And if I didn’t think, what would my cuisine even be?

And if I didn’t think, what would my cuisine even be?

I ask myself that sometimes, in the quiet noise of my mind, while New York rushes past outside Lucciola Italian Restaurant and I chase an idea, a flavor, a shape still refusing to be fully grasped.

People say that in the kitchen, you must rely on instinct, on your hands, on your gut. I believe instead that, at least for me, instinct alone is not enough. If I switched off thought, my cuisine would cease to exist.

There would still be good food, perhaps.

But it would be silent food.

Without depth.

Without architecture.

Without intention.

My cooking is thought before it is ever execution. It is memory, obsession, study, subtraction, doubt. It is the constant attempt to take an ingredient and listen to it all the way through, to take it apart, understand it, respect it, and return it in a form that carries truth, identity, and emotion.

Every element passes through that. Through reflection, discipline, and the responsibility of giving meaning to what I create.

From Parmigiano Reggiano—which to me is not merely an ingredient, but an entire civilization condensed into living matter—to the geometry of a dish, its exact temperature, the light in which it will be remembered.

For me, cooking has never been only about feeding. It is about translating roots into contemporary language. Translating memory into gesture. Translating emotion into matter.

Without thought, my cooking would lose its sharpness. It would be like an out-of-focus image: present, perhaps beautiful, but lacking the precision required to leave a real mark.

Because flavor can strike. Technique can impress. But only intention truly remains.

The cuisine I call mine is never born by chance. It comes from a question, a tension, an obsessive need to understand how far an ingredient or an idea can truly go.

Perhaps, in the end, that is my way of cooking. Not simply seeking what is good. But seeking meaning.

And so yes, if I didn’t think, it would not be my cuisine.

It would simply be food.

#MicheleCasadeiMassari #LucciolaNYC #ChefLife #FoodPhilosophy #CulinaryIdentity #ItalianChef #NewYorkChef #Gastronomy #FoodAndThought