Riccardo de Pra

Riccardo de Pra (born on 27 June 1974) is a renowned chef from Veneto, Italy.

# Biography
# Experiences
# Projects and Consultations
1. Biography
Riccardo De Prà was born in Pieve d'Alpago, a small town located between the valleys of the Dolomites. Coming from a known and established family of hoteliers and restaurateurs, Riccardo, since his childhood, has cultivated a great love and great passion for cooking, both of which have, over the years, led him to discover new worlds and the different culinary traditions within them. This curiosity about worlds other than his own has expanded its store of knowledge as well as cultural, greatly influencing its cuisine.
His father, Enzo de Prà, is an Italian chefs and managers, who, along with Riccardo, runs their family’s restaurant, "Dolada”. Over the years, the restaurant has distinguished itself at a national and international level for the high quality of its food and the careful search for natural ingredients of the highest standard that the family is committed to producing: Cinta Senese pigs, lambs (slow food), goats and chickens are raised in the wild, in the pastures of Alpago, and there is a small dairy for the production of cheese, as well as a vegetable garden. Riccardo believes that in order to cook well, it is necessary to know the land, to love it, but also to work on it, and understand it. He considers the search for fresh ingredients, of the highest quality, necessary to achieve a goal that can not be foresaken: to excite people with food. All this to guarantee customers the highest product quality and to enhance, and keep alive, the true flavours of the earth.
The restaurant, which boast one of Italy’s longest standing Michelin stars, will celebrate the ninetieth anniversary of its opening. The kitchen offers a modern and refined style, in which Riccardo is able, in his own unique style, to combine the taste and aroma, due to his wealth of experience, of the dishes of his homeland with perfumes and fragrances from around the world. A kitchen area that is not closed off to the world, but keeps its door open to the unfamiliar and diverse, with amazing results.
2. Experiences Abroad
Since the age of fifteen, driven by the curiosity that is such a huge part of his character, Riccardo began to work in the kitchens of the best restaurants in Italy and Europe. In London he has provided his services first at the Hyde Park Hotel and then at the Halkin Hotel, where he collaborated with chef Stefano Cavallini. In England he has also had the pleasure of working with chef Mark Prescott at the bistro style restaurant and Albert Roux.
To broach, then, his interest in cooking chemistry. He attended seminars on important reactions and the physical-chemical properties of food by Harold McGee. The subject has both stimulated and influenced Riccardo in experimenting with new cooking techniques, enriched by the learning received during the course of several annual seminars that have since followed in Catalonia - Spain, run by the master Ferran Adrià.
Speaking about his experiences abroad we can not fail to mention that he lived in Japan, an experience which left him in a state of “shock”. Being a strong advocate of the need to offer more innovative dishes and keep up with the new, encouraged him into further vocational training in 2000. At that time, he had the honour of working in Tokyo under the guidance of Hiroisha Koyama, who has led an extraordinary culinary adventure and life.
Riccardo likes describing those months spent in the East with the term "Purification". A cleansing of the palate, and sense of taste, of the strong flavours of Western dishes. There he developed a strong affinity for the subtle and delicate aromas that make up the rainbow of flavours of Japanese cuisine. Having returned from Japan with a suitcase full of experiences, new techniques and skills, he has created what, perhaps, represents the complete union of two different worlds, but also a union of the new with the old: The “new Carbonara" signature dish in Italy, which he has managed to improve and innovate purely through eastern ingenuity; how to steam cook an egg, an ancient Japanese technique that keeps the liquid egg protein. All these experiences have led to Riccardo doing the same with classic Italian cuisine “dismantling” the dishes in a similar fashion: it is a real breakdown of most parts of the classic dish. A "deconstruction" which is not intended to impress, but to better make known the taste of the individual ingredients.
3. Projects and Consultations
His talent has led him, over the years, to engage in numerous projects and collaborations, which have each in their own way been appreciated within the world of Italian and international cuisine. In 1995, after collaborating on a famous work of art made of Murano glass for the manufacture of a sculpture called “Calamari to the Island of Basil”, he invented a new type of pulp called "murrina", inspired by the same technique used by the glassmakers of Murano.
In 1999, a short distance from his restaurant, he created a small dairy with a workshop for the production of cheese and a wine cellar to refine the flavour. Riccardo occupies most of the time in the production and recovery of endangered Italian cheeses, producing them following the instructions and suggestions of an old book-master, given to him by a dairyman.
Riccardo wanted to add to this the production of hams and sausages of both traditional and lost flavors, from the Cinta Senese pigs which are bred in collaboration with his family. Between 1999 and 2000 Riccardo, designed and produced a pot, named Argenta, with a form which would be versatile in all preparations, and of pure silver, a material that allows heat to spread evenly. In 2001, he expanded on this, founding Doladino: a small company that takes care of catering. Doladino does not simply provide catering; the appropriate adjective to describe it is "communication" because it uses the culinary arts as a form of communication.
It is no coincidence that Riccardo still collaborates with Cinecittà Holding and other film companies, organizing dinners and parties for the film festivals, like Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Riccardo has also set himself the goal of exporting Italian cuisine in the world. In Los Angeles he leads a group of leading Italian restaurants in a kind of historical and culinary mission, whose main objective is to represent the great Italian cinema, through food. The "mission" is held every year at the Museum of Modern Art in LA.
In 2002, Richard worked with a company for the production of tableware. Since 2003 he has held the role as counsel to a Tuscan company, in the center of research and development of Parma. In 2004, while collaborating with a company, he provided plans and drawings for a glass, named Optical, with an innovative and revolutionary shape that makes for the best wine tasting, thanks to the special shape of the basins which resembles the tastevin, used by sommeliers from all over the world.
In 2004 he made a research trip to Sri Lanka to learn about the best use of spices. From this experience will be born then his cookbook entitled "The Spice of Riccardo de Pra”. In 2005 he provided an important contribution as a consultant for the improvement of product quality of the brand "Antica gelateria del corso" (Nestle Group).
Between 2006 and 2007 he worked together with the research and development department of a famous Italian coffee company, a project that he still contributes to now. In 2008 he participated as a speaker at the Congress of Food Chefs in Concert, which provided people with a great opportunity to compare the traditional cuisines of Italy and Spain.
In 2009 he decided to commence a new and exciting adventure: bringing the concept of "Dolada", with its precious history to London and, in the same year, in Mayfair, London's most prestigious district, he opened Dolada restaurant.
Also in 2009, reflecting the great work that was done within this new restaurant, Dolada London had the pleasure of hosting the television series English Masterchef, produced by the BBC, in which some aspiring chefs are put to the test in the kitchens of some of the best restaurants in London under the guidance of the best chefs. In the same year he collaborated on the book "Eat to the Eyes" by L. Buratto, (ed.) published by Springer Verlag (2010). The book explains how proper nutrition is essential for the proper functioning and development of the eyes, and how, therefore, nutrition and health are closely linked. In 2010 he lent his participation to the project commissioned by Comieco and SlowFood Italy who wanted to associate the promotion of separate collection and recycling of paper and cardboard with one of the most enjoyable aspects of life: food quality and taste.
“Gusto Così” - presented at the Salone Internazionale del Gusto di Torino - is a collection of dishes inspired by the philosophy of recycling and sustainability. The reuse of leftover food, the enhancement of ingredients often under-used or discarded, the harmonization of the kitchen to tend to the lower production of waste food, in conjunction with the seasonality of the products and their carbon footprint. That same year, Riccardo had the pleasure to host at his restaurant in London, the opening night of the most important Italian culinary congress. In collaboration with “Slow Food” and “Identità Golose” in the United Kingdom he has promoted the delicious cuisine of this beautiful country.
Also in 2010, at the International Tourism Fair at the Excel, held in London in October, he organized an exhibition of the meats, cheeses and wines of his region, the Veneto, for which he is still a consultant. Furthermore in the United Kingdom he arranged the banquet organized by the National Gallery Museum for special exhibitions.
REFERENCES
http://www.dolada.it/
http://www.dolada.co.uk/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vSwN2fOzugGU&featurerelated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjSVOOO_SM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vhf0W1rTwhJ4&featurerelated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v4ChQ0Dk5E2Y&featurerelated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYtU5nBXA34
http://www.theworlds50best.com/tag/riccardo-del-pra
http://www.identitagolose.it/newsletter/91.php
http://espresso.repubblica.it/food/multimedia/home/24943468/1/1
http://www.foodepedia.co.uk/blog/2010/oct/canaletto_national_gallery.htm
http://www.3ricettesulcomo.it/3RicetteSulComo/contribute-detail-action.do?sezioneid21&contributoid471
http://www.delicious-promotions.com/index.php?optioncom_wrapper&viewwrapper&Itemid=121
http://sf.eater.com/tags/molecular-gastronomy
http://www.gvci.org/?optioncom_content&viewcategory&layoutblog&id153&Itemid=979
http://bk.asia-city.com/restaurants/article/kitchen-qa-riccardo-de-pra

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