Chef Gasperini has been successfully dealing with oriental cuisine for many years in restaurants all over the world. We wanted to do an all-round interview with him on the flavors of oriental cuisine in general and Japanese in particular.
World Japan: Good morning Chef and welcome to Mondo Japan! What brought you closer to oriental cuisine?
Chef Gasperini: Good morning to you, my approach to oriental cuisine began years ago, precisely in 2017, when I was asked to start a restaurant in Milan (SAIGON restaurant) serving Vietnamese cuisine. Initially I was a bit skeptical because I didn’t know much about the world of oriental cuisine, or rather I knew the basics.
I began to study oriental and Vietnamese cookbooks in particular, I also undertook a trip to New York to discover some restaurants from which we took inspiration such as “Le Colonial”, “Hakkasan”, “China Grill”, “Indochine”; I went for a week at a pace of two lunches and two dinners a day, sometimes even three. I immediately understood that oriental cuisine had something different to offer me
what I had done or what I was used to until then.
MJ: How do the flavors differ from Italian cuisine?
CG: At the beginning of my approach to oriental cuisine I found flavors and textures that I had never tried, very interesting flavors far from what we are used to such as fish sauce, rice vinegars, fermented products of all types and a variety of vegetables and fruits that we do not know.
For example, we are not used to fermentations which are used a lot in the East. They ferment many foods such as vegetables from which they obtain “Kimchi”, a recipe localized especially in the area of Korea where there are dozens of varieties, almost like ragù in Italy.
One thing in which oriental cuisine differs is the almost zero use of dairy products. For this reason it is thought that the Chinese do not produce enough enzymes for the digestion of the latter.
Essentially the differences in terms of flavors are very many due to the different raw materials, the territory, the use of cooking techniques but at the same time we have characteristics in common such as the fact of enhancing quality products without ruining them with elaborate processes, preferring simplicity to enhance the taste; we also have cooking methods in common such as frying, grilling or even steaming.
MJ: Is preparing a Japanese dish as complicated as it seems?
CG: To prepare a Japanese dish, as with any dish, you need to have a minimum amount of cooking skills and above all a good recipe to follow that is explained in detail in all its steps.
Preparing a dish from a culture and origin far from ours requires a minimum of research into both the history of that culture and the raw materials that will be used; years ago finding oriental products was difficult, today with the internet and all the ethnic shops present it is no longer a problem.
MJ: For example, is the classic Ramen a mission impossible or can it also be achieved by an Italian?
CG: Ramen has also become widespread in our cities, Italians really like it and it is hot, tasty and is considered a complete dish.
There are many sites, blogs and TV shows that explain how to cook ramen nowadays.
It is absolutely not impossible for an Italian to prepare a ramen, in fact the fun part of cooking recipes belonging to another culture is mixing the original recipe with products from our lands so that, in addition to preparing a dish, we also add our own personal touch.
MJ: What have been your most successful dishes? And why did they like it so much?
CG: One of the dishes relating to oriental cuisine that have been most successful was certainly the “PHO GA” soup, a chicken version of the Vietnamese national dish (Pho Bo); my Pho Ga was the result of various tests and perfection was achieved during the period in which I worked in the “Razzo” restaurant in Turin together with the chef and friend Nicolò Giugni.
It is essentially a soup made with white onion, fresh shitake mushrooms, coriander, chicken legs, coconut milk and other ingredients; the mix of these ingredients results in a very tasty, slightly spicy and very enveloping taste due to the presence of coconut milk. Together with chef Giugni we added a particular touch to the dish by replacing the classic noodles with scallop noodles and this combination of chicken broth and the spicy note together with the scallop proved to be a winner.
MJ: In the East, starting with the classic Bento, the eye always wants its part, even more perhaps than in Italian dishes. Have you also noticed this great aesthetic aspect in the dishes?
CG: One of the things I have always said is that you eat first with your eyes and then with your mouth so in cooking the plating is very important and to answer your question I tell you that for oriental cuisine the plating and the aesthetic part of a dish are very important in an almost maniacal way as in Japan. Think for example of how they carve vegetables and mushrooms or how they cut fish for sushi. We in the West have another style of plating and decoration but in any case in my career I too have experimented with different styles of plating for some periods, resorting to the elegant oriental style.
MJ: could you recommend a recipe?
CG: A recipe that I could recommend to you, the execution of which is absolutely not complicated but the result will be exceptional, is the one for chicken skewers marinated in Sathay sauce (At the bottom of the page NDR).
MJ: Thank you for the interview! Is there anything else you would like to add?
CG: I would like to give you this advice, to try, experiment, mix cultures and foods from different places in the world because the most beautiful thing in the kitchen is precisely this: creating something which then consequently leads to having fun while cooking;
having fun is the key word in this job because if you are doing your job in a professional manner and also having fun, it becomes the best job in the world.
THE RECIPE: chicken skewers marinated in Sathay sauce
Ingredients:
400g thick coconut milk
700g peanut butter
2 medium sized shallots
20 g cane sugar
5 g dried chili pepper
150ml soy sauce
4 chicken breasts
The process is very simple, the chicken is cut into strips with a diameter of 1 cm
For the sauce we are going to put all the ingredients in a blender to blend them all together and obtain a sauce.
At this point we will separate a part of the sauce, about 1/3, and keep it aside to serve on a small plate to accompany the skewers.
We will put the chicken strips in the peanut sauce and marinate them overnight in the refrigerator covered in cling film.
We prepare the skewers by inserting the strips of marinated chicken on the toothpick and then we plate them on all sides, when they are toasted we put them in a pan and cover them with a little bit of peanut sauce and straight into the oven at 180 degrees ventilated for 6 min so as to finish cooking the chicken and allow the sauce to dry a little on the skewer.
We make an impact by placing the skewers on the plate with a small bowl of sauce on the side and a nice salad of carrots, cucumbers and very refreshing mint.
Have fun and enjoy your meal!