Corrado Assenza – photo courtesy Eater/Netflix
How many people are actively engaged in acting upon their own creative voice let alone are even aware of it? I’ve always been fascinated by this question. I recently participated in a conversation in one of my online food groups about listening to the voice of God – which to me is akin to listening to our own internal voice. As I have many times, I got to wondering about the substance and range of this voice as it varies from person to person, from time to time.
Every time I listen to a favorite piece of classical music (I do this in the car more than ever now to avoid the radio) or see a marvelous painting at the Musee de Marmottan Monet or Picasso Museum in Paris or a magnificent building like the Duomo in Milan (I just sit and gape) I am in awe of human creativity. What differentiates those who, upon seeing a paintbrush, are instantly transported back to pre-school or in my case kindergarten, where that inimitable fragrance of tempura paint lives still to this day. There, searing memories are ignited and opened up to that center(s) in the brain and they may remain as a central active voice, a voice that you are even driven by.
I have recently finished watching all the archived episodes of Chef’s Table on Netflix, finding each and every one of them so engaging as to have to separate my time in between to fully absorb the portraits they offer.
My favorite? So hard to choose, but I pick Corrado Assenza. This episode was completely transporting for me. His sense of purity toward his ingredients and the specialties he makes as well as the deep and life-changing responsibility he felt to return home to continue the legacy of the products of his kitchens, offer a profile of the depth of his commitment to keeping his particular genre of Italian culture alive. He claims, and I would agree, that most people don’t even know what real gelato (or granita) is. All I can say is, thank goodness for people like him and I hope to be there in person very soon to sample his almond granita, to experience that instant when my tongue speaks to my brain and I can say, ah yes, this is real. This man has personally funded and re-invigorated his chosen varietal of almonds, to ensure the existence of the exact taste that he strives to maintain. Not only is it a driver in his head, it’s embedded in his heart and soul.
Along the way, I have “met” some of these extraordinary people who have been named as some of the top chefs in the world. Some I knew of before, others were new to me. I watched as they foraged in their environs and worked, bent over their dishes with long needle nose pliers, and some enrobed their creations with a tinge of the magician. Some had the intensity and concentration of a brain surgeon, some had somewhat wild looks in their eyes as they appeared to squeeze from themselves or almost ethereally and after some consternation, spontaneously send forth, their own amalgam of creative spirit and imagination from deep within. Watching some was like experiencing the birth to a child in intensity if not anguish, but for others it was a welling up of the most natural of offerings to come about, as if it just had to be, in pure delight. Most interesting to me was that most every one was inspired by their link to the outdoors.
I am not a stranger to this notion of creative energy though I would never dream of putting myself into their category of presumed genius. I am but a worker bee, stumbling around in my environs, spontaneously uttering ah-has at the most inane of settings, tickled pink, repeatedly surprised at the simplest of natural wonders . What I find most fascinating with them is that they have found and attached themselves to the connection with their creative energy and are able to go into the kitchen and express it, often with the precision combined with grand degrees of talent, much like a Picasso would do with a brush, charcoal or pencil. This is what fascinates me most about the series. While each and every one has a desire to literally feed others, every one has their own unique voice with which they are compelled to speak. Each also has their own temperament, reasons, vision and sensibility. Here we find their similarities are as striking as are their differences.
Here, the producers have gotten these people to speak very precisely about how this has come to happen, the where, when and sometimes the why. Along the way, we get to sense some insight into these engaging people and explore their chosen environs, most of which I have not yet physically travelled to, incidentally. Whether or not you are interested in cooking, if you are a creative person on any level or inspire to be so, I recommend you watch this series.
My own cooking and baking genre has the much more simple sensibility of a home cook. I have no affinity for the precision and degree of high artistry, nor the access to the scientific drama-oriented smokes and cloches that some arrange – nor the patience actually. I’m not necessarily as intrigued with the composition of a plate as I am with the notion of what inspired one to combine the flavors, textures and ingredients in such a way, per se. But, I abhor a messy uncomposed plate just the same. And but again, I remained inspired by those instantaneous or formed-along-a line ideas that drive me into the kitchen to try something out.
As we can see throughout the series, the plating seems to be just a part of the process of conceiving the creation of a dish. We first back up, way back. We find these people consumed within their creative process as they roam the earth, partly driven by serendipitous curiosity, partly driven on a mission, seeking, tasting and bringing back to their lair, the fruits of their search, and in their kitchen space, their laboratory, extending their vision from raw ingredient to finished dish as their imaginative process travels the thread along to completion. One imagines however, that just at the instant one dish is served, their minds have already departed for the next destination. As they forage, you can see they’re in their realm of acuity, the activating of their senses and their palates as in one imagination-driven calculus, one far from numbers but aligned with the brain-activated process one could find in the manic timeframes of a Professor John Forbes Nash. This is right brain, left brain combination in its glory.
I loved watching this series, not just for the personalities it profiles, but to visit their locations and to try to understand each and every one of their intense connections to what they do. Refreshingly, not visible in this series were the kitchens of lore where there is chaotic and mean-spirited activity, frantic stress levels, filth and carelessness and the intensity of desperation. Yes, there is heightened energy but they are successful in portraying the kitchens as a place of inspiring creative endeavor. One gets the impression by watching this series that the world has just begun and as we will ride along the continuum of creativity of these minds, for ever and ever, the possibilities being limitless. There is also an element of teaching, coaching and sharing that is wonderfully inspiring in many of these people.
One part of learning from others, near and far, is to try and cull through all of the voices, methods, artistry and flavor combinations to see what applies to one’s own approach, what is ignited in one’s own sensibility. Of course, it need not be limited in any way shape or form.
When you turn off the tv after watching one of these episodes you might ask yourself, how does one relate this level of cooking, perceived so far away on level and even locale, to one’s own voice? It can be a minimizing experience and yet every single creative person, every single cook and baker has their own voice, their own comfort zone, their own range of pursuit and sensibility. The range and matter will evolve over time, much like the change in one’s environment.
In this vein, I recently had with one single cookbook, pulled down off the shelf very randomly one day recently.
Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course
Claudia Fleming’s presentations in The Last Course, are, even though the book itself was published in 2001 and the recipes are all at least that old, are still so fresh and relevant today. For me they are the very essence of geniusly and sensorially combined flavors and forms that remain, I guess the word would be, timeless. Not only would I be thrilled to make or have any one of these creations at any time, but each one ignites a spark within and sends my mind reeling with possibilities. Each and every one is relatably fresh and imaginative at the very same time. Perhaps this is why her book is so hard to find and if you do, you will pay a huge premium for it.
I can appreciate the mind wandering that must have occurred as she sensorially scanned the landscape and so merrily brought fruits, herbs, spices, creams, sauces and “biscuit du jour” if you will, together into her creations. They may not be space age, they may not be cutting edge in terms of dry iced or molecularly “bespectacled” if you will, but they are indeed perfectly crafted and pleasing, both in presentation and flavors. One can not turn a page without imagining each and every one. While her vision seems perfectly coalesced around flavor and texture combinations, her plating is relatively simple. She relegates composed desserts to a small chapter at the end. No argument from me here.
Which brings one to a couple of questions, can a 17 year old cookbook, conceived in an environment so fluid and fickle such as New York really be timeless? Can a voice and palate be so well-founded as to remain a constant over decades of experience? My answer is yes. And my evidence is Corrado Assenza himself and at the same time Claudia Fleming on another continent. Once again, their lairs couldn’t be more different but their vision and commitment unites them.
Thank you to Netflix for the world tour. I look forward to learning so much more from the people and places of the new season. And, at the same time, I remain wedded to all the pages of Claudia Fleming over and over again. Claudia Fleming, together with Lindsey Shere and Gina De Palma make my hat trick of pastry chef favorites here, stateside. I wonder if they remember the tempura paints.