It can be told a photographic exhibition in a food version? Put a photo “inside” a plate? It’s an intriguing idea, almost a challenge, of the Off Food Topic Salon, idea by Rosalia Imperato and Irene Prandiwhich accompanies from May 2nd to June 2nd Exposed Turin Foto Festival, the international photography festival in the city. So during the festival a series of venues get involved alongside great photographers who have chronicled journeys, peoples, cultures, more or less distant places. As? Proposing limited edition dishes inspired by the photographs of great artists and dedicated to new landscapes, the theme of Exposed.
Salone Off’s guest chef of excellence is Lo starred Federico Zanasi of the Condividere restaurant which created a limited edition dessert. «We started from the travel imagination of my son Matteo, 11 years old: space. We selected an image of an astronaut landing on the Moon and looking at the Earth from there. The journey is nothing more than a point of view. It is discovery, adventure, research. In our case a journey of flavors made of coffee, passion fruit, milk chocolate.” That is, the official dessert of the Gran Festival tasting menu.
From Brace Pura in via Roero di Cortanze 2, chef Johnny Mazzarino he was instead inspired by the intense, vivid, brilliant colors of the work Eternal Beauty by photographer Peter Lik. Eternal Beauty thus becomes a Piedmontese fassona carpaccio, yellow peach jus and wild flowers.
New Generation, the new pizza in the Margherì festival edition of Corso Marconi, refers to the French photographer and street artist JR and his artistic project Portrait of a Generation, while Fleur, the dish created by Oinos in via della Roccaa gazpacho enriched with petals, recalls the color nuances of a flower market photographed in Mexico by Pia Riverola.
Confine di Passaparola Bottega Contemporanea di Vinovo is inspired by the artist Lynsey Addario, who photographs the consequences of war on women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen and has the aromas and flavors of traditional Middle Eastern cuisine: pita with pulled lamb, babaganoush, hummus, crème fraîche, tomatoes, onion and mint.
Piattini in via Corte d’Appello wanted to celebrate Steve McCurry and the images from the project From These Hands: A Journey Along The Coffee Trail, the photos taken by McCurry over thirty years on the coffee roads. And he created Bolo Chocolate Cake, a traditional Brazilian chocolate cake, with single-origin Brazilian coffee cream and macadamia nuts.
And then there’s the Modenese Ramen by chef Kevin Giovanetti of the Raffaleo restaurant in via Piave which is still inspired by Pia Riverola and her photos of Tokyo with lights on a rainy night, while the new limited edition Yamashita sandwich by Van Ver Burger refers to the travels of the artist Michael Yamashita in Japan, China, South-East Asia and India: organic bread stuffed with pulled strips and braised and blended bamboo with sake, macha tea mayonnaise and grated daikon root marinated in ginger and soy sauce.
Photo finish with Bahar ice cream (which in Persian means beautiful season/rebirth) of the Via Trento ice cream shop in Via Po, a reference to the rebirth of the women photographed by Iranian artist Farnaz Damnabi. It is prepared with goat’s milk, rice, rose water, saffron and pistachios. Even the simplest dish thus contains the suggestions of a photograph.
