There is a volcanic chef at Whirlpool Emea, in Varese.
Fulvio Barbieri is smart, charismatic and truly Milanese chef, with a long and renewed experience in the culinary world.

Chef Barbieri is the first one to submit a recipe for our Stealth Health project, in which health and wealth hide in colourful and tasty dishes with sometimes unusual ingredients.

His recipe is called Millefoglie BBL and it’s made with beetroot, broccoli and loin meat with two of the Stealth Health approaches.

The main goal of this idea is to show how simple it is to realize sophisticated, beautiful and tasty courses using only basic ingredients. Cooking is communicate trough food, it’s a different way to build relationships and create emotions!

DOWNLOAD
“STEALTH HEALTH”
MILLEFOGLIE BBL

by CHEF Fulvio Barbieri

D. Hi Fulvio, the first is a simple one: how this recipe was born?

I wanted to realize a recipe to fulfil at least two requirements. First of all, I chose to use oranges in my Millefoglie BBL because one of the benefits of citrus is to help you process the iron inside the vegetables. I also wanted to decrease the percentage of animal protein in favour of plant one. Usually loin meat proportion is 100 g per person, in this case is lowest than the half (40 g) and compensated with vegetables.
It’s a simple recipe that gives an excellent result: it’s tasty and it’s healthy!

How many Stealth Health approaches are in your recipe?

I used two of them. Perfect Match, adding citrus to maximize the iron process during the meal and Food Flips, using mainly vegetables instead of meat.

What’s the most important thing to remember while cooking your Millefoglie BBL?
R. To chill the broccoli with water and ice immediately after you take them off, to stop the cooking process and keep the colour brilliant. Also toast the sesame slightly to add a crispy part to the dish.

What’s the main challenge if you wish to cook this recipe at home?
R. My only advice is to not overcook the broccoli, because you will need them to be crispy for the lowest layer of the dish. There no other particular troubles in the preparation, that is quite simple itself. Maybe you only need to be a bit handy to cut the beetroot in the right way.

If you have to cook this recipe for a whole cafeteria, what’s your plan? Should you change anything?
R. This dish is not something you can do “on the go”. I would plan for sure to do at least part of the preparation earlier, steaming and marinating the ingredients in the morning, so you will only have to bake it for 15 minutes and serve it hot and steamy. So yes, you have to schedule the preparations for sure.

While we wait your Millefoglie to be ready, can I ask you something more personal? What was your worst culinary experience?
R. It’s really hard to answer this one. I’ve lived so many experiences in this twenty-eight years, negative and positive ones. I can’t forget when I had to clean 30 cases of artichokes, I came back home with my hands totally destroyed. You can use the best products on the market but sometimes you can still have some troubles in the prep. This kind of emergencies can happen, especially if you cook for so many people. You must always be prepared.

What’s your favourite ingredient?
R. (Fulvio laughs) Onion is key for me, it’s so versatile and also one of the bases of nearly every Italian recipe.

Do you have any secret in the kitchen? Let’s pretend you have to realize an entire Stealth Health Menu, you will employ all your kitchen staff for sure. What’s the thing that can’t go wrong?
R. There are really a lot of methods to work quickly and well as a chef, and still a lot depends on which preparation or ingredients are required that day. It’s important to use good raw materials and have a good knowledge of food, cooking and recipes.

Talking about my recipe, for example, you have to adjust the cooking time of the broccoli. We want them to be crispy on the outside but also tender inside and shapey for the plating!

Let’s end with the most particular combination of ingredients you’ve ever done/seen?
R. I’m a traditional chef, therefore I have a traditional taste. I remember I was impressed by the cuttlefish veal made by a great chef once, a sort of stew made with a squid ink sauce.

In the last ten years so many strange and odd combinations have been made in the cuisine that finding an unusual match has become a seriously difficult task, there is a very high level in the kitchens all over the world.

I like to keep me on track with food trends, however I also like to keep my integrity and if I don’t think it makes sense to combine or select an ingredient I simply won’t use it. I may be critical sometimes, but I like to maintain my culinary roots.

D. Thank you so much Fulvio. Luckily, it’s time to taste your colourful Millefoglie BBL!
R. Thank you!