Thoroughly modern yet traditional too

In the recent World Gourmet Festival at the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok, Michelin-star chef Adriano Cavagnini demonstrated that you need the best seasonal ingredients to create “modern” Italian cuisine that celebrates the regional flavours of his homeland.
The Bt5,700-a-head banquet was sold out well in advance as Bangkok diners queued experience the ultimate the Italian dinner from this high-profile kitchen king, who’s now based at the Four Seasons in London.
Cavagnini brought to the festival so much culinary hype that I found myself wondering what the chef’s modern Italian fare would be like and different would it be from the Italian food we enjoy here.
A native of Brescia in Northern Italy, Cavagnini comes from a line of restaurateurs whose roots go back to 1885, when his great grandfather opened his traditional trattoria on Lake Garda.
Watching and working in the kitchen with his mother, whom he credits as his inspiration, was the start of his lifelong passion for cooking.
He credits his time in London for his professionalism and Jerome Dutois, then Executive Chef at the Hyde Park Hotel, for his knowledge of the French cuisine. Just like many great chefs before him, Cavagnini want to work in as many cities as possible. So after stints at hotels in Brazil and Argentina, he returned to Europe, cooking extraordinary dishes – mostly Mediterranean and classical Italian fare -- for eateries in Switzerland, Monaco and his homeland, where he earned a Michelin star for one of the restaurants at Hotel Eden in Rome.
He’s now executive chef of Amranto at the Four Seasons Hotel in London and has been described by a critic from Frommers Guide as a “brilliant, creative and dynamic” chef.
For the Bangkok banquet, the chef presented true seasonal Italian fare of the finest quality: a classical, traditional and innovative combination of dishes inspired by Italian flavours and British style, and enhanced by tastes from around the world.
The five-course journey through modern Italy began with the antipasti, burrata on a four tomato and basil macedonia with port reduction. With this type of cheese that’s made from mozzarella and cream, the dish gave a sour and creamy sensation in the mouth. That stickiness was neutralised with a glass of Prosecco Zardetto, Private Cuvee, Brut and was a refreshing start to promising meal.
Next was lemon, parsley and seafood risotto with Bottarga. This was a true Mediterranean delight, with the cured fish roe and sizzling seafood juice firing up the flavour. It was perfectly paired with wines from the Staglin Family: a 2007 Napa Valley Salus Estate chardonnay with the aromas of tropical fruits like pineapple and guava.
The third course was aubergine and balsamic gnocchi with fresh tomatoes and smoked scamorza cheese, which was paired with Staglin’s 2007, Salus Estate cabernet sauvignon.
The sauce was amazing. It was a combination of peeled chopped tomato, chopped garlic, extra virgin olive oil and grated parmesan and basil leaves. The whirling aromas of the sauce were impressive and blended beautifully with the quickly melting scamorza cheese sliced on top of the gnocchi.
The main course was seared fillet of veal stuffed with asparagus and prawns, guanciale and shellfish jus, partnered with Staglin’s 2006 cabernet sauvignon. The dish looked simple but was quite wholesome and filling. The prawn was crunchy and the veal tender.
We wrapped up the night with an Italian Trio of Dessert (spicy chocolate aubergine, hazelnut focaccia and bigne San Ginseppe), matched with 1996 Klein Constantia, Vin de Constance, South Africa. The dessert was designed to represent flavours from different parts of Italy.
And at the end of the meal, we all understand why people flocked to the Four Seasons in London to sample Cavagnini’s seasonal modern Italian fare.