Do disobedience and creativity always go hand in hand? Can you innovate without breaking the rules of the game? It is not a new question, although it is quite accurate in times when many claim that cooking lacks transgression. Identità Golose, the most important gastronomic congress in Italy, wanted to delve deeper into this topic in a new edition held in Milan this weekend, which brought together some of the most “disobedient” chefs on the international scene.
Among them, Oriol Castro, co-owner with Eduard “We, as cooks, have never considered ourselves disobedient; although it is true that we see disobedience as a creative method as great,” he explained to La Vanguardia minutes before presenting on stage the restaurant’s new techniques and one of the small “disobediences.” “which has to do with the menu: in it, instead of finding the names of the dishes, words like “creativity”, “memories”, “sharing”, “sensations”, “contrasts” follow one another… reason? “We don’t want to find names for our dishes, but rather be able to convey emotions,” Castro explained, ensuring that more than trying to break the rules, what sometimes should be disobedient is the result. “Provocation in the kitchen is not new.”
The most disruptive chef of the moment, the Danish Rasmus Munk of Alchemist, the Copenhagen restaurant that raises awareness by pushing diners to their limits, explained instead that for him disobedience is the only way to break with the establishment.
“It seems that in haute cuisine there is a framework that forces chefs to be creative only for pleasure; it is frowned upon to make the diner uncomfortable. What is artistic about flavor? Almost all artists in history have been involved in politics, they have denounced the system in which we live with their art, why can’t a chef also do it?” restaurant, focused on topics such as hunger or the problem of plastics and wrapped in a true audiovisual firework.
Chefs such as the German René Frank, head of Berlin’s Coda, the only restaurant in the world with two Michelin stars that only offers desserts, or the Argentine Tomás Kalika, who triumphed in Mishiguene (Buenos Aires) challenging the rules of the Jewish cuisine, to explain how they achieved success with two concepts that were absolutely disruptive at the time.
“Creating a dessert tasting menu was absolute disobedience. At first, no one believed in our project. Then the stars arrived and people stopped questioning our concept,” defended the first. In Kalika’s case, his story was even more complicated, as he had to explain to the Jewish community that his recipes could be modified to become haute cuisine. “Many told me that I was breaking the rules, laughing at history and our tradition. Instead, we celebrate Jewish cuisine, and that is how we disobey.”
For Turkish Maksut Askar, a chef from Neolokal (Istanbul), the road was also difficult. He decided to recover old recipes and also products that have ceased to be consumed but with modern techniques and a different vision; something that was difficult for many to understand in his country. “Many times the imposed rules are not applied because they can go against your philosophy. Then you need to cross your limits, this is what disobedience is for me: creating new rules,” he assured La Vanguardia.
The Milanese television chef Carlo Cracco agreed with this opinion, who believes that disobedience is following an instinct, carrying the idea forward and achieving an objective. “Disobedience is a true identity and a way of believing in something that may not be well understood at first, but which can hide a lot of opportunities behind it.”
These were just some of the most disruptive gastronomic projects of the moment that passed through the Identità Golose stage, but there was much more. From great Italian winemakers who broke the rules and now lead the country’s wine industry, even though many before had taken them for crazy, to actors like Enrico Bertolini or singer-songwriters like Manuel Agnelli who have also been “disobedient” during their artistic career.
“You have to be disobedient, but don’t get lost either,” said the latter. We thought the same thing when, outside the auditorium, in one of the stands, we found a rissoto pizza alla milanese. Was it really necessary?
