Pumpkin – As You Like It
by Qian Leung
@ 16 Nov 2017
Traditionally, a carved pumpkin signals the harvest season. In fairy tales, the humble vegetable transforms into a carriage with the wave of a wand. Today, a new generation of readers are enamoured with pumpkin in the form of a juice, drunk by magical boys and girls. How would pumpkin be interpreted on a sunny island? Chef Andrea de Paola shares his thoughts.
Having been in the kitchen since 13, Chef Andrea de Paola’s favourite memories are of the classic Neapolitan food made by his mom and grandma as he was growing up (think: wood-fired pizza with tomato, basil, and mozzarella, pasta with clams, mussels, and squids, and vegetable pies with black olives, pine nuts, and capers). The 26-year-old chef of Osteria Art presents a savoury rendition of a traditional puff pastry dessert in Italy, known as millefoglie. A custard is made of foie gras and buternut purée, buternut discs are dehydrated into tuiles, and pumpkin seed oil is powderised with maltodextrin into snow. “I prefer to use butternut squash, as it turns crispy and almost transparent when I confit the thin butternut squash discs in extra virgin olive oil, and dehydrate them.”
