Carlo Cracco’s gastronomic essay can, to say the least, be defined singular. The Italian chef, in his prestigious restaurant Cracco-Peck in Milan, shrinks from any market conditioning and presents in his second book (the first, “White truffle utopia”, was published two years ago) his very personal approach to the egg. The title is meaningful: “The squaring of the egg”. As others before him, he has tried to “catch” and glorify the egg from a culinary point of view. A very versatile piece of food matching all flavours (sweet or salty, with meat, pasta or vegetables), with the ability, in a few minutes of cooking, of taking very different shapes and consistencies (liquid, creamy, hard, in omelette…). These two qualities certainly clash with the few attentions and recognitions it has received up to today. Traditionally, in the most refined recipes, it has never been considered a dish main ingredient. Carlo Cracco puts an end to this injustice and dedicates to the egg a book full of attentions and original culinary creations. In Carlo Cracco’s hands a simple egg yolk becomes something completely different. It looses some of its qualities keeping unchanged the essential ones and, thanks to the smoked salt, it acquires new and unusual characteristics, both tactile and gustatory. The right temperature, the time and the quantity of salt give to the egg yolk a slightly smoky flavour and a silky and velvety consistency. The few recipes included in the book alternate to original descriptions of the egg made, among the others, by Plato, Ionesco and Magritte.

La Librería Gastronómica, Catalogue, Edition 8, 2005