Maura Zanusso, Restaurant Chef at the Jové Kitchen & Bar at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, shares his special approach to modern Italian cuisine.
Mauro Zanusso, restaurant chef at Jové Kitchen & Bar at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach in Palm Beach, Fla., was recently featured by the Palm Beach (Fla.) Daily News.
Italian cuisine is a rich tapestry woven of threads from la buona cucina, or home cooking, the Daily News wrote, and Zanusso typifies the trend of how new generations of innovative Italian chefs have modernized family fare, by recreating classical recipes and presenting them with exciting flourishes while still staying true to the origins of the original dish.
Chefs like Zanusso may leave Italy, but they always take their food and culture with them, the Daily News wrote.
Zanusso was born in Biella, a town in the foothills of the Alps in Piedmont, the Daily News reported. His decision to become a professional chef was made in his early teens. He began with pastry courses and shortly after switched to an intensive culinary program.
By 22, he had finished school, moved to England and found work at the first Italian Michelin star restaurant in London, the Daily News reported. He learned the finer points of making risotto, using as a base the recipes of Gualtiero Marchesi, who is credited with being the founder of modern Italian cuisine.
Zanusso has lived and worked all over the world, the Daily News reported, and his experiences and travels have influenced his special approach to Italian cuisine. He has given a lot of thought and testing to dishes he creates.
The Daily News article then featured a menu, with recipe tips, of dishes that reflect Jové’s modern Italian style:
Caprese—A traditional Italian recipe that, as the name represents, is originally from the Island of Capri and consists of tomatoes from the Sorrento coast, buffalo mozzarella, salt, basil and oregano. Modifications made by Zanusso to the classic recipe included the additions of balsamic vinegar, basil pesto and ground pepper.
Zanusso provided the Daily News with these tips for making the dish:
– Burrata is fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella, and the inside is soft mozzarella and cream. The mozzarella or burrata should be taken out of the refrigerator at least one hour before serving the salad, and it should be seasoned only with extra-virgin olive oil.
– The basil should be shredded by hand, right before serving the dish.
– At Jové, heirloom tomatoes of different varieties are used, such as red Brandywine, Cherokee purple and gold medal, all grown locally. The burrata mozzarella and basil microgreens also come from local suppliers.
Saffron Risotto with Lump Crabmeat—Risotto is one of the culinary milestones of Italian cuisine, the Daily News noted. From the north to the south, there are thousands of recipes, all finished in different ways. Everything must be taken into consideration when cooking a risotto – the kind of rice, the pot, the spoon, the stock, the temperature and the timing.
The Saffron and Lump Crab Risotto made by Zanusso at Jové is a modern take on the classic risotto Milanese, where the saffron and crab combine perfectly with an addition of green peas.
Zanusso likes his risotto al dente, meaning the grains retain a little bite. This is one of the most difficult parts about cooking risotto, he noted. The other is the finalization; no matter what you put into it, the result has to have a creamy, smooth consistency. It is what Italians call “all’onda,” Zanusoo explained, meaning “the wave”— when the risotto should be creating a wave when you move the pot up and down.
For perfect risotto, Zanusso told the Daily News, cover the rice with just enough stock and don’t overload it—otherwise the rice will boil and lose its shape. The grains should be infused with the stock. Simmer gently instead of boiling; this will help retain a better percentage of starch.
Once the rice is cooked to your taste, let the risotto rest for two minutes and then add the ingredients to finalize it. This will allow the cheese and butter to incorporate like a cream, instead of melting and liquifying.
Vitello Tonnato—One of the masterpieces of Piedmont cuisine, this dish consists of a slow-cooked veal tenderloin or loin, with a rich sauce of capers, tuna in brine, anchovies and mayonnaise, alongside a fresh salad. The meat is sliced thin, with house-dried tomatoes, celery with lemon zest, and quail eggs infused with coffee.
It is important, Zanusso told the Daily News, to cook the meat slowly, in a rich aromatic broth, and then to let the meat rest overnight in the refrigerator before cutting it into thin slices. For the sauce, always use homemade mayonnaise, he counseled–it will keep the sauce sweeter, and the flavor of the tuna will have a better balance.
When it comes to cooking in general, Zanusso told the Daily News, “you should never pretend that those simple things are done all by themselves. They could turn into your worst mistake.”
Zanusso’s recipes:
Saffron Risotto with Lump Crab
Vitello Tonnato
Salad Caprese
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