Gennaro Esposito has a tangy tomato sauce inspired by his Michelin-star restaurant set in a 1,300 year-old watch-tower
Naples' chef Gennaro Esposito surrounds himself with creativity - from listening to music (including Radiohead) when conjuring up a new dish to bottling his quintessential tomato sauce, so his recipes can be reinterpreted in our own kitchens.
In his home town of Naples he spent his teenage summers in taverns, chopping veg and learning his trade, and later trained with the likes of such celebrated chefs as Vissani and Ducasse. He started out making lasagne and sea bream and, forty years later, in his two Michelin-star restaurant, La Torre del Saracino, he still does (with a tad more ingenuity than in his tavern days).
Gennaro Esposito - Chef"The dishes are completely different, as are the cooking techniques," says Gennaro, whose talent - after two decades of experience - lets him toy with culinary rules and devise daring combinations for Italian classics. He has been feted for his baby squid stuffed with provola cheese and candied lemon, and Vittoria’s babà with custard and berries. Now Gennaro's take on a lasagne includes the most elegant envelope of Norway lobster, anchovies and cuttlefish. And his “egg in purgatory” with its tomato sauce, white truffle slices and raw, hot shrimp is based on culinary core values as familiar as they are irrefutable.
He opened La Torre del Saracino in 1992 in a 1,300-year-old watch tower with a picture-perfect location, in front of the Seiano marina with the Vico Equense mountain as backdrop. Gennaro believes the skill of the professional chef is ''to create a small artwork''.
He explains: "I try to imagine a modern cuisine, that strikes a chord of emotion," he says. "I like to think that my dish is unique, different... morsel after morsel, it is something you will have never tasted before, in no other place".
"From one same product you can get even 10 to 12 ingredients", he told L'Uomo Vogue. "From cuttlefish you can use the black ink, the eggs, the liver, for example. These are the chef's skills and insight of the chef - the same things, cooked in different ways, will evidently give different flavours".
His cellar is largely faithful to the classics, highlighting whites from the Alto Adige and Veneto regions, and reds from Tuscany and Piedmont.
In 2003 Gennaro founded the Festa a Vico, a festival which takes over town annually. What started out as friends getting together with their charasmatic friend has now become a must-visit for gourmands each June, with the likes of Ernesto Iaccarino, Mauro Uliassi, and Andrea Berton, along with international guests, in attendance.
Since 1992, when Gennaro opened La Torre del Saracino with his wife, pastry-chef Vittoria Aiello (who also manages the room), he has been awarded Gambero Rosso's three forks (in 2003) and Michelin Star no. 2 (in 2008). Now he has developed a range of signature products insp, including a range of excellent tomato sauces (Available from www.maisondelgusto.com).
He sources his tomatoes from a family grower at the foot of the volcano Vesuvio and Gennaro bottles them as his mother (a chef, too) taught him in his childhood - quartering the tomatoes and leaving on the peel (to the mineral content). If a trip to La Torre isn't feasible, these sublime sauces will inspire a taste of the experience.
