Michelangelo Mammoliti

You’re one of the leading chefs in a region now on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, since 22 June 2014. Has anything changed since that day?Lots of things have changed and are changing, as a Piedmont native I’m proud that Langhe, Roero and Monferrato have obtained such world recognition. It means that there will always be more people who will come to visit our region and get to know our cuisine. We’re talking about a wine and food tourism able to improve the fortunes of our land: all it needs is that we cooks first of all try to work as a team, only in this way will Italy get back to the top.Michelangelo Mammoliti’s dish, what is it?A very abstract homage to Kandinsky: marinated anchovies, red and green bagnetto and traditionally fermented creme of bread. Anchovies al verde are a dish I grew up with and this recipe was created in spring, after going to an Abstract art exhibition where I saw one of Kandinsky’s paintings, ‘deux chevalier et deus personage entendue’. A picture that from any angle you look at it is never the same.Which ingredient will never be missing from your cooking?Madness! MAD100%NATURE!You are the chef of aromatic herbs, your cuisine is a journey through nature and there are more than 100 varieties in your garden. When did this passion begin?I bought my first book on cooking, in French, when I was fourteen. It was written by one of the greatest chefs promoting vegetable cuisine, Michel Bras. I was fascinated by the contact with the land, the beauty of the shapes along with the perfection that lies behind a plant, a flower. My natural inclination was then nourished by meeting Stefano Baiocco. We are lucky to live in a country that allows us to have such biodiversity.The number of French restaurants on your curriculum is striking. How much truth is there in the rivalry that many speak of between French and Italian cuisine? Considering that French cuisine had a 300 year start on Italian cuisine, you have to accept that they knew many techniques a long time before us. I personally owe a lot to France, Italian cuisine is perhaps less technical, more instinctive, creative, and so I think that a period in France is necessary for a cook. The creative abilities, typical of Italian cuisine, are completed by French technique.What has Michelangelo brought to Guarene from his French experience to the kitchen at the Resort La Madernassa? Rigour, discipline, respect, audacity and the need to communicate all this passion to my team. I always say to my boys in the morning that they should go into the kitchen as if they were in a place with three Michelin stars.Like all self-respecting chefs you follow the shine of the Michelin star. Does a chef’s cooking change after such recognition?It is every cook’s dream, the consecration after the many sacrifices made, including the sleepless nights spent trying to create something new.