One of the highlights of my recent trip to Parma was a visit to Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana in Modena, a restaurant which was recently voted sixth best in the world.
The dish I was most intrigued to taste was one called Five different ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in five different textures. It consisted of a soufflé of 24 month old parmesan, a crisp galette (40 months), an 'air' made, I discovered from his recipe from the crusts of 40 month old Parmigiano Reggiano and grated 50 month old, a foam made from 30 month old parmesan and a rich creamy sauce made with a 36 month old cheese.
Intriguingly it came about a third of the way through the meal rather than at the end like a cheese course. (I'm not sure I wouldn't have preferred it later on.)
It was brilliantly clever, beautiful and absolutely delicious but do you know what? I'm not sure I don't prefer my parmigiano served simply as they do here (at La Greppia in Parma).
4 comments:
I'm all for people doing experimental stuff and of course it's fascinating to taste one ingredient prepared in so many different ways but sometimes it makes me tired just thinking about it. I don't know if that sounds weird but more and more I find myself just wanting the simple pleasures.
"Air" and "Foam" are not food and never will be in my opinion. I would have loved to have tried the sauce and the souffle though and of course, the simple, straight up traditional presentation always works for me.
The presentation of this dish looks almost to pretty to eat. I love having a variety of textures in my food, and I think that cheese is one of those foods that you can really have fun with textures!
the dish looks absolutely beautiful!
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