
Italy’s food is bound by tradition. Its most famous chef isn’t (2013) - prismatic
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/04/post-modena
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kfk
_So it’s probably more shocking than surprising that, at first, Modena—home to
a twelfth-century university and cathedral, to Italy’s West Point, to the
Ferrari founder and the Maserati factory, to a concert hall, an opera house,
seven theatres, three good museums, and a foundation with one of the best
photography collections anywhere—was immune to the lure of gastronomic
refreshment. The problem was pride as much as provinciality._

Ok I need to get this out of my chest. I think the words "gastronomic
refreshment" would worry an Italian... a lot. It's true that traditions get in
the way, but it's because of those traditions that we don't come up with
things like "pizza with pineapple... with ketchup". I get it, people want to
get creative in the kitchen, but if you miss the basis, your creativity will
suck, full stop. In fact, even Bottura had to learn the traditional stuff, as
most of people do in Italy - in his mother's kitchen. Note this works also for
people that eat the food, if they have no idea what good food is, it's rather
pointless to use the word "gastronomic" in the first place.

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ZenoArrow
> "but if you miss the basis, your creativity will suck, full stop"

I couldn't disagree more. There's nothing wrong with learning from the past,
it's a useful source of inspiration and ideas, but creativity is the 'art of
the possible', in other words the only limits are those which set what is
possible. If all new creations need to live up to the 'greatest hits' of the
past then creative exploration is going to be severely limited. There is
nothing wrong with making a bad tasting dish if you can learn from it.

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greggman
I agree with you. I really rubs me the wrong way when people put down new food
ideas by effectively saying "things should follow tradition".

It's like they don't realize that if someone hadn't experimented previously
none of the foods they love would exist and that picking some arbitrary point
in time before which experimentation was okay and after which it's not is
really hypocritical.

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akramhussein
If you are interested in finding out more about Massimo or other Chefs,
'Chef's Table' on Netflix is quite a good watch. He is the focus of episode 1.

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voyou
I don't know that Italy and new gastronomy are as incongruous as this article
suggests. Arguably, the Italian futurists invented new gastronomy:
[http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/the-austerity-kitchen/red-
hol...](http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/the-austerity-kitchen/red-holidays-of-
genius/)

