Son of art, Gianpiero Cravero, born in 1960, after spending his childhood frequenting the Trattoria del Leone in Caltignaga managed by his parents, which already belonged to his grandparents since 1954, never had any doubts about what his future would be, with a great desire to demonstrate that he knows how to stand on his own feet and that he is able to affirm his personal quality path.
After the Hotel Management School in Stresa, he enters the kitchens of the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees in Stresa, at the time the only 5-star luxury hotel in Piedmont, where he comes into direct contact with great cuisine, studies and devours everything there is to learn to have a solid foundation. It's at only 24 years old, he doesn't think twice, he opens his first restaurant, and gives it its name, Cravero, in Caltignaga, confident that it is a good encouragement to navigate the magnum sea of Italian catering with its own identity. And a little later he can taste the pleasure that his commitment has not gone in vain, it is, in fact, reported by the Michelin Guide who still today describes it in these terms: "for over 30 years, Cravero has been pampering its guests with creatively reworked local dishes in a refined and elegant environment, you can also eat outdoors".
During the first years he follows the Nouvelle Cuisine trend that reigns at the time, then continues to develop his own creative cuisine. She finds considerable success and in 2011, she decides to open his second restaurant in Novara, in a beautiful Art Nouveau villa, the Convivium which becomes a point of reference for the restaurant that the Guide de L'Espresso reviews extremely flattering. In the meantime, the first restaurant is also enriched with a second part in the title "Cravero Osteria Contemporanea" two apparently antithetical terms that reveal the great research work in fidelity to the origins. The philosophy is that of a typical local cuisine that draws on the scents and flavors of the Osteria del Leone, the old family bistro where the drinks and wine that were offered to the workers of the industrious province of Novara were soon joined by simple dishes prepared with ingredients supplied by local shops. One of the first to appreciate the proposal and to become a regular at the tavern was Sergio Tacchini, the tennis player-entrepreneur who had founded his company in Caltignaga.
Its culture and cuisine, in fact, are closely linked to the territory, Cravero draws full hands on tradition, tracing back a fil rouge of a gastronomic story that is at the same time of the court (The Savoy) and of the people enriched by the refined influences of French cuisine, always seeking an original and respectfully creative form.
This peculiarity has led him to collaborate with institutions to promote Piedmontese food and wine abroad with events that have taken place in Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Hong Kong, Seoul.
Giampiero Cravero offers Mondo Food readers a recipe based on cod. His choice that may surprise at first glance. In reality, cod arrived in Piedmont through the salt routes that from Liguria starting in the late Middle Ages led to northern Europe in the fruitful exchange between the salt, which is in great demand for the conservation of edible goods, and our raw materials. Food linked mostly to penance and suitable for Lent and Friday dishes, and not for more important lunches, cod has taken its revenge over time and today it is a gourmet dish of the greatest masters of Italian cuisine.
The recipe: Cannoli filled with creamed cod on saffron shellfish soup
Iingredients for 4 people
- 500 gr of desalted cod
- Half onion
- 2 potatoes
- A glass of white wine
- A foglia di alloro
- Parsley
- A clove of garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil
For pasta:
- 4 eggs
- 300 00 grams of flour
- 100 grams of durum wheat flour
- 50 gr of spinach boiled and sieved (for the green color)
For the velvety:
- 4 whole prawns
- Chopped onion, celery and carrot
- A glass of wine
- A spoonful of flour
- 2 sachets of saffron
Prepare a broth with a little water, onion, bay leaf, white wine, parsley and garlic and boil for 15 minutes. Remove the aromas and dip the cod cut into pieces, cover and let it cook without putting it back on the heat for about ten minutes (if the heat is not enough, heat it slightly, absolutely it must not boil, the cod would become stringy). Remove the cod and boil the cut and sliced potatoes in the cooking liquid.
Put the potatoes and the cod in a blender, start whipping by adding the broth little by little until you reach the desired consistency and complete with extra virgin olive oil.
Prepare the fresh pasta, roll it out thinly, cut it into 20 x 15 rectangles, boil them in salted water.
For the velvety. Brown the prawns cut into pieces in the chopped vegetables, add the flour, deglaze with the wine and cover with water. Cook for about twenty minutes, blend everything, pass through a sieve, add the saffron diluted in a little water and keep warm.
