Italians and almost Italians (The OFF feuilleton, part 1)

With delay, here is my feuilleton about the OFF4 – It has four episodes, or maybe five, we’ll see.

De OFF 4- Day 1

As I first told you, the overwhelming impression of the OFF4 was that the Danes stole the show, because of what I’d have to call their sincerity – their genuine passion for food and their country, and for exploring. There were a few other trends I should mention. For instance one common thing among the many Italian participants was that, no matter how inventive, different of convincing they were, they all proposed reinterpretations of classics of Italian cuisine. One was cooking without wheat, the other was reinventing the pizza, a third one was redefining risotto, some were pretty orthodox and some went wild, but it always seemed that you cannot cook as an Italian if you are not cooking a traditional Italian course. It’s OK if your recipe has no ingredient or technique in common with the original, but the name needs to be familiar.

De OFF 4- Day 1

Another thing I’d like to remember is the humility and devotion of a few chefs – but only a few. Chief among them was Frank Ceruti, he who ran the Louis XV (Ducasse’s flagship restaurant in Monaco) until recently. That guy has been a three star chef for almost twenty years, but it was moving to see him prepare a plate of pasta with vegetables in front of us. Now of course, he’s part of the Ducasse team, so there was a lot of memorized (internalized, even) marketing bullshit he gave us, like when he claimed that they just discovered the technique to rub your knife on garlic before slicing truffle at the Louis XV. But at the same time, he was indeed sharing this little known technique (mentioned, I should point out, in Ptipois’ book with Pébeyre, the truffle king), even though, in the context of a cooking show where dishes are meant to be photographed not eaten, emphasizing the taste and smell of the truffle did not make a difference.

De OFF 4- Day 1

So while the confirmed three star chef is cooking pasta, and Sébastien Démorand, the host of the show, asks him something about what he’s thinking about I don’t know what. And he says “right now, I’m thinking about not screwing this dish”. Seriously. Three star chef. Confirmed. Cooking show. I couldn’t help thinking that there might actually be something authentic, maybe even human, somewhere at the heart of the Ducasse empire. Really.

De OFF 4- Day 1