Chef Carlo Cracco – Grabbing Michelin Stars Left and Right

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Everyone loves Italian food. It is hard to resist it especially when you are served with spaghetti, meatballs, and pizza. Who can resist pizza with everything in it? Authentic Italian food – that is something that Ristorante Cracco offers. Its chef and owner Carlo Cracco offers mouthwatering Italian dishes that are prepared using both modern and traditional cooking techniques. In truth, fusion is seemingly today’s general culinary style – and chef Cracco has seemingly perfected his own fusion techniques. The satisfied customers of Ristorante Cracco are obviously reaping the benefits.

A dinner at this restaurant would have you feasting on puntarella rice salad and seafood sheets with vegetables. Chef Cracco draws inspiration from conventional Milanese cooking and then reinterprets traditional techniques.

Let’s Talk About Ristorante Cracco

This restaurant has managed to grab the 22^nd spot in this year’s list. This is a great achievement considering the fact that it has only opened its doors to the public in July 2007. Barely two years after it was born, Ristorante Cracco has managed to make it to the World’s Best Restaurants list.

The restaurant is quite elegant and classy, but it has managed to maintain a comfortable atmosphere. You will find cherry wood designs lining up the walls of the place.

Blame It On the Chef!

If there is one person who truly deserves all the credit for the restaurant’s success, that will be its chef and owner, Carlo Cracco. He has practically perfected his recipes and techniques, but he admits that his culinary success did not happen overnight. A native of Vicenza, he studied the culinary arts in Professional Hotel Institute in Recoaro Terme.

After leaving the institute, he worked in several chef jobs in some restaurants in Italy. He first started working at Gualtiero Marchesi, one of the first restaurants in the country that has managed to earn three Michelin stars. He also worked in La Meridiana after leaving Gaultiero Marchesi.

Wanting to learn more, he moved to France and worked at Alain Ducasse and Lucas Carton. He stayed in Paris for three years, but he eventually moved back to Italy. He worked at Enoteca Pinchorri and he managed to catch the attention of the Michelin Guide. He earned three Michelin stars for this restaurant. He eventually left Enoteca Pinchorri and found himself in the kitchens of L’Albertea, Gualtiero Marchesi’s restaurant. He worked here for three years until he left it to open an inn, Le Clivie. And as expected, he also managed to earn a Michelin star for this restaurant. He stayed here for several years until he teamed up with the Stoppani family and they opened Cracco Peck Restaurant. With his magic touch, the restaurant earned 2 Michelin stars within three years.

In July of 2007, Chef Cracco took over the restaurant and renamed it Ristorante Cracco. This is the same restaurant that has managed to grab the 22^nd spot in the World’s Best Restaurants list.

Over the years, he has proven himself to be the leader of Italian progressive cuisine. He is seemingly destined to join the ranks of culinary masters.

Chef Carlo Cracco’s Seafood Sheets with Vegetables

Recipe via Star Chefs

Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients

Seafood Sheets:

• 500 grams cooked and peeled red shrimp

• 500 grams cooked scallops

• 500 grams cooked octopus

• 1 kilo cooked cuttlefish

• 100 grams black cuttlefish ink

• 500 grams scallop roe

• Olive oil

Crystallized Sea Beans:

• 12 sea bean sprigs

• 1 egg white, beaten

• Salt

• Sugar as needed

• Red algae as needed

To Assemble and Serve:

• 1 small bulb fennel, thinly shaved

• 1 small artichoke, choke removed and thinly shaved

• 1 celery, thinly shaved

• 40 grams neutral oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 16 taggiasca olives

• 4 confit tomatoes

• 16 glacialis leaves

• 8 clams (cooked)

• 8 mussels (cooked)

• 4 oysters (cooked)

• 4 razor clams (cooked)

• 8 sea urchin roe

• Salt

Method

For the Seafood Sheets:

Preheat oven to 75°C/167°F. Separately grind shrimp, scallops, and octopus, reserving each ground seafood in a separate bowl, and cleaning grinder between each grinding. Divide cuttlefish in half; grind one half and reserve; grind remaining half with black ink and reserve. Brown roe in olive oil, cooking for 3 minutes. Transfer to a blender and puree until homogeneous, and reserve. Incorporate drops of olive oil into each ground seafood to moisten. With an offset spatula or rolling pin, thinly and evenly spread each mixture between 2 sheets of parchment paper (you will have 6 different seafood sheets in all). Place sheets on sheet trays and bake for about 1 hour, until crispy. Cool sheets in refrigerator.

For the Crystallized Sea Beans:

Dip sea beans in egg and drain on a rack. When dried, but still tacky, sprinkle beans with a mixture of salt, sugar, and algae; dry at room temperature for about 1 hour.

To Assemble and Serve:

Dress fennel, artichoke and celery with oil and lemon; toss in olives, tomatoes and glacialis. Cut seafood sheets into various forms (a square, rectangle, diamond, circle, etc.). Remove various bivalves and roe from shells and arrange on plates with shaved vegetables, seafood sheets and crystallized sea beans; sprinkle with salt. Serve immediately.

Image Credit Ristorante Cracco

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