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Mazzia puts "the feeling of the dish before the technique"
French Provence, the Mediterranean, and Africa were all equally represented in the presentation by chef Alexandre Mazzia (AM***, Marseille)
Alexandre Mazzia, one of the mainstays of the current French culinary scene, took to the stage at Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España to share with the public the essence of his homeland, both the Provence, where he now lives, and the land of his childhood. Mazzia grew up in the Congo, and Africa appears in his creations in various ways. "It is part of who I am", he explains.
This is why the chef, who was a professional basketball player in his youth, attaches so much importance to the spices and ingredients that take us to the north of the African continent, because "food appeals to ideas and feelings, to who you are". So much so, in fact, that for the Frenchman, "the feelings that a dish evokes in us are more important than the techniques used, because our intention is to change the structure of emotions with our creations", confessed Mazzia.
In this sense, Alexandre Mazzia's cuisine works in two directions. On one hand, he recreates the Provençal terroir "to highlight our territory and the values of our artisans, who give us our essence", for example through oils flavoured with fresh herbs or sea products. On the other hand, he uses spices, semolina, tapioca, and cocoa, among other ingredients, to evoke Africa. For Mazzia, this work is essential because "North African cuisine is not used much in gastronomy, so I wanted to integrate all my African traditions. Something that makes perfect sense in a city like Marseille, a port city where the transaction with Africa is constant". The chef spices his semolina with flowers, such as orange blossom, and uses spices and roasting as key elements in his cuisine.
At Madrid Fusión, he demonstrated this with the preparation of various seafood dishes, using products such as scallops, herring, mussels and crustaceans, prepared in such a way that "they retain all their juiciness and enhance their saltiness".
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