Italian Food Secret N°1: Liguria

Luca Collami: The homemade Chef!

Liguria - Italian Region

His name is Luca Collami and obviously he is Italian by birth.
More precisely,  he is from Liguria, a coastal region of north-westernItaly.
Just a few words to speak about himself, just only one paragraph to answer to my many and curious questions.

Actually, as I later understood, the life story of a Chef can be told with great effect only through the character and quality of his cuisine and his restaurant. But a detail always makes the difference, and it leaves a mark in a chef career forever: his nationality.

Chef Luca Collami - Genova, Liguria
When he told me that he defines himself “an homemade chef”, suddenly my childhood comes to mind, when I used to wait for the dinner time surrounded by the delicious and good smell of my mom dishes… so, go back as I did to your most genuine food memory and enjoy the 1^st CHIC experience in the amazing world of the Italian Cuisine.

Mister Luca Collami comes from Genova, the land of the focaccia, the pesto sauce, the trofie and, first of all, a city so closer to the sea that the salty water becomes part of you... and you grow up believing that food, like several other things, is best when left to its own simple beauty.

Italian Dish by Chef Luca Collami

As his city, also his culinary passion is strongly linked to the Mediterranean Sea and marked by the rhythms of the seasons.
Using some specific contrasts and adjectives, Chef Collami is able to get a vivid and convincing picture of what its dishes are: traditional but creative, sophisticated but tasty, seafood based recipes, but sometimes with a transgression towards alternative meats plates. Instinct and creativity, tradition and experimentation, professionalism and hospitality: all of these ingredients are mixed in his culinary art that you can find also in his restaurant, the “Baldin”.

Baldin Restaurant in Genova, Italy

Don’t you believe that an Italian Chef is able to do all of this?
Try one of his best personal recipe of Cappon Magro with green sauce and fishes, steamed vegetables and some “Galletta del Marinaio” (a typical ligurian bread)!
Mister Collami reveals to Charming Italy Readers his cooking secret with an except from his recipes book. This italian dish has an additional value because it brings with itself a pinch of Ligurian history and the signature of an excellent Italian Chef.

Cappon Magro by Chef Luca Collami

Cappon Magro Recipe
Ingredients:
5 small mixed fish fillets (snappers, saddler breams, atlantic horse mackerels, goatfish,  european hakes)
Norway lobster
1 shrimp
1 oyster
1 scallop
Bottarega (dryed  fish eggs)
Vegetables as needed (carrots, potatoes, zucchini, cauliflower)
Some galletta del marinaio

Method
Boil the fish and the vegetables
Making of green sauce
Mix 2 clusters of parsley with a handful of salted or pickled capers, 2 spoons of  pickled vegetables, 1 hard boiled egg, 1 milk soaked bread, 2 garlic cloves, 6 salted anchovies in oil, oil as needed.
Present it in a large plate with a Galletta del marinaio on the centre softened with oil and vinegar, frosted with green sauce. Arrange all around a sliced beetroot, the warm fishes and shellfish with vegetables. Frost it with a little oil and basil.

A special thanks to
Luca Collami
CHIC's association
Stefania Miglio

Live a true culinary Italian experience at home, try the recipe and wait for the 2^nd issue on tuesday ;)
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