Chef Terry Giacomello of “Inkiostro”: humble, passionate, creative (part I)

2017-05-15 Humble, passionate, creative. Three simple words which speak volumes! They?re the perfect description of Terry Giacomello, chef since 2015 at Parma?s Michelin-starred “Inkiostro” restaurant owned by Francesca Poli, its brilliant maître d?.
Terry is humble. And that?s not easy, when you?re offering haute cuisine and combining exceptional ingredients with cutting-edge techniques. It?s not easy when you?ve got a terrifyingly good CV and experience very few chefs can boast. Terry has worked in France with Marc Veyrat and Michel Bras, in Brazil with Atala and Helena Rizzo, in Copenhagen with René Redzepi of “Noma”, for years considered the best restaurant in the world, and with Andoni Luis Aduriz and Ferran Adrià at “El Bulli”, another outstanding force in global cuisine.
Terry?s passion for cooking goes back years and years. Born in Friuli in 1969, he has followed in his parents? footsteps, making his first foray into “gastronomy” at their restaurant. Not content to hang around at home, he spread his wings and went on to work in some of the world?s greatest kitchens. He was driven by a hunger for learning, studying, experimenting and modifying ingredients and rewriting traditional techniques to craft miniature epicurean masterpieces.
Terry is truly creative. He?s always on the lookout and never takes anything for granted. His dishes ? apparently straightforward but conceptually sophisticated, like a painting by Mirò or a sculpture by Melotti ? are based on highly unusual ideas, though with enough logic for people to take them seriously. More importantly, they?re so good that people adore them. Like all artists, he loves experimenting. He has tried to stuff asparagus, something no chef has ever attempted, and cooked with reeds, which sprout up everywhere in the Po Valley though no one had ever thought to eat them.
How do you devise new dishes, Terry?
?I?m inspired by everyday life, by what I see around me. Once I happened to notice a magazine cover (I can?t remember whether it was “L’Espresso” or “Panorama”) with a fragmented picture of Barack Obama. I thought, why can?t I create a caramel like that? I can make a dish out of a mistake or with leftovers. For example, I have a machine for extracting the oil from oilseeds; I decided I could use the discarded parts (which look like bits of bark) to create my dessert, “Dry hazelnut bark, pine needles and fallen leaves”. Everything is a source of inspiration for me. I never miss anything: I work 24 hours a day…?
How do tradition and innovation fit side by side in your kitchen?
?If you don?t understand traditional cooking – and it?s the basis for everything – then you can?t be innovative. Even I don?t know where some of my ideas come from, but tradition is always deep down inside me.?

Mariagrazia Villa

Photos: Adriano Mauri