Corrado Assenza

Chef, SICILY

Born in Noto in the early 1960s, after high school he enrolled in the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bologna, where he met Giorgio Celli, who made him fall in love with entomology, pushing him to specialize in beekeeping. In fact, however, the nostalgia for his land did not take long to make itself felt, and so in 1985, before graduating, he returned to his hometown, to work in the family pastry shop, the famous Caffè Sicilia, which has now become the "sancta sanctorum ”of the ancient Sicilian confectionery art. Corrado Assenza's desserts shy away from what may appear to be manneristic perfect geometries with a lacquered appearance, in fact the aim of his creations is to bring to life the anarchic beauty of a piece of fresh fruit or a dash of rush of icing. At km 0 he prefers the “km buono” – “the tasty km” - , so here is sweets free from superstructures, intimately linked to the territory, but without intransigent myopia. Corrado Assenza, defined by Alain Ducasse as "le plus grande confisieur du monde", is an enhancer of seasonal aromas, an explorer of local and global ingredients, a trapeze artist who plays on the thread of culinary dogmas, remaining in balance and re-setting their trappings. His is a healthy intelligence without form constraints, which has been able to bring together the aromas and tastes of his Sicily in a single gustatory universe regulated by the laws of harmony.