Giuseppe Iannotti: "Buffalo mozzarella should be eaten at its source"

Campania is the land of volcanoes, where Giuseppe Iannotti comes from, "where the air smells of sulphur, it is our characteristic". In its capital, Naples, he runs the two-star Krèsios, as well as other concepts such as the café-bistro Luminist, the fine dining restaurant 177 Toledo and 8pus, a fish delivery project. In all of them, he shows the overwhelming creative talent that earned him the title of Best Young Chef in 2012 by Le Guide de L'Espresso, one of the most important guides in Italy, and which he continues to demonstrate today, "trying to make avant-garde cuisine, although I don't mind admitting that the gastronomic avant-garde always comes from Spain".

With a tasting menu that usually consists of 35 steps, for Iannotti "the restaurant is an act of faith, the diner must have total confidence in the chef" and he opts for an intense elaboration of the dishes "but a simple presentation, to avoid stress in the kitchen, so that the diner can live a perfect experience". And, of course, he has come to Lanzarote to defend one of the most important ingredients of his native volcanic cuisine, which, after the piennolo tomato from Vesuvius, is the buffalo mozzarella from Campania. "I am a very bad ambassador for this product, because I believe that it should not be exported; it should be eaten at source and no more than two hours after it has been made, because after that it loses some of its texture and properties," he says.

An extraordinary product in a very simple dish

Buffalo mozzarella from Campania is unique because it depends on the diet of the buffalo, "and its flavour is even divided into two types: that from the area closest to the volcano, which is milder and sweeter, and that from the area further away, which is tastier and has a harder texture", he described. In any case, he warned, "it reaches its maximum expression when it is eaten like an apple, without spices or condiments, and cut by hand rather than with a knife".

And Iannotti ended his presentation with a live cooking demonstration of a traditional Italian dish "that mothers feed their babies with and that we adults still ask them for occasionally", such as a "pastina con formaginno", made with a sweet buffalo mozzarella cheese instead of the white and tasteless one, cooked with the pasta so that it absorbs all the flavour, together with a drizzle of raw oil and Parmesan cheese, and served on a fun children's plate.