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Februar y/March 202 2 VI MAGAZINE could be home-made pickles. For first courses, by varying the type of grain and the vegetables used in the sauce, you can create almost infinite combinations. Among main courses, finding affordable alternatives to fish and meat that also guarantee the same nutritional intake is not so straightforward. It is better to create a sort of single course,” suggests Riva, “with a proposal for burgers or meatballs based on soya or lupins (pulses with a high protein content) which are fairly easy to make, accompanied by vegetables rich in protein, such as the cabbage family, mushrooms, artichokes or, in spring, asparagus and oil seeds. Vegetable cooking is not complicated in itself, but if you want to create a well-balanced dish, you have to be familiar with the characteristics of the ingredients used in the recipe’. Under ‘desserts’, apple pie or tart can be made without butter and eggs, using high oleic sunflower oil, which is very stable at high temperatures. A vegetable drink can be used to give moisture to the dough. Dark chocolate can be used without any problems. ________________________________ BOX Vegan carbonara, yes or no? For Marzia Riva, the answer is no: “In my opinion, a dish must have its own identity,” she says. “If I give a traditional name to a vegetable-based dish, I create expectations in those who eat it, especially if they are omnivorous, that I cannot fulfil. I can give the dish the appearance and perhaps even the consistency of a dish with animal ingredients, but it is difficult to reproduce the taste exactly”*. __________________________________ BOX Own production, a choice of sustainability In vegetable cooking, it is possible to produce certain ingredients oneself. A few examples? Tofu or tempeh - both made from soya - are fairly easy to make, as is almond drink, which can be used in desserts. Vegetable mayonnaise is made from a vegetable drink or yoghurt and high oleic sunflower oil, while broths and stocks can be made from the less noble parts of vegetables that cannot be served. The preparation of fermented products is more complex, requiring good manual skills and dedicated equipment. Own production is an economically sustainable choice - because starting with ingredients saves money - and an environmental and social one, because you can choose short-chain ingredients from small local producers. . __________________________________ BOX COOKING TECHNIQUES Technology to support veggie cooking Is the equipment available to chefs effective on vegetable ingredients? Rational set its chefs to the task of cooking vegetable substitutes for prawns made from red and green algae, mung beans, soya, sea salt and agave syrup. At the end of the trials, the chefs agreed that these products can hold their own against shrimp in terms of texture and flavour. The modern cooking techniques proposed by Rational can enhance veg products. Low-temperature cooking is ideal for tofu; steam cooking standardises results and maximises the value of vegetables, preserving their nutritional properties and bright colours. iCombi’s special functions allow you to cook several cereal-based recipes at the same time, both in simple and flavoured cooking, saving time and consumption. __________________________________ Marzia Riva The Arna Tavern Via Vincenzo da Filicaia 4 20162 Milan, Italy AT PAGE 22-25 FOCUS ON Back to the future: analysing the past to prepare for the present THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME; IT HAS CHANGED ITS SKIN SEVERAL TIMES AC- CORDING TO THE NEEDS OF ITS CUS- TOMERS AND THE SOCIETY IN WHICH IT OPERATES. A BRIEF REVIEW OF ITS HISTORY CAN GIVE US USEFUL TIPS ON HOW TO COPE WITH NEW TIMES by Riccardo Sada Two years have passed since the hardest day for the restaurant industry. The slump in bookings created a backlash and wounds in the industry that we can still see today. Still the economy is struggling to recover. We have realised that eating out is not an activity that satisfies only physiological needs: it is synonymous with sociality and wellbeing. But in the meantime many things have changed. And yet, even if during the various lockdowns we had the feeling that the sector was at risk of default, we must remember that the restaurant, although a relatively recent