The Confraternita del Tortello Cremasco therefore has a new Board of Directors made up of: Annalisa Andreini, Erminia Fugazza, Loretta Marazzi, Annalisa Radici, Riccardo Reduzzi, Carlo Schira And Roberta Schira who was later confirmed in the role of Grand Master. Anna Maria Mariani, former Deputy Grand Master, however, did not stand for re-election: she is no longer in tune with the internal issues of the Brotherhood. Her place will probably be taken by Annalisa Andreini.
Since its foundation in 2015, the Brotherhood has come a long way, as Oberta Schira said at the convivial meeting last Tuesday 26 March. Meanwhile, last Monday, the city council approved the Deco regulation, proposed by the councilor for commerce Franco Bordo, which will be presented for the first time as part of the Noble Salami Festival, next April 20th and 21st. And Deco will certainly benefit the propaganda action of the Brotherhood.
Here, however, is the message from the re-elected Grand Master Roberta Schira: “The Council confirmed, in the following session, my role as Grand Master. With a sense of responsibility I will continue the role for another three years. Since its foundation in 2015, the Brotherhood (of which I am honored to be Grand Master since the beginning ) has come a long way. Today we have around sixty registered supporting members, we have a website, activated social media, created our uniform and our own badge. In 2017 I strongly wanted to join Fice, the association that brings together more than one hundred Italian brotherhoods and food and wine associations: this has allowed all members to exchange experiences, create new cultural connections and journeys of knowledge, twinning (with the Bosio restaurant in Western Liguria). In almost ten years, we have brought the Tortello from Crema in Milan, we made him known to chefs and journalists. He was the protagonist of many articles (collected on the site), of two degree theses and he even arrived on Rai, in prime time. More importantly, in these nine years we have retained the pleasure of gathering in local restaurants, always different, every two months, also welcoming ever new friends and lovers of Tortello, including artisans from Cremasco and journalists. All this to share ideas and promote a traditional dish, unique in Italy. Lately, there has been controversy regarding a hypothetical breach by the Brotherhood towards tradition. We chose our reference recipe based on the version of Amilcare Cazzamalli, who ran a grocery store for decades and is the historical memory of tortello. Amilcare used a family recipe as a guide, so our reference takes us back to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Our position is to safeguard the recipe we have deposited, but remaining open to creativity, innovation, new voices who want to reinterpret our tortello, in the name of plurality of thought and respect for ideas. Aware that cuisine, like all manifestations of a culture, is continually evolving. With the certainty that we will always do better the work the Brotherhood calls us to do, I wish this association a long life. As someone from Crema who lives in Milan, I carry my city in my heart and put maximum effort into the protection and diffusion of a dish inscribed in our cultural and territorial DNA. My goal is to get Tortello Cremasco the De.Co. soon. (municipal designation of origin), which would give further prestige and dignity to the dish for which we gathered as a Brotherhood”.
