IT’S ALREADY PERFECT…NOW LET’S ADD TRUFFLES
By Chris Bowler (Cristiano Creminelli’s business partner)
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The welcome news arrived Monday: Creminelli Fine Meats has won the 2009 sofi Silver Award in the Meat, Paté and Seafood category for its Tartufo Handcrafted Salami with Black Truffles. We go for the gold at the end of June.
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In the U.S., we love excess. We stack our sandwiches high and lionize the likes of Mario Batali, “Molto Mario”. I, however - although typically American in just about every other way - am a traditionalist when it comes to food. My mouth and stomach have been tutored and refined over five years of living in Italy with its daily courses in the school of Italian food and culture. I have come to agree with most Italians that we Americans generally add at least one ingredient too many to everything we make. (Did that fresh green salad really need fruit and nuts on it?) The logic of simplicity, for me, applies to the Italian staple, salami. If I have some aged cheese on my hands and am looking for a snack, I’d break out the Casalingo or the Sopressata – perhaps the Piccante if I’m feeling aggressive, or the Barolo if I’m feeling reflective. But the Tartufo? I pull that out like a parlor trick, to impress the guests, for them to enjoy…or for Christmas. I think Cristiano would agree with me on this. So, why does Cristiano make it? For fun, really…and because he loves the look in (American) people’s eyes when they taste it.
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Sometimes I think that our Tartufo salami is just another case
of Americans adding one ingredient too many to something that has already arrived at the perfect balance of being abundantly flavorful yet reassuringly simple. We’ve had more than one skeptic and plenty of nay-sayers. In 2008, the comments from the sofi judges on the Tartufo read, “Beautiful; The truffle distracts from the [salami]; I usually dislike truffle flavorings…but this is very subtle, nice!; nice texture”. Notably, the Cacciatore actually received a higher point total with the following comments: “Beautiful; nice product; great taste.” The Sopressata: “superb!” And yet, the judges, almost despite themselves it seems, selected the Tartufo over the others, now two years in a row.
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“Nice”, “great”, “superb”, you lose. “I don’t know if you should have done that”, “are you sure?”, “actually, I think you pulled it off”, you win. I, too, suffer from this American schizophrenia of feeling profound admiration for the European sense of balance and yet loving, needing excess. Perhaps Cristiano’s winning accomplishment is that he managed to do something that hints of American excess and yet remains subtle enough to be considered refined (“…but this is very subtle, nice!”) And, by the way, even those of us who claim to be European-style epicurean minimalists would NEVER! turn down an invitation to dine at Babbo.
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