"If we all ate offal, the CO2 emissions would be reduced by 15%. I will never serve a chicken breast if I cannot work the whole animal. It would be a huge waste. The kitchen must become sustainable, both in terms of impact. environmental and certainty in the company accounts ".
This is said by Diego Rossi, young entrepreneur and chef of "Trippa" in Milan, who spoke at Foodexp 2020, in Lecce on the theme "Young in the future, young talents & new challenges".
In the two days conceived by Giovanni Pizzolante, one of the few forums on training in catering and hospitality held in attendance despite the covid era and with the participation of the great names of Italian cuisine, the young entrepreneur Rossi recounted the passage after years of I work in fine dining and in a starred restaurant with its own brand that in the Lombard capital only serves a fifth quarter of quality.
"I work - he stressed - with everything that has been discarded or forgotten. Offal is presented as traditional food and poor cuisine, but today, paradoxically, the poor are the most squeamish.
The fifth quarter is also vegetable, and I like to propose for lovers of veg cuisine, wild herbs or rarities from yesteryear such as black chickpea from Murgia or pea from Zollino, ancient apple varieties from Friuli ".
From an entrepreneurial point of view, he noted, "the idea works, without having large financiers, because it is proposed in an urban reality and in Milan in particular, where we have reached a community of curious and open minded at the table that makes us work all week, not just on weekends.
Abroad, there are examples in London and in Madrid, where a starred restaurant as La Tasqueria interprets this choice somewhat 'provocative, such as carrying a lamb's head on the table.
the offal - for the Tripe sign they were a choice of economic sustainability, but we are witnessing the paradox that today rooster combs cost more (19 euros per kg) than roosters. I buy a sheep and work all parts of it every year Instead of lowering the food cost due to the crisis, I raise it. After all, there are many top-level chefs who are starting to use meat and fish offal again. Of the catch, I use the head and the entrails first. , in part
iculate tripe and swim fin.
They are the most perishable materials but also the tastiest.
At the table you have to be curious, to eat but also to know how to cook.
It is also a fashion to present sweetbreads or pajata or lampredotto on the plate which, however, can help change the world.
And in a country like Italy which is the country of gastronomic traditions, I want to have the pleasure of going not only to cool places but also to a trattoria.
And discover the different interpretations of raw materials to be recovered.
The future - for Rossi - is a much more flexible menu, a market cuisine with very fresh products, but to do so it takes a lot of expertise and a lot of experience.
I compromise with creativity and if an ingredient is missing, I change the menu.
The important thing is to preserve one's identity as a kitchen, so we serve chicken testicles to people in suits and to those who share our philosophy of no-waste ". (ANSA).