QUALITALY 142

October/November 2024 IV MAGAZINE Pas offers tasty vegetarian cuisine with recipes that - from Tex-mex pizza to sautéed noodles and Korean Chicken - unite different cultures and use plant- based, sustainable and cutting-edge products. Like the announcement, exclusively on social media, where the week’s programme can be found. It is an ongoing challenge for Pas: against the elements, the national intolerance of the professed vegetarian (the chef isn’t one, but caters to those who want to eat less meat). But it is also a testing ground. In fact, there are plans for a chain of self- service outlets with collection lockers beyond Italy. And what more ecological and economical means than the bicycle to field test recipes and concepts? A TWO-STAR AROUND THE WORLD Three continents in three years: South America, Asia and Africa. To be travelled in a food truck equipped with a kitchen where they will stop, open their doors like Larry and Bimbo in the film The Van , and serve dishes full of Italic comfort, starting with Carbonara. You make a little money, fill up and go. This is the project ‘which can become a business but which is first and foremost a total lifestyle change, an adventure’ that Marco Sacco , two Michelin-starred chef at Piccolo Lago in Mergozzo and manager of Piano 35 in Turin, one Michelin star, and Verbano on Isola dei Pescatori, and his wife Lella, a partner of 30 years in haute cuisine, tells us. ‘It is a real project,’ assures the chef. “We will start when we have sorted things out and all the restaurants are running independently, in two or three years’ time. The generational change, the handover must be studied in depth. I have to put my children in a position to keep all the venues and maybe open another one or downsize, but thinking now, looking at the numbers and planning’. Turning 60 for a free spirit might be the right time to start discovering the world again. THE NOMADIC CUISINE OF FATMATA Fatmata Binta is a cheffe and UN ambassador for sustainable tourism. But she is above all a Fulani, the world’s largest nomadic tribe living across West Africa. Her Dine on a mat (the name comes from the custom, revived by the cheffe, of dining seated on mats) is a genuine travelling dinner project that may be in New York today and Rome tomorrow, but which also travels to African countries. The aim is to keep alive and transmit the traditions and endangered culture (like that of all nomadic peoples) of its people and their intrinsically sustainable cuisine, without waste or the use of disposable materials. “I wanted to create something that would make people think about food and how food goes beyond the pure purpose of sustenance, about new consumption habits and the way we come into contact with food. It’s scary the pace at which we move, that’s why I like the rural approach, because it forces me to slow down and take my time with food”, she told Fine Dining Lovers . Not only that: through the Fulani Kitchen Foundation, Fatmata funds projects to support Fulani women and girls. Among her missions is to promote the use of fonio, an ancient African grain that is resistant to disease and drought and is gluten-free. IF IT’S THE RESTAURANT THAT MOVES Sometimes it is not the cook but the restaurant that moves. As in Paris where Ventrus is a ‘restaurant with a view’ made of light wood and a huge window from which to see the surroundings. Which is not necessarily always the same: the restaurant is an elegant prefab that can be dismantled and reassembled in just ten days. At the time of writing the resident chef is computer scientist Sacha Ouss . According to Reporter Gourmet , a second Ventrus will be installed in Lille, from where it can be easily moved and reassembled in vineyards or at festivals. “The world is full of breathtaking views and there are too few restaurants where you can enjoy them. What if we created the first restaurant that would innovatively go anywhere while minimising the impact on its surrounding nature?’ wondered Guillaume Chupeau , founder of Ventrus. Said, done. THE CHEF’S JOURNEY “It’s wonderful to wake up by the water,” says Shan Liang , a Chinese chef with a background as an interior designer who, after experience in the Parisian kitchens of the bistros Sélune and Coup De Tête, set off in a bright red van equipped with a kitchen for a culinary tour along the roads of France. “I simply wanted to be with the farmers,” Shan told Women’s Wear Daily . “It was a wonderful experience, because you never know what can happen from one day to another.” To winegrowers, farmers and fishermen and anyone else who crosses his path, he offers Chinese cuisine made with seasonal and local ingredients. In his case, the journey takes the form of a culinary education, a travelling cookery school where he learns the various aspects of the great French tradition, its techniques and practices as well as its ingredients. Teachings that, as per the textbook of the Third Millennium, Shan crosses with his own culture and origins. __________________________________ AT PAGE 16 FOCUS ON Rethinking food ethically (part two) WE LEFT OFF LAST ISSUE REFLECTING ON FOOD JUSTICE, DIGNITY AND SUSTAINABILITY AS KEY PRINCIPLES FOR THE FUTURE OF FOOD. IN THIS SECOND PART OF THE ARTICLE, WE ELABORATE ON THE MEASURES NEEDED TO ENSURE THE AVAILABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY AND ADEQUACY OF FOOD FOR ALL by Paolo Gomarasca A good starting point for addressing ethical questions about food production is to start with one figure: 1.3 trillion tonnes per year are lost before they even Marco Sacco , Chef al Piccolo Lago di Mergozzo Eugenio Roncoroni , Chef food bike Korean Chicken: chicken nuggets, spicy sauce, coleslaw and marinated cucumbers