Italian chef behind ‘best roast chicken ever’ almost became a computer engineer
- Giuseppe Iannotti, owner and executive chef of one-Michelin-starred Krèsios, in Italy, made his first meal aged six
- He talks about his playful approach to flavours and why he loves cooking Chinese food
Tell us about your childhood. “I learned the importance of the quality of food when I was very young. My family has a farm [in Telese Terme, in southwestern Italy’s Campania region] and we made salami, jam and marmalade; we ate vegetables from the garden; we raised chickens, rabbits, turkeys, pigeons and lambs. I didn’t drink milk from a carton until I was six years old; up until then I had drunk fresh milk from a cow.”
What was the first dish you cooked? “When I was six, I made my first lunch. My mum was not well so I asked her to tell me what to do. I made fresh pasta with ragu sauce. I usually would help my mum to prepare the ragu and we used the meat my father gave us. We have our own traditional recipe. My mum gave me a tip: test the sauce with bread. If it tastes good with bread, then it’s good with pasta.”
How did you get into computer engineering? “When I was young, my father brought my younger brother, Roberto, and me to the farm to make us understand why we must go to school. My father is a farmer who has five hectares to grow grapes to sell to winemakers. He said school helps you to decide your job.
“In college I studied computer engineering. I loved studying and I liked computer engineering, so I did well academically. But I decided to quit it when I was 23 – because my friend graduated with the same major and his salary was only €500 a month. With cooking I can make that much in two days. I believe with my passion I can have a good business. For me, a recipe is like software. The definition of software is a sequence, a limited number of steps that arrive at a result. A recipe is like software that finishes with food that, we hope, tastes good.”
I make 35 courses for each menu, each course is one or two bites because I want to try different foods, I want to play with food and I want the guest to have new experiences
How did you start your restaurant, Krèsios? “When I was 23, I signed a lease for a space in a nearby village called Castelvenere that has only 1,000 people. I wanted to try my idea about food and service to understand the restaurant business. I got a bank loan of €25,000 and started the restaurant, buying ingredients, tableware and furniture. Later, I went to my father and said I wanted to renovate the farmhouse so I could move the restaurant there [in 2011].
“My parents live upstairs and the ground floor is the restaurant, and there is a wine cellar and test kitchen in the basement. The test kitchen has many technological gadgets like ultrasonic instruments, a distilling machine, food dehydrator, liquid nitrogen and fermentation devices to make things like kombucha.”
Tell us about Krèsios. “My restaurant has five tables for 15 people and does not have an à la carte menu. Krèsios is in a small village in Campania, so we must create a special dinner. I make 35 courses for each menu, each course is one or two bites because I want to try different foods, I want to play with food and I want the guest to have new experiences. I have flavour not on my tongue, but in my brain. I want to reproduce nostalgic moments.
“One of the snacks I created was roast chicken with potato. When people shop for a roast chicken at the rotisserie, they take it away in a small bag and you start to smell the flavour of the roast chicken. And then you can’t resist and then eat a piece of the chicken skin, which is crunchy and tastes good. So I created this snack with the roasted chicken, where the skin is cooked with rice. Then I adjusted the snack using potato, which absorbs the flavour of the chicken and is crunchy. Guests have told me this is the best chicken they have ever tasted.”
What kinds of ingredients do you use? “I use ingredients both local and from around the world. I am the first chef in the world to prepare katsuobushi with veal. Typically it is dried fermented skipjack tuna made into bonito flakes. A Japanese TV show made a documentary about me explaining how I make katsuobushi with veal in Italy, and they invited me to Japan to look at how authentic katsuobushi is made.”
What was it like getting a Michelin star, in 2013? “If you are in the middle of nowhere, Michelin shines a light on your restaurant. Two years after I opened Krèsios, I got a Michelin star, but I don’t work for the star, I work for the happiness of the guest.”
What do you like about Chinese food? “I love to cook with the wok. I was in Beijing three years ago on a TV programme that featured a Chinese chef and me, an Italian chef. While I was there I spent one week in Yunnan, learning how to pick Puer tea leaves and make tea. I insisted on eating the same food the farmers ate. I wanted to eat the food they eat every day, eggs with pork, bamboo shoots and chicken feet.”
Giuseppe Iannotti was recently a guest chef at Octavium, in Central.
