 22 / Modena – Italy
Tel.(+39) 059.210118
Here are some not very good pictures and videos of the event. Some of the recipes are here .
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qABzC6-uer4&feature=youtu.be&a
Pannini de Mortadella
Not your usual mortadella, but made with the flavours of mortadella without the fat. The result is a highly flavoured mortadella mouse.
In this video, he starts talking his take on mortadella.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNXwNCeTB2c
Leek, Spring Onions, Black Truffles
This dish was unbelievable, if only there was more of it.
Ingredients for the dish all had DOP status from the sweet salt from Cervia (Saline de Cervia), Spring onions from Romagna to Black Truffles from Bologna.
Ravioli with 3 lentils – must be a posh Italian name but I didn’t catchit
Massimo said he learnt to make dim sum in Hong Kong from a top chef there and brought back some techniques to apply to his ravioli. In this, he used cotechino which was steamed in the Moretti Beer and 3 different types of lentils with different textures, Casteluccio, Colfiorito, Decorticato (skinless) which were also steamed in beer. This is normally served for new years eve as the lentils signify money. MB said that this was a way to eat cotechino in June.
Adding truffles to the leek dish
Veal cheek in beer and balsamic
The veal cheek was slow cooked at 63C for 3 hours and then the sauce was reduced.
It was finished with chlorophyll, wild apple mustard ( delish) and creamy potato.
For dessert – the Foie Gras Lolly
This is made with a foie gras, injected with 35 year old balsamic in the middle and rolled in crunchy almond and hazelnuts. On the plate are dots of 20 year old balsamic. The combination of the foie gras and balsamic was a delight but oh so rich.
An inside view of the balsamic centre.
The recipes for the Magnum of Foie Gras is here .
Philip Kauffman sampling the chocolate spiked ravioli
When Massimo saw who had turned up for lunch he was inspired to create a second ravioli by adding some chocolate to the dish that he was preparing. One chocolate button from Original Beans was added and he said it added ” a clean finish ” to the dish, actually it added another layer of flavour to the taste of the ravioli which was quite interesting and not unpleasant.
Philip’s Original Beans Wild Chocolate made with Bolivian wild beans.
Currently only available in La Fromagerie London. I will be interviewing Phillip for the blog soon so watch this space.
