Chef Carlo Cracco – On The Forefront of the Progressive Italian Cuisine

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Chef Carlo Cracco is the owner as well as the head chef of the popular eponymous Italian restaurant, Ristorante Cracco. He is considered as one of the Italian chefs who are creating contemporary Italian dishes and is, in fact, on the forefront of this progressive Italian cuisine. Chef Cracco’s culinary skill has brought him major awards and praises, one of which is the restaurant’s addition in to the top 100 San Pellegrino’s best restaurants of the world. Last year had them at the 22nd place, but this year they dropped down to the 71st position.

Born in the mid 1960s in Vicenza, Italy, he took up his apprenticeship and training in Recoaro Terme’s hotel management school. After finishing his apprenticeship in 1986, he then went on to work in Milan where he found a job in the kitchens of the esteemed Italian chef, Chef Gialtero Marchesi. It was at this three-Michelin starred Italian restaurant that he first learned about contemporary Italian cuisine and began appreciating the new cuisine in his two-year stay with them.

In 1988, he moved to Garlenda to work at the La Meridiana, and to further his culinary training and expertise, he moved to France where he got to work with some of the most famous chefs in the world. He found work in Mote Carlo in the kitchens of Chef Alain Ducasse’s Hotel de Paris, and he also landed a job in Paris where he worked in the kitchens of Chef Alain Sanderens’ Lucas Carton.

It was in 1991 that he decided to go back to Italy where he found work in Florence. He became the executive chef of L’Enoteca Pinchiorri, and under h is leadership and supervision, the restaurant was awarded by the Michelin guide with three stars. This was in the years 1993 and 1994.

It was at this same period that his mentor, Chef Marchesi, approached him with a very interesting proposal – to become the head chef of his new restaurant in Erbusco. Chef Cracco agreed to head the kitchens of L’Albereta. He stayed with his mentor for three very fruitful years before finally deciding to launch his own restaurant. In 1996, Chef Cracco opened his own restaurant in Piobesi D’Alba and named it Le Clivie. A year after opening Le Clivie, his restaurant earned its first Michelin star.

Another turning point in his culinary career came in 2000 when the Stoppani family gave him an opportunity that he could not resist – a joint venture between him and the family who owned Peck, which is a very popular Italian delicatessen situated in Milan. In 2001, Cracco-Peck was opened, and barely three years later, it was awarded two Michelin stars.

In the mid 2007s, Chef Cracco purchased the restaurant from the family, gave it a new name (Ristoirante Cracco), and took the Italian culinary world by storm. His restaurant began earning Michelin stars and a spot in some of the most prestigious lists in the culinary world, one of which is the San Pellegrino list.

Chef Cracco’s cuisine has very strong ties to traditional Italian cuisine, but he is not afraid of experimenting with the different cooking techniques as well as using different ingredients, combining a variety of textures and flavors, and experimenting with temperature to create a highly innovative and progressive Italian cuisine.

Chef Carlo Cracco’s marinated Egg Yolk, Parmesan Fondue, Basil Seeds, and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

10 tomatoes
1kg rock salt
250g sugar
500g dry bean puree
4 egg, separated
1lt water
500g grated parmesan
5g agar agar
100g butter
100g sliced white bread grated, no crust
Salt and pepper
1 spoonful meat sugo
50g basil seed

Directions:

1. Cut the tomatoes in 1cm thick slices and allow to dry in the oven at 60ºC for about 4 hours.

2. Mix the salt, sugar and beans, place the egg yolks to marinate for about 4/5 hours, then rinse well under running water.

3. Beat the egg whites and lay them between two sheets of oven proof paper, cook at 150ºC in the oven for about 5 minutes.

4. Allow the water to boil with the parmesan, pass trough a sieve and discard the remainder, add the agar agar and allow to boil for a further 5 minutes.

5. Allow to cool for 2 hours, whisk in mixer to obtain a smooth cream, adjust for salt and pepper.

6. For the bread farce, melt the butter, pass the bread through a sieve and add, salt and pepper, lay between two sheets of oven proof paper. Place in the fridge, then with the help of a round form, obtain circles.

7. Place two spoonfuls of fondue in a bowl, add a disc of the bread in the middle and heat to about 60ºC.Add the marinated egg yolk and the cooked egg white all around.

8. Add a little meat sugo.

Image Credit: bestemergingchefs.wordpress.com

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