Graziano Nani
Caffè Sicilia and the principle of Absence
26 Novembre 2018 - Per Intravino
Absence
Caffè Sicilia is a school of thought that is unique in the world. No other is represented by a manifesto so effective that it can be summed up in a single word. No other, for that matter, has a manifesto that corresponds to the same name as its founding father. Assenza’s philosophy is encapsulated in his surname: the work he carries out every day is excellence by subtraction. Just like in sculpture, where gradual removal ultimately reveals the masterpiece.
First, it was the turn of the greatest dichotomy in cuisine, sweet and savoury, pulverised by the awareness that nature does not separate the savoury from the sweet, but rather we do. Hence meat ice cream, cherry tomato tart and candied olives. But that was just a phase, and then, through subtraction, even that disappeared to get to the heart of the matter: Sicilian pastries. The kind we find at Caffè Sicilia, in their purest and most elevated form.
As soon as you cross the threshold, you are struck by what is not there. The design revised after the Netflix boom, the prices revised after the Netflix boom, the humility revised after the Netflix boom: none of this. There is coffee. With the counter, the dessert display case, the tables and Mrs Nives at the till. That’s all you need. There are the waiters, a unique blend of professionalism and friendliness, yet how many have we encountered like this in our cafés? The superiority of normality. No pretentious furnishings, no slick staff, no new rules or prices, what remains is the wonder of the Italian-style café-patisserie. Unique in the world, sublimated in its essence.
The Flying Cannolo
I am moved, but I am also at the bar, reading the Gazzetta. The cannolo arrives, flying in. Richness without heaviness, sweetness but different, it is a more nuanced dessert, the result of the raw ingredients rather than the sugar. The sheep’s milk ricotta is fluffy, the wafer is dry but not dry, wonderfully crumbly. Everything is on point, each element is distinctly recognisable, even the subtle sweetness of the sugar on the surface. And the principle of subtraction has taken away the candied fruit, for which I am grateful.
The Cassatina Chronograph
Cassatina is pure perfection. It feels as though the recipe has been broken down into its individual components, like a watch studied in every mechanism, and reassembled with precision down to the tenth of a millimetre to crystallise the splendour of the finest watchmaking. The icing, sponge cake and candied fruit are cogs that work in total harmony, marking the time of tasting and stretching it out to infinity.
‘Appearances Can Be Deceptive’ - One Way
Appearances can be seriously deceiving, and while my eyes transport me to the decadent world of tiramisu, my mouth, on the contrary, embarks on a more refined journey, as if aboard the Orient Express. From the window, I see delicate almond fields whipped by gusts of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, while fluffy clouds of zabaglione race across a sky that is already etched forever in my memory.
Reminiscent cakes
I try the cakes, I try lots of them. The Trancio di Nocciola, the Trancio Imperiale and other creations that follow a common thread that seems increasingly clear to me. Each slice is to a conventional cake as memory is to life: what remains is the poignant sensation of that lens that filters only the best. That’s how it works, we look back and the beauty of what has been is so vivid that it makes the rest disappear. The slices of Caffè Sicilia are selective memory in its purest form, so that forever, in our minds, no other cake will exist outside of those made by Assenza.
Sweet and bitter breakfast
The last day is breakfast at the bar before leaving. Almond soup and brioche: unforgettable. The soup is hot. First, it embraces me with the sweetness of this absolute land, and then it heralds the melancholy I will feel with that pure and infinitely bitter touch of Noto almonds. Together, the total enjoyment of the brioche, its hours of leavening and the unrivalled quality of the individual ingredients.
In the absence of gravity
Guardo fuori dall’oblò mentre la Sicilia si fa più piccola e io so
I look out of the window as Sicily gets smaller and smaller and I am in the sky, and I think that in the end certain principles are so universal that they apply to everything. Like the one that says that removing weight is equivalent to unleashing potential. It applies to the group that regains momentum after abandoning the ballast of egocentricity, to the individual who breathes deeply after a kilo of insecurity is incinerated. To contemporary wine, which loses a little of its heaviness every year, and to these masterpieces of pastry-making, so light that they remain forever etched in my memory as they fly away with me.
In zero gravity.
I look up at the sky and think that, in the end, certain principles are so universal that they apply to just about everything. Like the one that says that removing weight is equivalent to unleashing potential. It applies to the group that gets back on track after abandoning the ballast of egocentricity, to the individual who breathes deeply after a kilo of insecurity has been incinerated. To contemporary wine, which loses a little of its heaviness every year, and to these masterpieces of pastry-making, so light that they remain forever etched in my memory, flying away with me.
In the absence of gravity.
