By Sourish Bhattacharyya
Pasqualino Barbasso,
the Sicilian pizzaiolo from Cammarata, may be the pizza world's 'twirling
dervish', but he says he's as good as the 70-odd original pizzas in his repertoire, which is why he's so picky about his flour. Barbossa can be seen in action at the Mumbai JW Marriott's Lotus Cafe (9:30 p.m.) and Mezzo Mezzo (10:30 p.m.) daily till May 17.
WHEN Pasqualino
Barbasso says he's a Bollywood star, he may be exaggerating slightly, but
it is true that he appeared in the Suzuki Slingshot television commercial a
couple of years before he wowed diners with his pizza acrobatics at Lotus Cafe,
the all-day restaurant at the JW Marriott in Mumbai, a couple of days ago.
When Pasqualino Barbasso twirls his dough, the world watches him with unmistakable awe |
Two-time pizza acrobatics world
champion, Barbasso spins faster than the front wheel of a motorcycle on top
gear and whirls like a dervish who has just encountered God, but his pizzas
make you ask for more as much as his gyrations with pizza dough. "My
guests come to my restaurant expecting to have something more than pizzas, but
unless I get my pizzas right, why would they want to come in the first
place?" asked the good-natured pizzaiolo after I couldn't stop praising his
Arrotolata.
The objects of my admiring gaze were
the rolled-up pizzas with artichoke puree, artichokes and mozzarella as the
base, topped up with bresaola (delicious
air-dried aged beef, which originated in Valtellina, an Alpine valley in Lombardy),
arugula (rocket) and slivers of Parmigiano Reggiano.
We were at the JW Marriott's Mezzo
Mezzo restaurant, with its gregarious, much-tattooed Italian Chef, Davide Cananzi, whom many of you will
remember from his days at the Hyatt Regency and The Park in Kolkata. Married to
an Indian and the ambassador for India of the worldwide organisation of Italian
chefs, CIM, Cananzi, a Sardinian who grew up in Tuscany, wasn't stretching the
truth when he said he had to sweat to get Barbasso to Mumbai -- "as the
saying goes in Italy," he said, "I lost 70 shirts before the world
champion chef agreed to come" (for his third visit to India).
Barbasso, seen wearing a white apron at the far end of this screen shot, first came to India in 2012 to shoot for a Suzuki Sling Shot motorcycle television commercial |
Barbasso is also very picky about the
flour he uses, so Cananzi had to really sweat to locate the flour that would
satisfy the world champion. "Each flour is different from the other, "and
once you get the flour right, with the right proteins and the desirable degree
of elasticity, making a good pizza becomes easy." The sign of a good
pizza, Cananzi pointed out, is that even after it's been on the table for five
or ten minutes, if you lift one slice up, it doesn't droop -- that's the first
sign of a perfect crust. Cananzi, to prove his point, held up a slice of Sapori
Di Bosco, which is another of Barbasso's signature pizzas topped up with Mozzarella,
Italian tomatoes, porcini, pork sausage and pepperoni.
Cananzi's effort must have paid off, for
pictures and videos of Barbasso's gravity-defying opening performance at Lotus
Cafe on the night of May 9 are all over Facebook and Twitter. The hotel
couldn't have asked for more copious user-generated publicity. Back at Mezzo
Mezzo, Barbasso recounted how it took him a week of training followed by
unrelenting practice for a year to become a champion pizza acrobat.
After he wore the crown in two successive
world championships, Barbasso is in demand all over. His international tours,
which took off with Beirut more than a decade ago, keep him away from home and
his pizzeria Falco Azzurro (at Cammarata in central Sicily) one to
three times a month. Rave reviews have ensured he now lives out of suitcases
for the better part of each month. He arrived in Mumbai, for instance, after
performances in Japan and from there, he will fly to Shanghai.
He may be an international star, but Barbasso
has no doubts about one thing. He's as good as his last pizza, so he keep
innovating without getting too dramatic
about it. I tasted the power of his simplicity in his Asparagi e Salmone pizza,
a delicately balanced combination of asparagus puree, asparagus, mozzarella, smoked
salmon and herbed ricotta cheese.
Barbasso has shown the world you can
make memorable pizzas without using tomato puree, but first you've got to get
your flour right. He's also leaving behind a legacy at Mezzo Mezzo, which, by
the way, means half and half in Italian. He has created a Mezzo Mezzo pizza, one-half
of which will have his favourite Indian dish, palak paneer, and the other half, shahi paneer, with mozzarella of course and speck (or strips of pork
fat, in the non-vegetarian half).
My Mezzo Mezzo experience would've remained
incomplete, had I left without Cananzi's famous tiramisu, which he served, in
the old southern style, out of a large bowl. It is made with ingredients Italians
have used traditionally to create this iconic dessert -- mascarpone, savoiardi (ladyfinger) biscuits, egg
yolks, espresso and sugar. In this particular tiramisu, though, the most
important ingredient is mother's love.
Cananzi's mother shared the recipe
with him and she gets mighty upset if he attempts to tweak it even a bit. You
can cut through the dessert, layer after layer, the mascarpone making way for
the savoiardi core soaked in coffee, all
combining to give you a heavenly experience. This is one recipe Cananzi refuses
to share. So be it, as long as he's happy to keep serving it.
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