ArbitRAAtion Kitchen with Stefano Azzali (MCA)

To see the video, please follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVNZzKLErq4&list=PL0eJRVTuZ9-gFW8gF5kWm062fbSP-Oywv&index=5&t=5s

Galina Zukova: Buona sera, good morning, good afternoon, good evening to all our participants and to you, Stefano. It is my huge pleasure to have a very special guest with us tonight - Stefano Azzali, the General Director of the Milan Chamber of Arbitration (CAM).

Some words about this project. A few weeks ago, Vladimir Khvalei, the President of the Russian Arbitration Association, shared his idea to interview during the cooking sessions the representatives of the various international arbitration centres. This is when I told him that we have to extend the invitation to Stefano Azzali. Because when we think about cooking, we always think about Italy. And in the present context of COVID-19, and I say that with sorrow and a lot of pain - again we very much think about Italy. This is why Stefano, the face of the Milan Chamber of Arbitration (CAM), was destined to be part of the project.

In these difficult times, we need a lot of positive energy, positive vibes. In my view, Stefano is the most cheerful Secretary General of the leading arbitration institutions.

Stefano, you have a special challenge tonight - to show us your cooking skills. But not only. In addition to proving your virtuoso chef skills, we would like to hear from you about the CAM and how does it operate in these challenging times. How does the pandemic affects your day-to-day work. How do you manage. I do understand that all arbitration institutions face more or less similar problems, yet all of you have your own responses to this challenge. And finally, Stefano, we also want to get to know you closer: what kind of person you are, where do you come from, what are your hobbies, what do you like and dislike. Share with us what does “l’italiano vero” mean.

Stefano Azzali: Thank you, Galina, thanks to everybody for taking time to see whether I can cook tiramisu or not. Maybe it will look perfect but the taste will be terrible. But I have someone to taste it in my house, it is my little daughter, she is very picky on tiramisu. So, let us start.

First of all, I hope that everyone is doing well. Nowadays, I think that it is a priority number one. Our health, our loved ones, our families. So I hope that everyone is doing fine and that you are “making it”.

GZ: Stefano, may I interrupt you at this moment, because I think there is one important question I have to ask. Why tiramisu today?

SA: Why? For different reasons. First of all, because we all need tiramisu. “Tiramisu” means “pull me up”, “take me up”, “cheer me up” and I think we all need good mood.

GZ: Let me just be explicit on this: as Stefano said, in Italian “tira-mi-su” literally means “pull me up”.

SA: So, this is the first reason - we need some good, happy, positive mood. Tiramisu helps to smile.

The second reason is because it is a simple recipe. Although it may look difficult but it is very simple and in some way, it does remind me of arbitration. Very few ingredients. The eggs are the parties to the arbitration; yes, sometimes they can get broken. Then we have counsel – sugar. Because counsel are sweet most of the time.

GZ: To the client.

SA: They melt, so we have mascarpone. Mascarpone is the arbitrators. Then we have some Rules to follow - procedural rules [Stefano showing big rectangular tray]. And at the end of the day within the framework of the Rules and all other elements we would have an award – the tiramisu. We have some other ingredients, for example, cookies - ladyfingers. These are expert and factual witnesses. So, you do not need many players in arbitration – as you do not need many ingredients for tiramisu. And tiramisu is fast, you do not have to bake it, so it is faster than any other dish. Similarly to arbitration, which is faster than state courts. So that it is why I thought it would be a good recipe for this webinar. Did I answer your question?

GZ: This is a very nice analogy, I have not thought about it before. An excellent introduction into why we have tiramisu on menu today.

And now, let us go to our ingredients. Please tell us about them.

SA: First of all, eggs. They cannot come out of fridge right away, you have to take them from fridge few hours in advance. But if you have not done so, do not worry. And my second preliminary advice is that eggs must be very fresh.

Then the very first step is to make coffee. Coffee is a religion in Italy, we take it very seriously. We make coffee now, as we will use it at the end of the process, when it will be cold, or, let us say, not warm. Thus, either you prepare coffee one hour in advance or we can do it now. Then I will pour coffee in some bowl to bring it to a normal temperature.

These are typical coffee “moka” machines.

As you see, they are very dirty. This is so because they do not need to be washed. You do not wash coffee machines.

GZ: For how many years you haven’t washed yours?

SA: The small one, I think, for three years or so, and a larger one is even older, I think five-six years. It does not mean that they are dirty, you just rinse them with water, but you do not use soap.

Now we make coffee. Tonight we use decaffeinated coffee because of my little daughter - she is very, very active. If I’ll use normal coffee, tonight will be difficult for me to handle.

GZ: Stefano, how many coffees do you normally take a day?

SA: I try not to drink more than 4 coffees a day. I think that 4 coffees are acceptable.

GZ: 4 coffees a day is a lot for non-Italians, for people who do not have your habit and your training.

SA: Well, I can drink 20 coffees a day but try not to do this, because this is not good for your health. But I love coffee. Let me put coffee on fire.

GZ: Let’s talk about the name of the coffee machine – it is “moka”. The entire world calls this machine “moka”. Yet, believe it or not, in the Dominican Republic, to which I have family connections, they call it “la greca”! Everybody has it at home and everybody calls it “la greca”! The entire country calls it “la greca”!

SA: I do not want to hear this!

GZ: I know. It should not be so.

SA: We have another type of coffee machine, called Napoletana, coming from Naples. But that one is a little bit more complicated, takes more time to make coffee.

While we are waiting for coffee, we can start preparing the cream. We have to separate egg whites from yolk.

GZ: Not everybody can do it as masterfully as you do. It shows that you spend some time in the kitchen, you know how to cook.

SA: I like cooking. Not only because I have to feed myself, but also because I enjoy cooking.

GZ: You’ve done it always, from the young age, I guess?

SA: Yes.

GZ: A beautiful thing about Italian cuisine is that it is simple and easy to cook, as tiramisu.  

SA: It has to be simple, because Italian cuisine is not very sophisticated, as you know.

GZ: But it tastes so good, especially when you are in Italy! For many years after I left Italy, I refused to go to Italian restaurants outside Italy. People would tell me -  let us have dinner in an Italian restaurant, but I would refuse. But now, when I don’t go to Italy every month and not even every year, I had to reconsider my position.

SA: Now we have to add approximately half of sugar, some 50 grams, to yolks, and whisk it – either with “lazy” whisker or an electric one, as we will do. By the way - coffee is ready.

GZ: How much coffee do we need?

SA: The portions and ingredients that I have suggested are for 8 people. As for cups, these will be 5-8 cups.

GZ: By cups, do you mean espresso cups?

SA: Yes. Some 250 ml or a little bit more.

Now coffee is hot, so we pour it in a bowl and wait. Now to egg whites. There is a secret with egg whites. They also have to be whipped and have to become very thick, very dense, like snow – we call it “a neve”.

GZ: As in France you would be cooking “meringue”.

SA: Exactly.

GZ: In Russian, if I can interrupt, it is “безе ”.

SA: Now you have to whip egg whites, again with electric mixer. So, we can talk about arbitration, while we are waiting for my assistant.

GZ: Let us start with the Milan Chamber of Arbitration. What kind of institution is it? How it all started, since when, what is your caseload?

SA: The Milan Chamber of Arbitration is a company owned 100% by the Milan Chamber of Commerce. In Italy, Chambers of Commerce are public organizations. So, let us say, we are a private body but our soul is public. We are a non-profit organization. By the way, we are number one Chamber in terms of members in Italy - we have over 400 000 companies as members of the Milan Chamber of Commerce.

GZ: Does this number cover companies from the entire Italy, or only ones which are based in the Northern Italy?

SA: No, no - Chambers in Italy are “territorial”, while the Milan Chamber of Arbitration has no territorial bounderies. Let me tell you that Milan is the business center of Italy. CAM is the agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan. We have started over 30 years ago, and there were only two of us: myself and my secretary.

GZ: So being there from the beginning, in a way, makes you the “father” of CAM?

SA: Absolutely, yes. But now I am a grandfather of CAM - I was the father, but I became grandfather. But yes, CAM is my baby. We are 34 people nowadays – it’s a big group. Of course, we are an Italian institution, not to be compared to the ICC, which, although being based in Paris, is a a-national institution. But that does not mean that we are dealing with domestic arbitrations only. We have a system to administer international cases, which is not an unusual situation – many arbitration institutions have the same system, there is no need to reinvent the wheel or fix it if it is not broken. We have few specific features, but our Rules are not very different from many other Rules. But let me tell you, these are not “Italian” rules - you can have international proceedings according to the Milan Rules. This means that the language does not to have to be Italian, as well as the applicable law, the seat and the nationality of the arbitrators. The Parties can really create a system that is not linked to Italy. That is why we are both domestic and international, because we can administer both types of cases.

GZ: You have mentioned the Italian system of having lots of regional chambers of commerce. Having discovered in a CAM case in which I had an opportunity to act as an arbitrator, I know that sometimes in international transactions parties provide for arbitration at these regional chambers of commerce. And when so, there is a system put in place for administration of the international arbitration proceedings by you, by CAM.

SA: Yes, it is true. But it does not apply automatically to all chambers of commerce in Italy, but only to the ones that have an agreement with us. We have agreements with more than 15 regional chambers of commerce and we do administer their cases. Let’s say, these are our cases but these chambers act somewhat as local branches of the Milan Chamber. Plus, we have an office in Rome.

GZ: Since when do you have your office in Rome?

SA: For some 4-5 years.

GZ: As we know, ICC has opened offices in San Paolo, New York, Singapore - but these are all different types of markets. But Milan and Rome - this is one hour flight, and direct train connections - so why have you decided to open the office in Rome?

SA: I will tell you why –because more than half of our Italian users do not come from Milan. Historically, we administer many cases from all other Italian regions. So, having office in Rome means being closer to many of our users.

GZ: How many people do you have in Rome?

SA: One, Benedetta Coppo, our “pillar”. Do you want to see the next step? These are whipped egg whites. Now we take mascarpone, 500 grams, and put it into yolks with sugar, not to the whipped whites yet.

GZ: Do you like to cook together with your daughters?

SA: Yes, especially with the little one. And you mix this mass with the electric mixer again. Now, we have some time to talk about arbitration.

GZ: Let’s talk about international character of cases administered by the CAM - from which countries did the parties come from in the last years, which examples would you remember?

SA: Generally speaking our foreign users are most of the times from Europe. In the last few years we have seen an increase of players from North Africa.

GZ: And I think this is also thanks to your efforts.

SA: We did a lot in North Africa, the Southern part of the Mediterranean basin, from Morocco to Istanbul, the whole south arch of the Mediterranean sea. Now we see some good results, as we start to have the so-called “euro-med” cases. I think it is a good market. Italy can really play a crucial role in the region not only for her geography, but also for historical and cultural reasons, and not only in business dialog but also in dispute resolution. And this is what we see. Of course, we have cases from Europe and from the Central Europe.

GZ: As we speak about the Mediterranean now, you see I’ve put on the screen a map, which I took from ISPRAMED’s website. So, to make a link to what you have just told, the role of the CAM in the region - what is ISPRAMED?

SA: ISPRAMED is a non-profit organization, based in Milan, whose goal is to train and promote the culture of arbitration and mediation in North Africa. We have done a lot of training and a lot of cooperation with the African institutions. We have created a network of 7 institutions from Casablanca, Algiers, Tunis, Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul and Milan. 7 institutions and we share among us best practices and information. Of course, all of them develop at a different speed. For example, the Cairo Center is very advanced. It is a very interesting project.

GZ: Speaking about Cairo, Ismail Selim, Director of CRCICA will participate in one of the future webinars of these series.

SA: We are on very good terms with the Cairo Center. They are a very good institution, nice people, I like them a lot.

Cream is ready. Now you add the rest – whipped egg whites. You have to do it softly, gently, and move it from the bottom to the top. Don’t shake, otherwise the whites will become liquid again.

GZ: When I look at your movements, it reminds me that when I moved to study in Italy, I found out that my musical education received in Latvia was very helpful. This is so because when we study music in Central and Eastern Europe/ former USSR, all the musical terms are in Italian – lento, adagio, largo, allegro non troppo. So these are kind of words which you may use right now.

SA: That is right. Maybe you cannot see it, but I can tell you, that you do not see the whipped whites anymore.

GZ: Stefano, let me ask you a serious question about nowadays. How do you work in these critical times? Obviously, Italy and Milan in particular were hit from the very beginning very heavily. I was personally very happy to see messages on Linkedln from you, the first institution so affected in its work by COVID, saying: we continue to work, we work from home, and there were images of you and of different members of your team passing this message to the parties. For me, it was an “introduction” into how the arbitration institutions will operate during these pandemic times. It was an important message for the parties, but also on a personal level - I saw you and other colleagues from the CAM, and was saying to myself - thanks God, they are doing well. This gives hope, it is a positive message, so please continue to make such posts.

SA: In some way, we were lucky, because at the Chamber we have started to work remotely about three years ago. We were ready, we were all well equipped, we were used to it. It might be not easy to work from home if you have never done it before – to know how to adjust your schedules, your daytime, your communications. 

GZ: This applied to the entire secretariat, or only to the counsel?

SA: Yes, the whole staff. On 9^th March everybody was home. 34 people were working from home, until today. We have closed our premises, but we all are fully operational, working remotely. And it works. Of course, the machine, the speed is slower than before, but it works. I have collected some information and I myself was surprised to see that only in the last two months we had organized 17 hearings!  It is a good number.

GZ: 17 hearings since 9^th March?

SA: Yes, and remotely. At one hearing, there were 10 people with the witnesses and we made it. It was of course organized by the Secretariat.

GZ: This was exactly my question. Because one of the very useful services CAM provides is putting at the parties’ disposal your great premises, as I had a privilege to witness personally. In addition, there was a member of the Secretariat attending the hearing and taking notes. This was extremely helpful. So, basically, what you are telling me right now, is that you continue to provide the parties and the tribunals with the same service as before. You help to organize everything for the hearings and this is how the hearings are proceeding nowadays.

SA: Yes. From 1^st January, we have received 31 new case, so cases are coming. Of course, now they are filed remotely or through certified email. As I was saying before, our Rules are not that different from the Rules of other arbitration institutions. But what is the real feature of CAM arbitrations is that we do follow administer cases from the very beginning till the end. And with one specific additional feature - our case managers, who attend almost all the hearings taking  place in our premises. The price of the premises is included in the administrative fee. This, I think, makes a real difference. Case managers follow the case from the very beginning to the end, they know whether the arbitrators have “delivered”, whether they have studied the case, how did the parties behave and so on. And with COVID we still could organize 17 hearings!

GZ: It is a big number.

SA: Yes, it is a big number but lower what we usually would have. Last year for this period we had over 70 hearings in our premises, at average one hearing per working day. This means that in a normal situation we would have probably organize many more than 17 hearings, but still - the machine works.

GZ: I am impressed by this number. I take a pause here to praise your Secretariat, the members of your Secretariat, because as you say, they are always “there”. For me it was always a very pleasant and direct communication. If, as an arbitrator,  I needed advise on the CAM’s practice in one or another regard,  the members of the Secretariat were always available for a call. And they were excellent. It also tells a lot about how you hire people, right?

SA: They are all lawyers, they are all multilingual. This is our specific feature, if you ask me about one feature that gives you a flavor of CAM – we closely follow the case.

GZ: And one more question regarding COVID. As I was preparing for this webinar, I visited CAM’s website and I saw that on 14^th April, this is to say - last week, there was a note “Arbitrato: sospensioni dei termini” –  “Arbitration: suspension of deadlines”. I translate in direct: “from 16^th March until 11^th May 2020, all the deadlines for submission of all the procedural acts, including awards, and all the deadlines provided by the [Arbitration] Rules, are suspended”.

SA: I will explain to you why. This was a measure which we had to take, because there was a governmental order to suspend all the deadlines and time limits in state courts and in arbitration. Of course, in Italy now the courts and the law firms are kind of “frozen”. It was sort of natural consequence of the lockdown. Having said that, we still had 17 hearings. This means that the time limits are suspended but not the proceedings, which may, can continue. If there are three arbitrators and they have to deliberate - what is the problem? They can do so. They can decide about discovery or document production. The only real issue is the hearing, if you have to examine witnesses. This might be very difficult to do, but not impossible. So we had to suspend time limits. Yet, we still invite the parties and arbitrators to do as much as possible. Of course, safeguarding the health and the security of everybody.

GZ: Have you already notified awards electronically?

SA: No, we are a little bit scared to notify the awards electronically only, considering the New York Convention. But this does not mean that we cannot notify the award electronically but sooner or later to deliver hard copies of that award.

I come back to tiramisu. So, this is the cream, you put a little bit of cream here. Now the difficult part – ladyfingers. You have to dip ladyfingers in the coffee. You can put some sugar in the coffee, if you like, or some drops of alcohol. But I do not do it [“to pull you up”], because of my little daughter.

GZ: Which alcohol?

SA: Marsala wine.

GZ: Only Masala or I have heard that Amaretto can do it too?

SA: Yes, also. But it is sweet, sweeter than Marsala. You need to be careful, otherwise it gets too sweet.

GZ: In my part of the world, we have discovered Amaretto in the 1990s, so some people still might have it in their bars.

SA: Ladyfingers - you cannot dip them into coffee for too long, otherwise they will dissolve. And then you put them one by one. Take a look at this. [Stefano showing the plate with tiramisu]

GZ: Oh, it looks beautiful, what are we going to do next?

SA: The second layer.

GZ: How thick should the second layer be?

SA: A little bit thicker than the previous, you put some cream on it. I will show you.

GZ: While you will be putting ladyfingers nicely, we will continue our conversation. So, you are from Genova.

SA: Yes, Genova is a city not far from Milan, just a couple of hours drive, on the coast. We have a big port and we have the sea - something what Milan does not have, unfortunately.

GZ: My next question I was asked to ask you. Apparently, one of the Italian sayings goes as follow – genovesi - people from Genova - have “braccio corto”, a “short hand”. What does it mean and do you also have a “short hand”?

SA: The saying means that people from Genova don’t like spending money, that they are stingy. They all deny to be stingy. So if I will tell you that I am not, you will think that I am a typical genovese.

GZ: So this is not about you, I can confirm.

SA: I moved to Milano many years ago, so I think I lost this quality, my arm is getting longer. Genova is popular not only for its people being stingy, but also for pesto sauce, it’s home for pesto sauce.

GZ: And here goes my question - does pesto genovese come with basilico or mentuccia?

SA: No! Mentuccia, no, please - I will not eat pesto made from mentuccia!

GZ: So what is mentuccia?

SA: In Genova people are very picky about this. They say, that basil, if it does not come from the city of Genova, is not basil anymore - it is mint, mentuccia, a little mint. Typical pesto sauce comes with basil, olive oil, some parmesan cheese and peanuts.

GZ: What do we have here? Is it in Genova?

SA: Oh, when I saw this, I start crying. This was tuna, in Australia. And the tuna was amazing by the way. The other is America Cup challenge, 1986, in Australia. I was there for one of the two Italian teams, the Yacht Club Italiano from Genova. We did not do very well, but it was a lot of fun.

The other picture is regatta cup in Capri, and then we won. We won so few regattas, that I took a picture of the one we won!

GZ: You know, Capri for the Russian-speaking audience sounds so familiar, because many Russian high-ranking politicians, including Lenin, and writers spent some time in Capri. So people know what Capri means.

SA: Capri is a very nice sail race track, playfield. It is fantastic.

GZ: Stefano, we have a lot of questions to cover.

As you are a “true Italian”, it’s time to talk about calcio [football]. So what about you and calcio, you and football? Tell us about this.

SA: For many Italians, almost all Italians, football is a real issue. I love football, I played it, I supported it, and then I’ve been professionally involved with football – for 7 years I was chairing the Disciplinary Commission of the Italian Football Federation, the professional league. I was chairing the Commission which sanctions players. It was a lot of fun. At the end I had more enemies than friends,  because when you become a football fan, people in Italy lose their brains. A lot of friends could not believe that I was sanctioning players. These proceedings are very similar to arbitration. In 7 years I signed more than 600 decisions.

GZ: Basically, you had a full time job at the Disciplinary Commission plus CAM.

SA:  But football was not a full-time job.

GZ: You made 600 decisions – this takes time.

SA: Yes, but in 7 years. Season goes from September to May, every single Thursday I was there.

[Stefano showing a plate] This is the tiramisu-award.

GZ: And the small [individual portion] one is a procedural order.

SA: That is right. Or jurisdictional award. This is cocoa powder. [Stefano is sifting  cocoa powder through sieve]

GZ: Let me show you one more picture, so that you can tell what who is there with you.

SA: This is my assistant of today, my daughter Olivia, at La Scala. She likes opera, she likes ballet. So once in a while we go to La Scala together and she loves it.

GZ: Are you a regular visitor to La Scala?

SA: Yes, because the Chamber of Commerce of Milan is a founding member of La Scala, so we have the reserved seats.

SA: This is the CAM Award.

But there is bad news for everybody. You cannot eat right away, it has to stay in the fridge for a couple of hours. There is also a shortcut -  you put it in freezer for 15 -30 minutes, to get cold, then you can eat it tonight. But I don’t do so.

GZ: Ok, let me go to another very Italian passion of yours. I think that is something you associate yourself with.

SA: Yes, Vespa!

GZ: Do you still have Vespa?

SA: I have 2 Vespas, unfortunately the third one was stolen. The oldest one I have is of 1965, then I have a 1980 one and the one that was stolen was of 1973. So I had 3 historical Vespa vehicles.

GZ: Do you use it in Milan when you go to the office?

SA: No, I walk or go by bicycle. I live very close to work and Milan is a city with a small centre, a very easy one.

GZ: I see. One more picture – tell us, what is happening here between you, Michael Schneider and James Castello?

SA: This was the last UNCITRAL session of the Group III in New-York, that was last January, when the world was different. I was the Italian delegate, Michael Schneider was the Swiss delegate, and James was the US delegate. James and myself were trying to hide our beards, just to keep mustache, similarly to Michael. And Michael, who is an actor, was pretending not to understand what is going on.

GZ: Stefano, you are also teaching at Bocconi, one of the Italian best universities. I know your dedication to the Vis Moot. I met some of your former students, quite a number of whom built up a career in arbitration. All of them remember you as an excellent teacher, an excellent person, who was also inviting them at home, I heard that you were cooking for your students!

SA: Of course! And they had to say that everything was good, even if it was not, they would say: “Oh, it is delicious!”. Because you are their professor!

GZ: I will put now an expression on the screen but before I do so I want to show our participants this book “Cippolino” by Gianni Rodari.

This was a present from my Italian friends. You know that in the former Soviet Union space all of us knew about Cippolino. We even had a cartoon, and Gianni Rodari was featuring in this cartoon, he was interviewed. This edition is in Italian and in Russian, which is fantastic. So, I have for you an expression by Gianni Rodari, which was sent to me by a friend of mine last week and which I loved a lot. In Italian it reads “Ah, come sono belle, certe volte, le cose sbagliate!”, “Ah, how beautiful, sometimes, wrong things are!” We definitely live through a period when there is a such wrong “thing” happening, this nasty virus. How would you interpret this phrase in the context of the current pandemic?

SA: Like everything, like everything! This phrase was related to the Pisa Tower, which is not perfect, it is inclined. Today at lunch I was playing games with my daughters, and the winner would be the one who put the longest list of all the positive aspects of the virus. And we came up with some 20 positive aspects of this situation. I don’t want to say that I would like to do a “replay”, to come back to the end of January, to New-York and forget all this nightmare. But once we are here, let us do our best and look at the positive aspects. In all dramas in history there are always some positive aspects.

GZ: Thank you for this. I have declared my unconditional love for Italy. I really dream of going to Italy and visiting my favourite places there again, once this situation is over. Would you have any suggestions as to Italian masterpieces - movies to watch (classics or not) and books to read to people in lockdown, who have some spare time on their hands?

SA: First of all, the old movies, “Roman Holidays” [Vacanze romane], “Bicycle thieves” [Ladri di biciclette], or “Dolce Vita” – these are incredible. And then there are also many modern movies, for example, La grande belleza which gives you a taste of Italy. Another one is “Call me by your name” [Chiamami col tuo nome], a very nice movie with the summer atmosphere in the Northern Italy. And then we have a Mediterraneo, which was one of our Academy winners. And also movies of Benigni. All of them are tiramisu for your eyes and for your spirit.

GZ: What about a book or an author?

SA: The one which is very popular and which I like, is Montalbano, by Andrea Camilleri. But I do not know whether the translation is as good as the original.

GZ: Well, it is written in Sicilian.

SA: Yes, it is Sicilian, but in Italian it is fantastic. Otherwise, Primo Levi, who wrote about  the Second World War. I also like Maurizio De Giovanni.

GZ: What about Tabucchi? Not your piece of the cake?

SA: I fall asleep.

GZ: Stefano, the last slide I think will speak to many people. An image of rainbow – Andrà Tutto Bene [Everything will be all right], which came from Italy but nowadays is recognizable to everyone.

 We very much hope that Italy will be on a curve of recovery very soon, as well as all our friends and all our Italian colleagues.

* * *

 

i.         No baking

ii.         First of all, make coffee, better espresso, either decaf or normal. The quantity is equal of about 6 cups. You will use it almost at the end, but it has to be cold. So, pour it in a large bowl (large enough to soak the cookies: see below).

iii.         Then, move to the 4 eggs: carefully separate the egg whites from the yolks (the egg whites must not have any trace of yolk!). Then whip the yolks (with a manual or, for an Italian lazy like me, with electric whisks!) , pouring in 50 gr of sugar (i.e., half of the dose required).

iv.         Once the mixture will be clear and creamy, keep on whipping with the whisks, adding the mascarpone little by little. When all the cheese is incorporated, you will have a thick and compact cream.

v.         Keep it on a side, clean the whips very well and whisk the egg whites, pouring the remaining sugar (50 gr), little by little.

vi.         Here the difficult part starts…. You must whip the egg white very well, until they become like a thick and firm “snow” (you will understand that it is done when, turning the bowl upside down, the egg whites will not move!).

vii.         Pour the egg whites into the bowl with the yolks and sugar, little by little (with a spoon), and stir it gently with a spatula or a spoon, from bottom to top, until the mixture will dissolve.

viii.         Once ready, distribute a generous spoonful of cream on the bottom of the oven dish or aluminium cooking tray (medium size, around 30x 20 cm).

ix.         Then, soak the ladyfingers cookies for a few moments in the coffee, first one side and then the other. Be careful, if you leave the cookie in the coffee too long, the Tiramisù will be too soft and liquid; if you leave it for too short, it will be too dry….

x.         Then, you distribute the soaked ladyfingers on the cream, all in one direction, so as to obtain a first layer on which you will go to distribute a part of the mascarpone cream.

xi.         Then, you repeat the process with a second (and final) layer of soaked ladyfingers, covered by another layer of cream.

xii.         Level the surface and sprinkle it with bitter cocoa powder (filtered with a little sieve).

xiii.         Let it harden in the fridge for a couple of hours.

xiv.         Your tiramisu is ready!