Matteo Ragni. The man, the designer and the design on Milanoincontemporanea

Interviewing Matteo Ragni? It’s a pleasure and mostly an honor for Milanoincontemporanea to host this succesfull designer, a Master in creativity and artworks whose projects are also been exhibited at MOMA NY.

We told about him during Milan Design Week for Camparitivo in Triennale and then in Andrea Cova’s interview (here the link!).

Love for his job – the Design – ,  intelligence and a deep know-how that makes us to understand the importance of his cultural responsability: don’t miss it!continua a leggere Matteo Ragni. The man, the designer and the design on Milanoincontemporanea

Andrea Cova’s Food Art: a showroom of Italian Taste @ Porta Genova – Part 2

….  from yesterday


Was it for Matteo Ragni and Boccone Divino the same? Now it is exhibited exclusively, but we showed it at a preview during Design Week (we were the first official event!); then it became a performance for all the Week long. The dish, that cost 15€ and was dedicated to the event, was served on the Matteo Ragni’s plate. It was unique, unusual and complete: Netherlands flowers with pepper and honey. Plate and dish created my concept of clean- dish, different flavours that arouse the mouth. The basis is the respect for the raw material and what I put in (concept that we immediately understand opening the menu).

About this partnership: what can you tell us? We met during a happy hour: he appreciated the idea and the concept of Food Art. In two weeks the dish was ready, thanks to the collaboration of Andrea Oli of DuPoint, the company that produce Corean and other materials – where Matteo Ragni works as art director. The shape of the dish came from the wave of the taste that, from the table, develops to the delicacy, what you leave last. An artwork that combines form and function, just as the original design concept was. As I value the material, the plate values the dish. I think Matteo is the real designer: this is the reason why I like his works. See the shape: there are both poetic – wave taste and practice, a tool to lift up the clean line that is a whole with the table. The shape combines functionality and art.

Nice idea! Yes, the dish was created for us by Matteo Ragni as a unique work that has been launched during Design Week 2010. Then, the idea evolved, enjoyed the customers for its creativity and today we’re organizing a charity dinner for Unicef: we’ll give the 50 “Boccone Divino” limited edition dishes all the customers will come in.

Suggest me the top 5 dishes to try! It’s difficult to say: many dishes are out of the menu because of our Food Art idea. Now, I’m very glad to suggest the Sicilian scampi flamed and served with almond culis of Biscay anchovy citrus and fennel salad with a creamy goat cheese or the cream lightened. This is a regional dish: I have discovered that regional pairings are the best to come out.It seems that the ingredients of a land they were born have to stay together. The same goes for wine. In fact, the best match for this dish is Planeta, a Sicilian wine. Another special dish is Black Venus risotto, crispy, served with a sauce of citrus and a north sea scallops blackened: a complete dish with ingredients that do not dominate but they embrace each another. Every plate is technically studied to get the best compared to what was the original recipe.

The dish not to miss? Now I would say the Paccheri or a marinated Black Code. This is a fish marinated two days in a cream derived from the processing of soybean pods and which goes added only a little ‘sugar and it’s seared in a pan and served baked. This is the representation of Umami, the embrace of all flavors – sweet,salty, bitter and spicy thanks to tears of chili. Academically and technically are perfect and balanced. But even with the Nighiri Sea anchovy Cantabrian – which is the best anchovies in the world –
is a perfect example of the fusion of worlds and combinations. With such a taste you can say goodbay to pools soy!

Interviewer: Paola Perfetti
Transleater: Giulia Perfetti

In Italian

Andrea Cova’s Food Art: a showroom of Italian Taste @ Porta Genova – Part 1

Andrea Cova is 24 years old, and he belongs a project that is a success, even if it is just four years old.

Andrea Cova is not a chef, but he knows “how to do”.

I don’t cook. I create” – he says.

A conceptual cuisine. He doesn’t cook, but he is able to. He knows how to combine ingredients (he studied comparing). So, he can produce an excellent combination of science and taste: this is what he offers both in his Food Art and catering.

He studied all types of restaurants, costumers and food. It has been a sort of evolution.

For more than a year, the restaurant was a workshop of ideas, where you can study, doing experiments (sometimes successful and sometimes not).

“Changes in taste, and non – stop studies. Everything was so funny!”

Why a new restaurant in Via Vigevano 34, in Porta Genova? This area is very interesting because of the real people that live here. At the beginning, there were workers and little factories; then fashion and design factories. Real people work in creativity fields, in different ways and trends. They appreciate our working philosophy. I have a good relationship with customers that come in lunch time. I love this world: we are like a laboratory that creates tastes. When we decided to enlarge the restaurant, we also decided to stay close to this area to maintain this concept.

What do you mean by “enlarge”? The new restaurant will be bigger and more current than the one that is today. It’s good, but now there are new colours and trends. It’s a new circle, cleaner and more natural that will be in the new location in via Vigevano 10, 200m away.

Which are your costumers? From a survey, we know that 70% are women between 30-35 years old, with a particular ideology, philosophy, and an open mind that let they appreciate what is quality and what it is not. They support our working philosophy.

What is quality? I mean a 360° quality: this is a taste-house. Our welcome, when you sit down, when you look at what is around you and finally what you eat: all these parts are important. But we are in a restaurant, so eating is the base. Quality, research and attention of the products make you feel good in a place that makes you feel good, too. We are what we eat: eating good means living good.

Is it too expensive? It’s not an affair about the price, but it’s on the quality. That is not always expensive. Today, quality means healthy products. If you cream a risotto with potato cream and not butter, you don’t weigh down your body and you don’t have an additional cost. Behind this dish, there is a study made in order to have a health, tasty and pleasant dish. Quality means research.

Food Art was born in order to… I think it’s important to have a place where you can feel good. I come from interior design world. During the last four years it has been an evolution, a change that reached this sector. As an “officer works” I was ignoran, but I ate in every kind of restaurant. As a costumer, I knew what I would, than I started to get all these things in my project. By the smile when you walk in, to the memory of your dish, then the study of what we offer you. In my place, everything is in just to make you feel good.

How can you combine quality with low cost and maintain a high level of clientele? We are not talking about low cost, but it’s an honest cost. Low cost means low quality, because raw materials are proportional to the cost. “Honesty” is different. For
example, our fish, that is one of our main raw materials. With farmed fish I use low cost and I offer low quality: that fish was fatten with feeds and had defects that change its taste and organism. On the contrary, fished fish means more costs but better organism. Another example: 150 grams of Kobe fillet, the most precious meat, (140€ per Kg): here it costs 35€. You pay more than any other dish in another restaurant, but you pay 10€ more than a pizza for a product that costs ten times more. This is honesty.

What about Menu Lunch? It is our business card and advertising made by and for people that taste and like our products. We let people try our products and their quality with under- cost (and
not low cost!). If there is the word-of-mouth advertising and costumers return … here it is our success. We make them understand what does it mean feeling good, eating
healthy, being served in the right way, and feeling ok in this atmosphere.

Without frills? Theme nights? Music? There were, but we stopped it . On September the Moondays will start again. Every first Monday of the month, we organize parties that involve art and design world, with previews inside the restaurant. The artworks will be exhibited for the next month: the art event becomes party.

… to be continued …

Interviewer: Paola Perfetti
Transleater: Giulia Perfetti

In Italian