Claudio Sadler: a chef with ideas and projects

He dreams to revive a restaurant in Tokyo or to create a line of products with his brand. His cooking is volcanic and innovative but he does not like to deconstruct for reconstructing

by Monica Sommacampagna

A passion feeds the other: this is particularly true for Claudio Sadler, who by his love for modern art "draws" dishes that are refined balance of tone color, nuances taste, smells. The same decor of his restaurant in Milan (one of the three, also has a banquet service), fulfills the criteria of rigor and elegance.
He is loved also in Japan and America, awarded two stars by Michelin, this chef is called manager "transgressive enough ', volcanic and innovative. Up to that point? We discover in this interview orchestrated while Sadler was in Japan. Understand from his words so his revolutionary and conservative together. From the words, then, to recipes, the pitch is very short ...

-What is your culinary philosophy?
I love cooking with impress tastes, but prepared with refined technique and sense of design: the combination of ingredients should be supported by a harmony of taste and color. I love to follow the seasonal products, taking inspiration from traditional regional recipes related and combine them in a modern way, using local products and certificates. I do not like to deconstruct for reconstructing, is a double effort, and perhaps with questionable results. Cooking for me is not only innovate but also to preserve the traditions, making changes that the change of time requires us, I just try to do that with some time in advance. A kitchen "evolutionary".

-In what sense is considered a manager creative and rigorous but also transgressive in the kitchen?
Often I went and go against the tide, compared to many of my colleagues ... manager. Maybe it's because I have always accepted many business challenges, but this has allowed me, from scratch, to have two restaurants, a banqueting service and a variety of interests including consultancy in Italy.

-What does it mean for you today highlight the Italian cuisine in all its aspects, in Italy and the world?
For me, the main boundaries in cooking are the foreign ones. In Italy I feel free to move without limits on the territory, I love the creative cuisine, but based on regional recipes with roots from which to develop and modernize. I like to think of contributing to safeguarding our food heritage, innovating with creativity but with substance, defies inventions made just uprooted to amaze.

-What does it mean for you to be creative in the kitchen? What is the limit and what the point of arrival?
As I said before, edit and even inventing recipes, but after all these inventions, unstructured, for me, there is need for order and safety for those who eat: we must get to the point that the dishes or menus proposed tests become for our customers, nor make the case that, for our satisfaction and the desire to surprise, we are not included. The restaurant is not an art gallery and the food must first fulfill. The race for innovation is likely to put unscrupulous cooks in constant competition, mislead customers, increasingly reducing the number of people who attend the top restaurants ... "

-The extra virgin olive oil: what are the expressive potential in your kitchen? How many types of uses or offers to the customer?
The extra virgin olive oil is the product that identifies my kitchen, as the Mediterranean. Use any type of oil, nearly all Italian regions: Each oil has its place, and because eighty percent of my dishes are based on fish oils, I privilege Sicily, Umbria, Calabria and Liguria. Of course I would also like everyone else because a Tuscan oil goes up a soup or a savory meat to hold his job ... "

-The wine: how organized her? Why?
"I have about 800 labels, a great job, and a big financial commitment, especially to turn the store adequately. The cellar, if badly managed, can harm the economy clearly has a restaurant, so you have to follow a line of planned purchases, buy what you need in the year, especially with regard to white wines, and give due space to the sparkling champagne, which increasingly are an important budget. Obvious that the passion for a particular type of wine do the task, then as I love Pinot Noir, I have a good selection of Bourgogne Pinot blacks and Italians "

- A project that hopes to achieve
Reviving the Sadler in Tokyo, or create a line of products with my brand.

- If he had not done the chef what he would want to undertake such activities?
I've always tried to do things for the good of others, the surgeon would be a good way, I would have liked if I had the chance. But I really like to be a chef, though it demands a lot of time. "

-One of his dreams ...
Seeing all my business ventures undertaken: ambitious projects, for someone like me who started with a capital of one fact and pure passion for this work.

Sadler
Via Ascanio Sforza, 77
Milano
Tel. 0039.02.58104451
www.sadler.it