MILLE&UNBABA 2023
A few days ago I got a message saying: “You would be there?” with the invitation for the second edition of the competition attached Mille&UnBaba which was to be held at the Roof Garden Anjou of the Renaissance Naples Hotel Mediterraneo, a Napoli. If only all the messages I receive were like this!
Il 20 March Daniela and I therefore met on one of the most beautiful terraces in Naples moved by the usual commonality of intent: observe and – for consistency with the editorial line! – taste the proposals competing for the title of best contemporary baba.
The jury, chaired by Sal De Riso, was composed of Antimo Caputo of Mulino Caputo; Salvatore Capparelli from the pastry shop of the same name in Naples; Charles Pozza by the Academy of Italian Pastry Chefs e Sabatino Sirica, historic point of reference for traditional Neapolitan pastry.
The participants: Alessia Rosellino, dalla Pastry Seagull Last but Pompei; Beatrice Busatta, titolare della Sweet and savory BaBu pastry of Vicenza; Maria Varone, Pastry Chef dell’Hilton Sorrento Palace; Luca Borgioli, della Gabardine pastry shop of Montemurlo, in the province of Prato; Guglielmo Cavezza, titolare della Mommy Cafe pastry shop of Cicciano in the province of Naples; Jean Christiansen, of The French Square di Roma; Joseph Cristofaro, della La Dolce Voglia pastry shop of Frattaminore in the province of Naples; Robert Mature, from the family bakery The Sweet Stop of Cusano Mutri in the province of Benevento; Fabio Scozzafava, master pizza maker specializing in gluten-free and lactose-free pastry at the Happy restaurant of Lucca.
The contestants had the opportunity to present their works to the jury, at the same time as the evaluation tasting, telling the concept around which they developed the final product and answering some technical questions regarding the recipe or processing.
Someone, come Beatrice Busatta, he explained that he wanted to interpret the contemporary spirit by developing a less sugary product and focusing on unusual ingredients, expressed by a white chocolate cream and peas, pea sprouts and dehydrated edible flowers.
Others, come Luca Borgioli, they told the evolution of a babà component of a structured dessert; in his case, Babà 13 21 (dai 1321 km separating Naples from Vienna) è il trait d’union between the babà and the sacher, a cocoa leavened product filled with apricot jelly, covered with sacher icing and finished with creamy dark chocolate and apricot caviar.
At first glance at the display tables, confirmed later by tasting, it actually seemed that the pastry chefs chose to develop the concept of "contemporary babà" following two very distinct lines of thought: some played the baba while maintaining his classic presentation, leaving the leavened product exposed and channeling the search for a contemporary expression in the search for ingredients and complex fillings or declining a single ingredient in several preparations; others, invece, have imagined the baba as the main element of a single portion desserts with stratifications and games of textures.
Maria Varone has created one of the desserts formally closest to tradition by proposing a babà with a bittersweet taste entirely dedicated to Sorrentine blonde, the Sorrento orange. Interpreting contemporaneity as linearity of taste and shapes, emphasis on km0 and enhancement of the product, of the fruit were used pulp, peel and leaves in different preparations; even the aesthetics of the babà seemed to pick up again, in optical illusion, the shape of an orange.
Guglielmo Cavezza, instead he chose for his own WARNING' the shape of savarin, also left exposed. Using raspberry in the dough of a deep red, in the bath with Piedmontese raspberry liqueur and alone to top the dessert, the savarin contained a cream of Campania buffalo ricotta and a dollop of chocolate mousse which, to my taste, perhaps excessively dampened the well-present acidulous freshness of the raspberry.
Jean Christiansen he in turn chose the shape of the savarin for his dessert, rather traditional in its presentation at theplate. Accompanied by creamy bourbon vanilla and citrus fruits in different processes, it was flamed at the table with Grand Marnier selected for its aromatic profile similar to vanilla and bitter orange.
Joseph Cristofaro con ‘In my life exhibited another dessert conceptually closer to the modern single portion: a conical shape of chocolate, created without molds and inspired by the profile of Vesuvius, filled with vanilla mousse and a really excellent ancienne hazelnut praline. The baba, classic and well soaked, it represented its heart conceptually and structurally; a heart that was perhaps a little overwhelmed by the exuberance of the dessert.
Robert Mature along with Bababirra di Bosco he replaced the rum syrup with one made with Sannio cherry beer and stuffed the babà, in whose recipe he uses a lactose-free butter obtained from the union of cocoa butter and olive oil, with strawberry compote and nougat sablé.
Fabio Scozzafava instead, he made sweets from the Caputo flour line with Fioreglut Baba Tiramisu, a glass dessert inspired by the classic tiramisu with lactose-free mascarpone cream, coffee caviar, wet with rum and coffee.
It is the only dessert of the competition that we were unable to taste because it was out of stock; I was curious to try the gluten-free texture of a dessert like babà, in which the processing of the gluten mesh to obtain good honeycombing and elasticity is usually of primary importance: in this case it was obtained from a dough that was necessarily unworkable according to the traditional recipe.
Alessia Rosellino, winner of this second edition, along with Baba Symphony perhaps she managed to combine the two different approaches to the idea of the contemporary by proposing a babà with a cubic shape, left visible but conceptually designed with the same technique as many single-portion desserts today: pochées strawberry filling, crunchy with almonds and creamy with vanilla and topped with a hemisphere of Ciaculli mandarin mousse, unanimously obtained the favor of the judges – and ours.