AN INTENSE WEEKEND

My flight from Florence is at 12.05. Destination Lyon with a stopover in Amsterdam. We are still in the Covid era, even the flights make weird zigzags.

we fly over the Alps and arrive on the Dutch coast.

I arrive in Lyon at about 5 pm and a distinguished gentleman awaits me at the exit holding a sign with the words Marchel Ansaldo. I guess it’s me. It takes an hour to get downtown. Lyon is big: Mr. Piacenza talks to me about the city and points out the most significant places, including the congress palace designed by Enzo Piano. Lyon is on two rivers, the Saon and the Rhon, as they say here. The pulsating center is on the peninsula at the confluence of the two rivers, the Saone and the Rhone. The medieval quarter is instead beyond the Saon. That’s where we head, past the Red Cross hill and under the Notre Dame de Fourviere basilica.

The Cour des Loges hotel is in the center of the medieval quarter, next to a small square where a soprano is singing Carmen. It was a monastery, then a Jesuit school: the hotel is made up of several buildings and towers, connected by glass roofs: what once were courtyards today are meeting rooms, breakfast rooms, lounges …..

Inside each tower a spiral staircase. I have to go up one to get to my room and I feel like I’m inside The Name of the Rose.

I had dinner here: obviously a pate as an entree

The Notre Dame basilica at the top of the hill and St John’s Cathedral

Narrow streets, squares, chairs and umbrellas: ah, France!

But why am I here?

To prepare a medieval menu as it could have been in Dante’s time. My task was to explain the menu to the guests and explain the cuisine of the 1300s, the how and why, the derivations, interactions, the books that did not exist … direct a team of exceptional chefs, indicate suppliers of specific products and special. The dishes have been developed to adapt them to the context and our taste of the year 2000.

The assignment came from the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Lyon, in the person of the Secretary General Dr Annibale Fracasso di Torrepaduli. A heartfelt thanks to Dr Fracasso and the efficient employee Chaimaa Ifriki. The perfect success of this event is thanks to them and their organization.

Chicken blancmange
Pici with aglione, oil, anchovies, parsley and crispy bread crumbs.
Dome of eggs and artichokes
Quail stuffed with almonds, bacon, raisins
Sweet Wheat Kennel with Sapa and walnuts
Ricciarelli and almond cantucci with Vin Santo

Biancomangiare was served with lemon leaf and gold crumbs

The cooks? here they are:

Chef Antonello Cabras, an exceptional worker, diligent and always smiling, chef Anthony Bonnet of the Cour des Loges, one Michelin star; the sous chef Silver, precious, the one who solves problems in an instant.

Matthieu, a young cook, on the right, joined us

Sous chef Silver and Chef Anthony Bonnet

chef Antonello Cabras and chef Pasquale Califano, a new Frenchman with the verve of Naples

I called them my Guardian Angels: my thanks to these great chefs.

here they are at work: okay chef? do we do this chef? how about cooking the quail chef?

So much work, so much effort, so much emotion.

So many words in front of the public. It was an institutional event and it was not easy to speak in front of many personalities from politics and entrepreneurship.

The evening almost ended in “tarallucci e vino” with Lady Champagne, as I defined her, Marguerite Guyot who came to the kitchen to entice us with one of her fabulous bottles and the consul of Italy in France Pieangelo Cammarota who came to congratulate.