Our editor Pietro Pio Pitzalis' interview with Massimiliano Alajmo at Identità Golose 2025: the three-starred chef talks about his philosophy, experimentation at Le Calandre, and his recent speech during the congress.
Massimiliano, tell us a little bit about this congress and your intervention.
The intervention we made with Corrado (Assenza, ed.) is related to a reading, if you will, of time, the future and what is being demanded today, that is, the very demand of novelty. So, we tried a little bit to analyze these themes around a leitmotif that is “The sense in the senses”; a title that represents a question, but also an answer. We tried to bring through the elaboration of some thoughts the use of our sensoriality. In this specific case, I delved into the theme of tactility: gestural tactility, but also palatal! Everything about processing the data that we receive, that we assimilate, the perceptions that we have, trying to mark the difference between sensation and perception. Corrado talked a lot about gesture: the value of gesture, the union of gesture.
We talked about what is the sense of time, the perception of time; therefore, how to experience time and where to find the future. In my opinion, we find the future in the present. We could give the example of sowing, planting a seed for tomorrow and at the same time leading us to reap a legacy from the past. The key is to live each gesture and intention with awareness, so that we can use all the tools we have and not be used by them. In my opinion we need a kind of rehumanization of man, an awareness of the extraordinary machine that is the human body. Our body is incredible, allowing us to process, store and record a wide range of data. Then we reprocess it, and somehow figure out what the next steps are.
A very interesting reflection. Let's talk instead about the group's flagship restaurant, Le Calandre, your “environment”-what can you tell us about it, in what direction is it going?
Le Calandre is a bit of an expression of the kind of fine dining that we intimately love: always very essential in form, in the sense that removing the trappings we try to prioritize the essence of things. At the same time, we try to correspond to the needs of those who sit at our table, centralizing the guest-who is not a consumer. In the podium we always put the customer, who must have the opportunity to choose, to feel welcomed, to experience the banquet in an extraordinary way. The context they are in, the set of relationships, is not just food: the food we serve must be offered in a way that brings ease to people. That's kind of in a nutshell the summary-then, through what and how, those are modalities. But the intention is really vertical about caring for our guest.
Are you experimenting with any particular techniques, any new things, compared to all the other things you've done so far?
We do a lot of research, we always want to delve into details and select new food artisans to enhance the products; we also try to understand what has gone before, to analyze the present, to intercept what can be in line with this historical period.
