The Monza in bloom review, the gastronomic declination in Home chef
Spaghetti sea urchin, lemon, flowers and sprouts
Roots, tubers, foliage and flowers are among the first foods used by man.
The gnomic confidence with flowers is culturally and transversally affirmed even if it periodically undergoes the flows of fashions. Many think that the use of the flower in the kitchen is an exquisitely aesthetic aspect, and there is nothing more misleading.
The flower, petal or seeds are important organoleptic players within a recipe and contribute to the sensory balance of the dish in a structural way.
IButtice, both as artistic director ( chef Vincenzo Butticè) of Home Chef Monza, and Salvatore Butticè, have set to work to translate the theme of the flower into the kitchen.
The cuisine, recipes and dishes, is either good or it is not. To eat from God it is not necessary to be born immortal, and Ulysses on the occasion of Calypso’s seductive dinner is the clear demonstration of this.
The Mediterranean diet, a gift from the Gods themselves, is an emblem of divine and long-lived eating. There are three famous ingredients synonymous with longevity: wheat, oil and wine.
As Sicilians, the cultural conditioning of belonging is always very strong and they veer towards the sea, they want a declination that combines the flower with the sea.
Wheat is a gift from Ceres, extra virgin olive oil is the magic of Athena, wine is a gift of Dionysus.
To decline the theme of Monza in Fiore on the occasion of the Cooking Show held in Home Chef Monza, the chefs of Il Moro restaurant in Monza, start with pasta, spaghetti and extra virgin olive oil from Nocellara del Belice.
From the sea they choose a very elegant fruit, the sea urchin.
Why do they choose sea urchin?
On the occasion of the new tasting menu of Il Moro restaurant, they have carried out literary research, that is, they have hired some Sicilian writers to translate the new gastronomic path.
During this research they discovered the evocative power of the sea urchin while reading “La sirena Lighea” by G. Tomasi di Lampedusa.
And precisely when, Corbera, the last descendant of a noble house and journalist of La Stampa, struck in Sicilian masculine vigor because he was dumped by two women, “In twelve hours I had lost two girls usefully complementary to each other plus a pullover to which I cared; I had also had to pay for the drinks of the infernal Tonino. My Sicilian love he was humiliated: I had been made a fool; and I decided to leave the world and its
pumps” he confides in La Ciura, a Greek senator from Sicily.
La Ciura tells of her meeting with the mermaid Lighea and in the story refers to sea urchins “[…] they are the most beautiful thing you have over there, those blood cartilages, those simulacra of organs scented with salt and algae. What a cheering and cheering! They will be as dangerous as all the gifts of the sea that it gives death along with immortality. In Syracuse I perpetually asked Paolo Orsi for them. What a taste, what a Divine appearance! The best memory of my last fifty years!” Food, sensuality, intrigue and elegance, for this reason, Salvatore and Vincenzo Butticè have decided to use it on this occasion.
Here is the dish:
Square spaghetti from Felicetti, sea urchin, extra virgin olive oil and violet petals.
You may wonder, what do violets and flowers have to do with it?
There are two reasons for IButticè:
First: an element of elegance and sinuosity borrowed from La Ciura’s story in Corbera.
Second: for the organoleptic balance it is necessary an element that causes astringency to balance the flavor and therefore the minerality of the urchin.
