Irony as a winning weapon for a great chef. If you take a look at the gallery of images they portray Moreno Cedroni over time you will be able to understand a lot about his cooking, above all by observing his hairstyles: now he wears his hair gathered by a band on his forehead, now very short but accompanied by a beard and mustache à la Hugh Jackman, the mutant Wolverine in the film saga of X-Men, now long and tousled Johnny Depp style, now curly and carried backwards held with gel, now curly and sloping, now gathered in a bandana. But in all the photos it will always appear to you smiling, winking, outgoing, (nothing to do with the surly poses to which Antonino Cannavacciuolo has accustomed us, or with the severe, sometimes gloomy ones of many of his colleagues) and even ironic when he has no hesitation in replacing his profile with that of the Duke of Urbino portrait by Piero della Francesca.
His cuisine is all this and more. And if you think that this is still not enough to understand what it's made of, astrology can come in handy for those who believe in it. Which for him, born on July 9, 1964, Cancer with an Aries ascendant, reads: direct and hasty, his first instinct is to act rather than think. He has a jovial and direct attitude, usually knows what he wants. He may be competitive with others, but tends more to put pressure on himself to push himself beyond his limits. Enterprise is his strong point, hasty temperament love provocation, the rapid changes and changes of direction. However, she always has a ready smile and manages to maintain an ethereal and youthful charm over time.
Moreno Cedroni and the Madonnina del Pescatore
Certainly these qualities are all served to one of our greatest starred chefs, who at the age of just 20 opened, not without audacity, a restaurant in an unknown fraction of the coast of Senigallia (not too attractive to be honest), Marzocca, in front of a small monument, Our Lady of the Fisherman, the only point of reference to find his restaurant, which took its name from that Madonna, to become one of the greats of Italian cuisine.
His is a whole life of firsts and new frontiers, with the sea in his heart, that same sea that he has in front of him, which prompted him to sail far beyond the traditional confines of cuisine and to arrive at surprising shores of taste and deep intensity of flavour, in seas unknown to the most .
Remembering the horoscope, pay attention to the dates. So here he is at only 20 years old, after a brief experience in the navy that will mark him for life, opening the restaurant “The Madonna of the Fisherman”, all about the fish.
For some time he limits himself to managing the place supervising the dining room, but then the curiosity and the fascination of cooking attract him, and, partly as a joke, partly so as not to die (as he would say Madame Butterfly) bored, decides to put on an apron and go to the fires. It is the discovery of a new world on which to compete. "From that moment I understood - she recalled later - that many do not do the job for which they are suited because fate has not presented them".
Now he has understood what the future holds for him, but he must build it. In that same year, 1990, he enters La Madonnina, Mariella Organi, sommelier who takes her place as manager of the dining room, but Mariella, four years later, also conquers another important position for Moreno, becomes his wife and gives him Matilde, their first daughter.
The meeting with Ferran Adrià and the desire to provoke
With the reassuring presence of Mariella, Cedroni can begin to travel around the world and to refine his interpretative concepts of food. And here it is full immersion in the high gastronomy schools, the Valrhona chocolate school, a real university which since 1922 at Tain l'Hermitage near Lyon has educated generations of chefs in the high discipline of confectionery.
POI comes from Ferran Adrià, the father of molecular gastronomy, whose philosophy can be condensed into the concept: “to create an unexpected contrast of flavours, temperatures and colours. Nothing is what it seems. The idea is to provoke, surprise and delight”. For someone like Cedroni, who carries irony and provocation in his blood, it's like going to a wedding. He metabolizes these concepts, blends them and reworks them.
The imperative in the preparation of his fish dishes in his restaurant is all in one word: to dare but not to extremes, to surprise but not to upset, to amaze in the discovery of the material. And the consecration came in 1996: at the age of 32 theenfant prodige of Senigallia convinces with its refined culinary art the inspectors of the Michelin Guide who give it the first star.
The following year it was the turn of Luigi Veronelli's Golden Guide to insert him in the Gotha of Italian restaurants with the Sun and to follow the Three Forks of the Gambero Guide, the three hats of the L'Espresso Restaurant Guide, and then all the others.
Moreno Cedroni and the Clandestino Susci Bar
But Moreno Cedroni does not rest on his laurels, always looking for new experiences, new horizons. Here it is in 2000 opening in the bay of Portonovo in Ancona, a kiosk a few meters from the water, the “Clandestino Susci Bar”, which becomes a point of reference for raw food lovers. Another weird idea that turns into a black gastronomic. The name "Clandestino" is borrowed from a song, that of Manu Chau, which speaks of the problems of migration that government authorities are unable to solve, of the suffering of illegal immigrants, of their marginalization.
But the song inspires him more than politically for his philosophy, for that eagerness to search for new worlds. And also the second part of the place's name, Sushi, turns into Susci, and not out of linguistic ignorance but because it means that there is no aping of other cultures, it wants to convey the message that Il Clandestino implies creativity, innovation and desire to explore.
The success that immediately comes to the club pushes it to its own first book. And what can it be called? Sushi & Sushi, published by the Culinary Library.
Cedroni opens the first fish delicatessen in the world: Anikò
Irrepressible, irrepressible, always in need of new experiences, three years later Cedroni invents an oxymoron, the first fish delicatessen in the world: Anikò. Neither counter nor bar, overlooking the square of Senigallia. How to interpret it? In his own words: “An installation. A maritime delicatessen, a shop of goodies. A eatery to move with the times.
Whether you stop to do the shopping, to celebrate cocktail hour or to exhaust indefinitely the happy hour of recreation until the threshold of dinner in the adjacent tables, Anikó fears few comparisons to entice reflection. Take it as you like, a meeting place, a domestic market, a platform where you can play with appetizers and acres of cold cuts of fish, for us the real model of the place is not so much the small shop or the extension of the restaurant, but a sort of projection from the Haute Couture (the Madonnina del Pescatore) which here finds the most correct redefinition in a prêt-à-porter/prêt-à-manger. Anikó's roots are obviously in the borderless tradition of Street Food”.
It should be enough? Absolutely not! Because in his volcanic mind it takes shape and contextually the Officina was also born, an experimental laboratory with the CE mark where to produce cured meats and fish preserves, jams, marmalades, sauces and other selected products. By now he is very fast and in 2003 he was elected Italian president of the JRE, Young Restaurateurs Europeans. With all that to do, he doesn't hold back when it comes to committing himself to a noble cause. And it has always supported the AIRC, accompanying the Oranges of Health campaign with its face.
The second Michelin star arrives and a degree thesis
In January 2004, twenty years after the opening of his Madonnina del Pescatore, forty after its birth, another book entitled, playing on numbers, "Multiples of twenty". As if to say: watch out, there are other multiples of successes to come. It can be believed.
And indeed two years later the very prestigious second Michelin star arrives. Two more years and in October 2008 he was declared the winner of the Swedish Kungsfenan Seafood Awards for his mastery and technique in handling the raw material, for his creativity and ability to weave together tradition and innovation in the kitchen.
From this moment on it's all a succession of goals and commitments across the board without interruption. One of his most famous dishes, the turbot cutlet, becomes the subject of a dissertation in semiotics, presented by Chiara Buosi.
In 2012 The Wall Street Journal inserts the Madonnina del Pescatore between the top 10 fish restaurants in Europe. In 2014 Cedroni joined the governing council of the national Fipe and the following year he became Ambassador for the Expo. But first he found the time to publish "Mayonese di strawberries" at the Mondadori publishing house, the first fiction book with food education advice for children and recipes in which he mixes inventions and reinterpretations to which he follows, a short time later, " Arouse more than ever”, published by Giunti, a celebration of the origins.
The fame of his Italian Susci has widely crossed borders and the Norwegian Seafood Council appoints him stockfish ambassador of Norway, for his extraordinary familiarity with fish and his innovative reinterpretation of this ingredient in the kitchen.
Books, awards, assignments, television appearances never distract him from his voracity to travel and discover new gastronomic paths, we find him almost everywhere, at Greedy identities, The best of gastronomy, gastronomy, omnivore. Everyone tugs at his jacket, he is in demand everywhere and it is not known how he does it but he with that captivating smile, always printed on his face, does not hold back, accepting collaborations and consultancy with Moschino, San Resort, Baglioni Hotels, Lavazza, San Pellegrino, McCann, just to name a few of the most demanding. Everywhere there is something to experience, everywhere there is something new to think about.
His most famous recipes
His cuisine is demanding, a modern, flexible and composed laboratory that holds firm to the criteria of essentiality, fusing the class of tradition with fresher elements.
The registers of the card of the "Madonnina del Pescatore" are many. Irony reigns over all, which distinguishes the most successful interpretations of him. Gastronomic navigation in its seas is a crossing of surprising waves from Potato Gnocchetti with corn on the cob and squid, fermented radishes and field herb sauce to Veal cheek, monkfish tripe, broccoli and fossa pecorino cheese; from Eel marinated in miso, cooked over charcoal, Jerusalem artichoke sauce and beetroot to a grilled Oyster accompanied by crunchy onions, lime and chilli pepper. And you can still come across amberjack in leek and lemongrass sauce accompanied by a cube of basil, fried amaranth and pansy that refers to the East or an Iberian pork loin, crunchy fennel and green apple sorbet, or again in a swordfish sciabu sciabu with pineapple friggitelli and celeriac not to mention a superb turbot cutlet with lager batter, wild herbs and monkfish tripe that leaves you astounded.
The Michelin guide on Moreno Cedroni
The words that the Michelin Guide dedicates to him they place him high on the pedestal of haute cuisine, a medallion in the gallery of the great chefs who have built the image of Italian gastronomy in the world.
Here they are: ”Hidden and secluded, overlooking a seafront away from worldly clamor, it will be just a shrine dedicated to the Madonna del Pescatore, near the restaurant, to indicate that you have arrived. A sober concealment, a discretion that you will also find in the modern interiors and in the kindness of Mrs. Mariella in the dining room, wife of the chef-patron, while her husband, Moreno Cedroni, incessantly updates and invents dishes (almost exclusively fish) which, from this edge of the Adriatic, produce an echo that reaches other seas. The various tasting menus offer an intriguing choice between "tested" recipes and more recent creations. Thirty years of vintage creativity in the menu with dishes that have made the history of Italian cuisine and a genius far from exhausted. A gastronomic laboratory of fish excellence!”.
In short, to quote Leopardi, being shipwrecked becomes incredibly sweet in the great sea of cedrons.
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