A Call to Chefs: Stop Raping Carpaccio!
Carpaccio, a delicious Italian classic that needs very little. Delicate, thinly sliced pieces of beef, lightly kissed by a few simple yet effective ingredients: a drizzle of good olive oil, some Parmesan cheese, a little salt, coarsely ground pepper and some arugula. And perhaps a few pine nuts. Simple, elegant, and above all: pure. It’s a dish that proves that less really is more. So why on earth do some chefs think it’s a good idea to transform this dish into a tasteless mess full of gimmicks?
Carpaccio: how to expertly rape a classic
It happened to me again recently. I went out for dinner and carpaccio was on the menu. Great! I was looking forward to it! But what appeared on my plate? Thinly sliced beef, yes. But on top of it was a horrendously thick layer of truffle mayonnaise, capers, pieces of smoked almonds (?!), lots of hard pieces of aged cheese and—yes, it gets worse: balsamic glaze and red onion. Of course, none of this misery had been mentioned beforehand.
‘Classic carpaccio’ was what the menu said. If you, as a chef, dare to serve this, you might as well join the mafia with that much nerve in your body. Carpaccio is a subtle masterpiece that needs only a few ingredients to shine. When you decide to ‘improve’ it by throwing an entire color palette of unnecessary junk on top, that isn’t creative—it’s culinary vandalism.
Treat a classic with respect
Chefs who say they are giving classic dishes a ‘modern twist’ have the problem that they don’t know where the line between innovation and complete sacrilege lies. Why would you want to change a dish that is perfect in its simplicity so drastically? Why does a dish centered around the flavor of the meat suddenly become a sweet mess with sauces and other nonsense, as if it were a (poorly executed) salad?
Hence this appeal to experimental chefs: let yourselves be inspired by Italian cuisine as it was intended: with respect for simplicity, reverence for flavor, and without the urge to give everything a twist.
Don’t do this to carpaccio
The meat itself should be almost translucent and doesn’t need camouflage; don’t drown it in sauce! Overloading it with all sorts of things? Don’t! Smoked almonds, capers, red onion?! If your carpaccio looks like a Christmas tree, you’ve gone too far. And on top of that, don’t you dare charge 18 euros for it.
In short: keep it simple, respect the Italian tradition and let the meat be the star. Because when you do that properly, carpaccio is one of the most refined and flavorful dishes you can eat.
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