Not Your Average Italian Cook

Italian cuisine is the most traditional of all cuisines.Or is it?There 's a new kind of chef that's rethinking traditional dishes while still honoring centuries of good recipes.He's creating quite a stir and gaining a massive fan base. Melissa Clark not only got to interview this chef,Massimo ,Bottura but got to sample his nonna's risotto, a milky creation that include the usual arborio rice AND cappuccino . Chef Bottura come from Modena, a well known culinary area where fresh ingredients and good recipes abound.He is the chef and owner there of the three starred Osteria Francesana.Ms.Clark opened up her kitchen to him where he made riso al latte or rice and milk.This is a traditional dish grandmothers male for the or nicotini or grandchildren.However he modernizes it with a covering of bread crumb foam,this last thanks to his nitrous oxide siphon.Even wilder is the tomato berry salad drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar.Ms Clark liked this,her daughter, more of food critic than her mom, didn't. Well not at first.He gave her a puff of breadcrumb foam(Chef Bottura specializes in foam) and she didn't cotton to it.However both mother and daughter loved the rice underneath, after he added some sweetened cappuccino.This is more of a dessert than a dinner.Think an espresso laced rice pudding which would be great after grilled meat or another Bottura recipe bollito misto or boiled meat. Chef Bottura is somewhat of a wild card on the Italian restaurant scene.He takes traditional recipes and zings them into another stratosphere. Ms Clark fell in love with his dishes when she visited his restaurant in Modena.His plates are a mix of traditional Emilia Romagna and an homage to Ferran Adria, the great chef who introduced foamed sauces to the public at his famed El Bulli.It comes as no surprise then to learn that the chef spent a summer working there, learning and absorbing the take on post Modern cooking.Like Chef Adria he combines science with cooking.He is known for Memory Of A Mortadella Sandwich, a rosette of mortadella foam along with Snow Under The Sunan unusualamd highly interesting raw potatoes with porcini gelatin coffee powder and snails.His take on bollito misto was almost considered a sacrilege by fellow chefs because he re imagined it as the Manhattan skyline.The meat is not boiled but cooked sous vide,cooking it in. Gasp plastic bags.He has famous fans too who praise his outré ideas such as the late and always great Lou Reed,along with fellow chefs Mario Battali who dubbed him the Jimi Hendrix of Italian Chefs.For fans or those curious about his recipes, Chef Bottura has a brand new cookbook Never Trust A Skinny Italian Chef. Chef Bottura is rethinking and changing the face of Italian cuisine.It may not be what purists want but it is what modern foodie's want.It is different but still maintains the flavors and ingredients of a traditional Italy.