Nel Firmamento, La cucina di Pino Cuttaia, D. Visiello, magazine n.8
Without memory there cannot be future: only the net dominion of tradition can inspire an enlightened, significant innovation. Pino Cuttaia, chef and patron of the restaurant La Madia, in Licata (Ag) with two Michelin stars embroidered on his jacket since 2009, well knows that memory embodies the starting point and the pulsing center of his creative and gastronomic philosophy. Among the best known, cherished and beloved personalities of the contemporary culinary movement, pride of Italian chefs and president of the association “Le Soste di Ulisse”, this chef from Licata today represents an important reference for international cuisine. Regarding wine he dictates his rule: “Drinking well and eating well is a lifestyle. Wine must always be qualitatively balanced to the dish to which it’s paired to”. An interesting advice: “Before tasting a dish, I enjoy having a sip of wine because to me it heats the palate preparing it to appreciate the organoleptic quality of the food”. The strength of every cuisine is knowing how to express the territory appropriately: as a wine and the variety from which it is made: “Among Sicilian wines my favorite is catarratto because I consider it the most identifying, defined and particularly long-lasting. If work is done right in the vineyard and the produce is respected in the cellar, the result will be a wine that evolves itself, improves and will maintain its structure during the years”. A dish to this wine could be a classic of La Madia restaurant: “A good pairing could be “La Pizzaiola”, pine cone-smoked codfish. Same flavour persistency, citrus freshness and long wine fumé to well support the smoked dish”. A consideration upon high level dinner area service: “ Serving is an art, and when there’s elegance, refinement, savoir-faire, it becomes maybe even more enhancing than food itself. Table attendants, by means of their activity, can communicate themselves but they must also be hospitable, have great culture, knowledge of the dishes, of wines, of the world”. What is necessary to have a perfect service? “Each one of us has a unique, interior world and if the chef, the maìtre and the sommelier give a tailor-made “product” for the guest in the restaurant, you win, giving an unforgetable experience”. Memory enshrines lives, transforming them in excellences. Memory is the cuisine of Pino Cuttaia.
