It didn't take Covid to make Italians understand that one must approach the table with desire, taste and passion but also with great attention to its effects on human nature. Umberto Veronesi had already warned large meat consumers of the carcinogenic dangers they were facing. In fact, our eating habits have long undergone significant trend reversals. Meat, for example, is less and less an object of absolute desire. According to Istat data, in the first five months of 2020 there was a drop of 4,5% in the beef sector and 15,8% in the pig sector. If the assessment then extends to the last ten years, the data take on a much different consistency. Conversely, as much as many people still persist in thinking it, plant-based nutrition is anything but a passing fad. In reverse. According to the Eurispes 2020 Report, the percentage of vegetarians and vegans in Italy is 8,9%, an all-time high for Italy, with 2,2% being vegans. With an exponential increase compared to the overall figure of a few years ago which did not exceed 4 percent.
The well-being of the spirit, mind and body also passes through the table. This is why a careful and aware cuisine is able to give health and happiness.
Cristiano Bonolo, vegan Chef, founder of Vegolosi.it, a magazine of vegetarian and vegan culture and cuisine, professor at the "G.MagnaghI" High School in Salsomaggiore (PR), at the Istituto Eccelsa in Alberobello (BA) is convinced of this and professor at the VeganOK Academy who has dedicated a book to the subject “My kind cuisine. Recipes to nourish body and mind”.
A book that starts from the teachings of the Buddhist religion to affirm the importance of attention to the world around us, respect for every living being, principles poured into a cuisine that for the Chef must be understood as an act of love towards everyone. Consequently, every action must bring with it a particular care, every gesture must be "experienced" and every food must be discovered, only in this way will every dish have complete harmony, from the preparation times to the tasting, perhaps shared with friends and relatives.
“Taking care of yourself and promoting an ethical way of living by changing the lens through which you look at the world”, this is my philosophy, says the Chef.
Always passionate about cooking, at the age of 20 Cristiano Bonolo approaches natural and macrobiotic cuisine and then lands on vegetarian and vegan cuisine, which he chooses "as my model of nutrition for health reasons". Ten years ago the great meeting with Simone Salvini
executive chef of the Joia's Peter Leemann in Milan, the first vegetarian restaurant in the world to obtain a Michelin star, collaborator of theItalian Vegetarian Association, the European Institute of Oncology of Umberto Veronesi. Salvini becomes executive chef of Organic Academy, Academy of natural and vegetarian haute cuisine and Bonolo carries out courses in natural and Ayurvedic pastry. In the same period, he began collaborating with magazines in the food sector of the Riza group and Rizzoli as a consultant.
The first book (of a large series that will follow) is “Vegolosi. Learn to cook delicious vegan and vegetarian dishes“, published by the publisher Gribaudo-Feltrinelli. A year later he published “Dolci Vegolosi. Little vegan pastry manual“, followed by “Becoming vegetarian or vegan. A complete guide to veg culture and cuisine to begin to understand more and better“ and from “Sapori Vegolosi ” always with the same publisher. For two years now he has been collaborating with some sector magazines such as La Cucina Italiana and Cucina Naturale. also teacher of the VeganOK Academy.
He currently holds web cooking courses, offers restaurant consultancy and catering services.
For the readers of First&food, Cristiano Bonolo offers a cake that comes out of the catalogues, easy to prepare and tasty, a sweet expression of healthy cuisine for the intolerant, which is more than ever indicated in these advent times in which the pleasures of the table hide many pitfalls.
The recipe: The donut that wanted to be a panettone
INGREDIENTS:
340 g of gluten-free flour
180 g of oat milk
120 g of seed oil
100 g raisins
80 g of cane sugar
70 g of candied fruit
1 sachet of gluten-free baking powder
2 drops of bergamot essential oil
PREPARATION:
Soak the raisins in warm water. In a large bowl sift the flour and baking powder while in another container mix the oatmeal drink, seed oil and bergamot essential oils.
Add the sugar to the flour and mix the dry ingredients. Now add the liquids and mixing, try to obtain a smooth and soft mixture.
Lastly add the candied fruit and squeezed raisins, mix to mix everything and pour the mixture obtained into a ring-shaped pan (24cm in diameter) previously oiled and floured (always with gluten-free flour)
Bake at 180°C for about 40 minutes then remove and let it cool
