MONTECARLOTIMES AND STAR CHEF PAOLO SARI TOGETHER FOR BIO
by Paolo Sari – The only certified organic star chef in the Michelin Guide
MONACO. After a summer of full time work, i’m back today to invite the Montecarlotimes’ followers in my kitchen! Plus a small gift I wanted offer to you, two organic recipes that everyone can copy. Essential ingredients are passion, patience and … organic products! Being organic is made of small things. First, choose organic and local foods rather than those of intensive and far away production. 
Bio means free of chemical components, especially pesticides and fertilizers, often poorly or heavily used. The World Health Organization itself warns us of the dangers for health, even several very serious ones. A local product harvested at maturity brings wealth to our body. A product that comes from far and harvested immature in order to withstand the long journey and remain intact in the supermarket shelves, brings few benefits. Thanks to the short distance and the means of transport season and local products have a very low carbon impact and environmental pollution, helping to clean the air we breathe. A local product generates social benefits, job creation and wealth. Therefore a producer reinvests his revenues back into the local economy. Investing in foreign economies is not our goal because it does not bring us benefits. Being organic also means protecting the environment around us so that we and our families can live in a healthier environment. All this is already in our DNA, do not forget it!
Now, if we think that organic is expensive, surely there are spending priorities in our lives, but we must understand that being bio also means preventing a lot of illness, and consuming fewer remedies and medicines. To be organic, we will be asked a major expense of time, shopping at the market and from small craft stores, cook some more meals at home with our loved ones and go a little less to the restaurant. Are you aware that this could bring very great pleasure too often neglected? Everyone can cook organic. Everyone can live better by eating better and becoming aware of the impact of our food choices on the protection of nature.
To raise public awareness of the benefits of organic foods I have created in Monte-Carlo with my wife Moné the “Bio Chef Global Spirit Association” in 2015, which has given way to the “Bio Chef Days” and the “Route du Goût”. All this under the high patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco and also thanks to the support of the Montecarlotimes Publishing Group, since the first edition.
Well, now as promised I am happy to offer you two delicious recipes made with absolutely organic and seasonal products, a gianduia cream and an hazelnut soufflé:
RECIPE OF THE GIANDUIA CREAM
History: gianduia or gianduja is the perfect marriage between chocolate and hazelnuts from Piedmont, a very old delicacy. Everyone knows it and everyone loves it, whether in the form of spread or chocolate. The history of chocolate goes back to the 1500s, when a hitherto unknown seed, cocoa, arrived in Europe, more precisely in Spain from the Americas. Then the product arrived in France thanks to the marriage of the Spanish princess Anna, daughter of king Philip III with the king of France Louis XIII. Following Anna’s instructions, the French Court started giving chocolate parties. The step from Paris to the close Piedmont capital, Turin, was brief. At the end of the XVII century, a certain pastry chef was authorized to practice the art of chocolate, receiving the first patent of the House of Savoy, which was linked by marriage to the royal family of France. Therefore Turin became the uncontested chocolate capital, welcoming pastry chefs from all foreign countries that wanted to learn the art of chocolate. In early 1800, Napoleon ordered the commercial block of products from the British industry and its colonies, making it difficult to find cheap cocoa.
The pastry chefs of Turin started to mix pieces of hazelnut with less cocoa, now too much expensive. In 1852, the chocolatier Michele Prochet, in partnership with Caffarel, improved the dough by grilling hazelnuts and reducing them to a very fine powder. In addition, unlike the chocolates of the time cut from large planks of chocolate, these were manufactured in a hull shape and individually packaged. This sweet was distributed for the first time by the Piedmont Gianduja mask during the 1865 Carnival, so that it finally took the name of “gianduiotto”.
MAKING A VERY GOOD GIANDUIA CREAM AT HOME
Ingredients: 180 g caster sugar, 200 ml whole milk, 70 ml sunflower oil, 200 g dark chocolate, 100 g piedmont hazelnuts.
Preparation: grill the hazelnuts in a pan for 5 minutes without adding any fat. Let them cool for 10 minutes. Put the hazelnuts in the blender with the sugar and stir for 30 seconds at high speed, then transfer to a saucepan. Chop the chocolate and add it to the sugar and hazelnuts. Mix gradually with warm milk and oil. Cook 10 minutes in a bain-marie. Transfer the preparation to glass jars and store in the refrigerator.
RECIPE OF THE SOUFFLE’ WITH PIEDMONT HAZELNUTS
Ingredients for 4 people: 500 ml whole milk, 250 g of finely chopped hazelnuts, 1 whole egg, 1 egg yolk, 40 g corn starch, flour 10 g.
For the meringue: egg white150 g, sugar 50 g, corn starch 5 g
Preparation: in a bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, chopped hazelnuts, egg and egg yolk. Boil the milk. Pour the milk gradually into a bowl with the other ingredients, stirring constantly. Put on the heat and cook at moderate temperature for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Beat the egg whites with sugar and corn starch. Gently stir the egg whites to the first mixture with a spatula from top to bottom. Grease 4 soufflé molds with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Pour the mixture into the molds and smooth the top perfectly. Bake in hot oven at 185° c for 12 minutes, without opening the oven. Sprinkle with cocoa and icing sugar and serve immediately.
While waiting for the Route du Goût organized and chaired by the Biochef Global Spirit Association in October 2019, enjoy your meals and be organic!
