QUALITALY 140

June/July 2024 X MAGAZINE that probably all chefs learnt from their mothers or grandmothers because cooking has an all-female tradition. BECAUSE ITALIAN CUISINE WAS CREATED IN THE HOME. Of course. Although I learned from my father Michele. IN SICILIAN FAMILIES, THERE IS A FORM OF MATRIARCHY WITHIN THE HOME. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT THAT YOUR START IN THE KITCHEN WAS ALL MALE? My family is particular. Absolutely. My father taught me how to cook. He was the homemaker. He looked after my little brother. I was often with him. My mother was a psychologist, and her work took her to Messina every day. In fact, if we talk about enterprise chefs in my family I have as a role model my mother who is a volcanic woman, mayor of Malfa, entrepreneur here at Signum. Free, strong, independent. A WOMAN WHO HAS LIVED THE ROLE OF WIFE AND MOTHER WITHOUT RENOUNCING ANY OF IT. PROUD OF HER CENTRALITY THAT IS ANYTHING BUT HIDDEN, CAPABLE OF OVERTURNING GENDER STEREOTYPES. You see, my mother is like this: a woman who went to America at the end of the 1980s to obtain a PhD and who is the president of a cultural association, Didime, which wants to create an auditorium in Malfa dedicated to cinema and culture. THE CHEF’S PROFESSION IS DIFFICULT, PERHAPS MORE TIRING FOR A WOMAN? Being a chef is hard work in an absolute sense for both a man and a woman. However, it is not a job that hinders family life any more than others. You just have to know how to organise and plan. WITH TWO STRONG PARENTS LIKE YOURS, I WONDER WHAT FREEDOMS AND CONSTRAINTS YOU HAD IN THE KITCHEN. Actually, in my father’s kitchen I can’t even make a pastry for my children. The kitchen is small, Dad would tend to take over. But he was good at it because after my move to Vico Equense from Gennaro Esposito I was in the kitchen at Signum as the first course head and he was watching me cook from afar, pretending nothing was happening. When he realised I was ready he let me take the helm and said: ‘Go’. Not all parents give this trust. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FATHER My father was a council employee who found himself managing the kitchen of a restaurant without any formal training when he decided to open Signum. He cooked traditional dishes: pasta with capers, fried fish with mint, red scorpion fish a ghiotta, aubergine meatballs. Malfa and the sea helped him because the ingredients were of high quality. But I must give him credit for a naturally skilled hand in respecting the ingredients even during cooking. There was truth in his cooking, scouting skills with local suppliers and a lot of care for his guests. WHAT DID YOU TAKE HOME FROM YOUR VARIOUS EXPERIENCES AWAY FROM SALINA AND WHAT DO YOU ALREADY HAVE IN YOUR FAMILY. All my experiences outside Salina have made me grow as a woman and as a chef. I’ve acquired technique and speed of execution. Everything that is from the mainland inevitably clashes with the space and time of the island. It is useless to oppose the island and yet want to live in Salina. WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF COOKING? Mine is an apparently simple, light and creative cuisine with identity. It values the territory and its traditions. I like travelling, learning techniques. It’s quite possible that I contaminate a dish. I play with the solid-liquid duality, with the contrast between acidity and spiciness, with the opposites of hot and cold. DO YOU HAVE ANY DISHES YOU ARE FOND OF? I will mention the bagnacauda with sea urchins, spatola panata with almond cream and leche de tigre, linguine with almond milk and clams, mullet in caciucco sauce, caper ice cream and milk chocolate coffee and carob soup. WHAT DO YOU THINK PEOPLE ARRIVING AT SIGNUM WILL FIND? The Signum is a family affair. No architect has had a hand in it. It is a mix of nature and home. When my mother sees an antique shop she doesn’t buy something for herself but for Signum. That tells you how much Signum is home. HOW MUCH DOES THE ISLAND CHARACTERISE YOU EMOTIONALLY AND HOW MUCH DOES IT REGULATE YOUR WAY OF THINKING? If you are born on the island you grow up faster, right from high school which is in Lipari or Milazzo and not on the island where you live: bus, hydrofoil, sea conditions. I myself went to live in Cefalù at the age of sixteen on my own to attend the hotel school. THE ISLAND GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT IS ESSENTIAL AND WHAT IS SUPERFLUOUS. Absolutely. From the use of water. Even if the tanker comes. I always tell the guys in the brigade: ‘be careful with the water’. We clean the fish and do some preparations with sea water trying to be as sustainable as possible. WHAT DOES LIVING ON AN ISLAND THAT IS DEVOTED TO THE SEA BUT POSSESSES ITS OWN LAND CHARACTER ENTAIL? We have a seafood and partly land-based cuisine. We produce our own vegetables. We make preserves in the winter for the summer. The use we make of ingredients is of the island. And if it’s not of the island, it is Sicily. I give in to the spice that has to be imported. The meat can come from fine Sicilian suppliers or from other parts of Italy. I cannot have too tight a constraint. PASSIONATE, DREAMY, WITH A FIGHTING SPIRIT. DOES THIS DEFINE YOU? I have a strong character. I like cooking and the adrenalin rush during the service, the rigour required in the kitchen. ‘EN CUISINE, C’EST LA RIGUEUR’ THE FRENCH WOULD SAY. Yes, the adrenaline of the service. If a pasta cooks in twelve minutes, that must be it. Get the dish out on time . IF ONE WERE AT THE TABLE OF MARTINA CARUSO’S CHEF, WHAT WOULD ONE SEE IN YOUR KITCHEN? I like the curiosity of seeing what we do in the kitchen. I am so concentrated that I isolate myself from the outside and I don’t think I change, just as I don’t think Credits: Giò Martorana Credits: Giò Martorana