“‘Raw’ means uncooked, but it also means wild, savage, and something unfinished, a work in progress,” says Andrea Petrini, who teamed up last year with Alessandro Porcelli to found Cook It Raw, an organization that will bring 16 of the world’s most celebrated chefs to Lapland, the northernmost region of Finland, (September 3 to 6). There, they will forage, fish, and hunt, and then create meals more instinctive and candid than what they might do back in their Michelin-starred kitchens. “We are asking the chefs to cook like this is a music project and they are instant composers,” says Petrini. The inspiration is David Sylvian’s Manafon, the genre-busting 2009 album that layers sounds from seemingly unconnected musicians. It may seem like a gimmick, but for the participating chefs it’s a chance to push the boundaries of their cooking in front of an audience that’s as tough as it is sympathetic: other chefs. This will be the third Cook It Raw, and Petrini and Porcelli will ask the chefs to form groups of two or three to collaborate and improvise. René Redzepi—whose restaurant, Noma, was recently named the best in the world—hunting and cooking above the Arctic Circle with Pascal Barbot (of l’Astrance, the most impossible reservation in Paris) and David Chang (the petulant genius behind Momofuku Ko)? Sounds wild and savage indeed. Go to cookitraw.org.
Photo: P.A. Jorgenssen