Inspired by Italy

Bindu Gopal Rao

Often referred to as Italy’s most famous chef, Carlo Cracco is as modern as he is rooted in tradition. Hell’s Kitchen, MasterChef Italia, Michelin star, Netflix… amid all the fancy things that he is surrounded with, knowing one’s food culture is of utmost importance to Cracco.

“It is all about the preservation of our heritage, instilling old world traditions into our everyday modern lives. Truly embracing our Italian culture and heritage, but being innovative at the same time,” he says. Cracco says cooking does not need addition or alteration, but should be as simple as possible, for, the mainstay is nothing else but taste and substance.

Packaging matters

Incidentally, the chef is known for the art of reinventing traditional cuisines without losing its true nature and admits that reinventing classics is a well-known design strategy used in many fields. “In the same way, chefs create new dishes, recombining the old components by introducing new elements, mixing creativity with technology. Just like an alchemist, who brings the best from the past into the future. This reinterpreting of tradition is a key process in the culinary world.”

This is why his take on Italian food in India mirrors the same philosophy. “Considering the fact that Indian culture is internationally recognised as is its history of food, Indian-Italian is all about sharing of different tastes and traditions,” says Cracco, who owns the eponymous fine dining restaurant Ristorante Cracco in Milan.

Future perfect

With food becoming omnipresent, courtesy television and the internet, people have the opportunity to learn more about the world of professional and non-professional cooking. “Educating and making millions of people aware of the importance of cooking, attention to raw materials and taking into consideration that the future will be zero waste is also being facilitated through these channels.”

He believes that an idea gaining popularity along with the rise of healthy eating is that of neuro nutrition or eating healthy for the mind.

“There is growing recognition of the fact that the brain that is fed the right food can go a long way in managing moods swings, handling stress and physical and emotional highs and lows of a modern lifestyle. Also Indian chefs and restaurateurs have been focusing on the experience and not just food alone. What brings customers back to restaurants is the front of the house than ever before: service, staff, design and the overall experience.” 

Innovation with coffee

Chef Cracco is associated with coffee major Lavazza and, in collaboration with the brand, he has made a coffee lens, a tribute to myopia. Here, coffee is mixed with vegetable gelatin at constant temperature and is molded into the shape and consistency of a real contact lens. The final product is a special coffee that is actually a preserved jelly served in traditional authentic lens cases for a novel experience of the flavour and design of food. For the chef, this is taking innovation to another level. What drives him to experiment, we ask, and he says, “Passion for what I do every day, hard work, great collaborators and a bit of courage.”

Chef Carlo Cracco began his career with Gualtiero Marchesi in Milan, the first Italian restaurant awarded three Michelin stars in 1986. For the next three years, he worked with Alain Ducasse (Hotel Paris) and Lucas Carton (Paris, Senderens). His stint with MasterChef Italia started in 2011. He has also host on the first and second seasons of Hell’s Kitchen Italia on the channel Sky Uno and is currently one of the senior chefs on Netflix’s new culinary competition show The Final Table