Italian chefs are increasingly in demand in the international gastronomic limelight. Massimo Bottura, 57, of the Osteria Francescana in Modena, a restaurant awarded with three Michelin stars and classified first restaurant in the world in the list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants in the years 2016 and 2018 was featured for three days at the Salon Cocolaba of the Punta Cana Resort, of the Cana Golf & Beach Club, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of this tourist center which is now one of the most important in the Caribbean.
The three evenings were full of 100 paying guests ($500) with authorities, entrepreneurs, journalists, wealthy North and South American vacationers but also many Europeans residing on the island, which sees a boom in the construction of second homes. It is not the first time that Bottura has landed in the Dominican, already last November his performance at the Blue Mall in Santo Domingo was a success, but the event that has just concluded decrees the full success of our cuisine at an international level, beating any other gastronomy in the imagination of the guests, who have come here from all over the American continent.
The owner of the Cana Golf & Beach Club, Frank Rainieri, whose family comes from Emilia, was right when he thought of turning a barren and wild coast into a kind of holiday paradise for tourists from all over the world. Approximately 8 million visitors arrive at Punta Cana Airport every year from 140 connected cities in 28 countries. The population has gone from a few families to 50 residents in 140.000 years, but the presences are much higher in the more than 40 all-inclusive hotels along the 32 km of coast. Residenciales with apartments and villas, shopping centers, hundreds of restaurants and bars, discos, banks, shops, hospitals, highways that connect it with La Romana and Santo Domingo in less than two hours, an annual growth of 6% in turnover, make Punta Cana is a point of reference for the entire Caribbean area, from north to south, as it is located in the center between countries of great commercial importance.
On the menu presented for the three evenings the classics of the Osteria Francescana gastronomy. Tribute to Telonious Monk, cod served with katsuobushi broth (obtained by grating dried, fermented and smoked skipjack tuna fillets into small flakes) and with squid ink and vegetables with a black carbon crust. Paired with Champagne Brut Laurent Perrier Millesimé. For appetizer an oyster with spiruline algae cream, salicornia broth, cucumbers and lemon foam and salt, always lovingly assisted by the usual Champagne. While the main dish was a smoked risotto inspired by the flavors of the Po delta, i.e. smoked freshwater eels, in a risotto resting on a layer of crunchy pickled vegetables and a reduction of saba (cooked must). On top a fresh horseradish grater.
We then arrive at Pesto in abstract, a pesto without paste but composed of the flavors of the garden, flan of pine nuts and Parmesan cheese, on which the chef adds a brunoise (diced) of green beans, asparagus, mint and basil, which he combines with a hot broth of fermented pasta, cuttings, vegetables, extra virgin olive oil and basil. Hints, memories, perfumes, stimuli for the palate and the mind. The wine was a Mannekin Chardonnay Orin Swift from California.
Bottura's cuisine refers to tradition, generally from Emilia, Romagna and the Po Valley… to the typical ingredients but it is also innovation. Each dish is a tribute, a story, a memory. Music is part of the chef's hobby repertoire, a fine lover of beautiful music, from jazz to pop and opera. He has dedicated a dish to Rossini in which the slice of veal is cooked in a vacuum and served with what is most exclusive in the kitchen: fois gras, caviar and black truffle sauce, accompanied by spinach and creamy potatoes. The wine with which to enrich this delight was Soffocone di Vincigliata, from the Bibi Graetz Testamatta estate, near Florence.
From Modena to Mirandola is the title of the penultimate dish. A journey where the Christmas cotechino takes the lion's share, a salami that dates back to the same years as the discovery of America and originates from Mirandola. Bottura marries it with sbrisolona, the crumbly almond cake, originally from Mantua. A fresh zabaglione enhances the taste of this sweet/salty dish which he sees as a journey between the past and the future. He pairs it with an Orin Swift Machete red wine from California.
He closes the courses with a reminder of Vignola, the town famous for its PDO cherries, near Modena. Recalling the cake created by the Renaissance architect Jacopo Barozzi (known as il Vignola) based on chocolate and coffee, Bottura adds cherries and a compote of black cherries, all accompanied by a late harvest Oremus Tokaji Late Harvest, from the Tempos Vega-Sicilia estate . Applause, kisses and hugs and much emotion among the lucky diners for this direct experience with the best and most beautiful gastronomy in the world.
