CNN — Perhaps because it’s so darned delicious, there isn’t generally much radical experimentation done with Italian food – except for that disastrous incident when someone put pineapple on a pizza.
Which is why young Italian chef Valerio Braschi’s bizarre fine dining creations —including a toothpaste tube full of lasagna— are causing such a stir in Rome. Braschi, 24, has been pushing the boundaries of classic cuisine at Ristorante 1978, a Michelin Guide-listed venue in the Italian capital’s chic Trieste Salario district, in the hope of surprising diners, treating them to new taste sensations and confounding their expectations.
“My desire to experiment with daring new flavors and concoctions by creating new combinations is infinite, there are no boundaries in cuisine and I believe you must be open to everything,” Braschi tells CNN.”I want my clients to be flabbergasted at the sight of my dishes, and then realize once they’ve had the first bite – ‘oh, yes’ – that they recognize that flavor as lasagna because their granny made it each weekend.”Italians say “eating starts with the eyes,” and it’s certainly worth feasting on the photos of some of Braschi’s extraordinary creations.
A creamy mix of beef ragout, béchamel, nutmeg and lasagna distillate is squeezed from a toothpaste tube onto a “toothbrush” of oven-baked egg pasta.” The idea is to mimic the ritual of washing your teeth with the lasagna ingredients. My brother and I loved eating at breakfast the leftovers, cold from the fridge. It brings back memories of my granny, it’s a taste of her,” says Braschi, who says he loved how the cold lasagna bits stuck between his teeth. At the end of the course, parmigiano reggiano cheese “water” is drunk as a mouthwash. Braschi aims to destabilize the eater by the way this composite dish is presented – and eaten.
