Imagine a laboratory, in which gastronomic ideas make their way. Compare trades and approaches. Sit in a fictional literary café and start leafing through these four books that we have chosen for you, a litmus test of what the world of catering is today. We have talked about imagination several times, certainly not by chance: “Imaginary life” is the theme of the XXXVI edition of the Turin International Book Fair which begins today and will end on Monday 13 May.
There is the chef, Giancarlo Perbellini, two Michelin Stars, awarded Chef of the Year 2024 during the 19th edition of “Identità Golose Milano”, the most important historic international congress of signature cuisine in Italy and among the most prestigious in world. There is Fulvio Marino, almost a star of 38 years old, just turned, him and his wonder bread, his pizzas, his blessed flours. There is Pierre Hermé, the king of the macaron who seeks essentiality, as the result of a cleaning process, he and his umpteen thousand boutiques around the world. He who doesn’t create fashion but sets trends… let’s be clear with his desserts! And then there is Stefano Cavada, food influencer and author from South Tyrol, seen on TV between La7d, Rai3 and Rai1. Don’t be a boomer, a food influencer is also part of the fairy world of food and wine. Here are their latest literary works.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC
The great cuisine of yesterday and today by Giancarlo Perbellini, publisher: Italian Gourmet. Pages: 288
Giancarlo Perbellini certainly needs no introduction. He is our most refined cuisine, he represents Italy in the world with his two Michelin Stars, he who was also President of the Bocuse d’Or (the cooking Olympics) from 2010 to 2016. Today he has 11 restaurants scattered around the town, among which “Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli” stands out, inaugurated in September 2023 in Verona.
In this book which is not intended to be didactic, he talks about tradition, tells us about preparations and illustrates techniques: “The classic in the kitchen is modernity over time, the current and tangible manifestation of a ‘new’ vision of the past“, this is how the chef talks about his latest effort, which is not a dish or even a new menu but a volume, where haute cuisine and technique meet, also through 60 recipes that always start from the desire to preserve the memory of taste, interpreting it in an absolutely modern way.
His thinking is a bit French and it couldn’t be otherwise. Linear is the right thing, everything has a precise, rigorous sequence: learning, application, experimentation, result. I’m.
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DAST IN THE OVEN
Sweet breads and focaccias, puff pastries, brioches and other baked desserts by Fulvio Marino, publisher: Mondadori Electa. Pages: 224
Fulvio Marino is the most famous miller in Italy, he is a television face (watch the Chef’s Test), he is an influencer, he is an expert in cereal growing, organic farming and baking arts. He enters Italian homes from all channels. If you turn on the TV, if you have a phone in your hand, a book by him, the magazines that dedicate in-depth articles to him, the companies that choose him as their face.
And so after talking about bread and pizza he returns to the bookstore with a volume dedicated to the world of baked desserts, with the idea of bringing baked pastries into everyone’s homes. “You could say I was born in the mill. At 14 I was already struggling with my first sourdough starter. Since I was a child I developed a strong passion for white art. I started to study, to travel, to compare. I worked as a baker in Italy and around the world, and then took a further leap into the social world, becoming an influencer during the lock down. On that occasion I combined forced confinement at home with the need to communicate, especially to all the people who tried their hand at bread or pizza”.
Since March 2023 he has his own TV show: In your home ovenbroadcast on Food Network on channel 33 and since last September you can find it at “FuocoFarina”, his bakery with kitchen in Alba (Cuneo).
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INFINITELY PASTRY
The moments of the day by Pierre Hermé, publisher: Italian Gourmet. Pages: 224
Pierre Hermé, considered by all the Picasso of the pastry shop he is the heir of four generations of Alsatian pastry chefs. Provocateur, pioneer, magician of flavours: everything has been said about him and about him. In this volume he retraces every single hour of the day, until he comes to provide a valid proposal for every moment of the day, as long as it produces a truly delicious experience. In the volume you will find 70 recipes ranging from breakfast, to snacks, to lunch, up to snacks and after dinner. It has everything in it, pastries, viennoiserie, cakes, biscuits and plated desserts. There is the new era of pastry making, made of sharing and simplicity. Awarded as the best pastry chef in the world at the 50 Best in 2016, he is the man of the perfect macarons, after all, even Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) always says so in the TV series Gossip Girl…
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IN THE OVEN
60 sweet and savory delicacies to cook in the oven by Stefano Cavada, publisher: Athesia. Pages: 208
The title is nothing new (in fact he is already working on the next book) but he likes it, for the way he talks about food, for his fresh approach and in step with the times. He is a chef but also a food blogger, who started from YouTube and then landed on La7d first and Rai3 later, leading cooking programs that have never betrayed the land that gave him birth, Alto Adige.
After My South Tyrolean cuisine (2019) e My South Tyrolean Christmas (2021), Stefano Cavada returned to bookstores at the end of 2022 with a volume dedicated to one of his greatest passions: baking. The traditional component linked to typical South Tyrolean cuisine remains, enriched in this case by references to his life experiences in London and Paris. The recipes contained in the book are designed to be prepared, as the title suggests, in the oven, in a household appliance. There are six chapters – first courses, second courses, bread, cakes, biscuits and small delicacies – in which the recipes are anticipated by useful advice to implement to obtain the perfect batch.
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