Foglio d'Oro — Cialda di Pietra Lavica con Tapenade di Olive Nocellara e Burrata di Giornata

A crispy durum wheat semolina disc, cooked on lava stone and golden to the exact right point — the editorial support, says Ciccio, "of three ingredients that hadn't yet understood they could be together." On the disc: thin slices of Bologna IGP mortadella personally selected by Ciccio during a visit to an Emilian producer he describes as "the only person I've ever talked to about meat for four hours straight without getting bored." Alongside, Bronte DOP pistachio cream worked cold until it becomes a light foam that holds its consistency for exactly twelve minutes — "beyond which," Ciccio warns, "the dish begins to lose meaning." At the centre, a heart of same-day burrata that yields at first contact with the warmth of the mortadella, creating what the Michelin guide described as "a layering of cheese of rare elegance" and Ciccio described as "exactly what I intended." The dish is eaten whole. Those who divide it are not invited a second time.

"Every time I prepare it, I cry a little. It's a form of quality control."