Chronicling the kitchen expertise and humor of celebrity chefs Jenson Button and Romain Grosjean in the Pirelli pit lane motorhome, with the two racing champions going head to head in a culinary race – Pirelli is releasing a cookbook.
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The challenge between the two drivers and a tasting of some of the Pirelli motorhome’s specialties formed the backdrop for the launch of “Miles and Meals – handcrafted by Pirelli.” The recipe book reveals the secrets of Pirelli’s chefs (who provide meals for crews on the racing circuit) and looks behind the scenes at the work of Pirelli’s personnel.
“Miles and Meals”, a limited edition gift for guests and friends of Pirelli, “is a playful way of illustrating the similarities between tires and risotto,” as well as compounds and ingredients. It’s an alternative look at how the world of tires works, bringing out the lighter side of life in the motorhome.
“Making a good tire is like making a good risotto,” writes Maurizio Boiocchi at the start of the tome. Boiocchi is Pirelli’s research and development director and “father” of the Formula One P Zero and Cinturato tires.
The book opens by drawing a parallel between kitchen recipes and tire compounds. Both are the result of top quality ingredients and the harmonious balance between them, as well as constant checking, years of experience and undivided attention to the end client: whether it’s a team using tires or a privileged guest in the motorhome.
Another element in common is human know-how. The touch of an expert is crucial in the kitchen and no less vital when it comes to dealing with the cutting-edge technology that that characterizes the production of modern competition tires. This essential element is reflected by one key word in the book’s subheading, “handcrafted,” and also by the photographs that depict Pirelli’s engineers measuring, analyzing and preparing the tires for competition.
“Miles and Meals” brings together the recipes of Pirelli’s head chef Fabrizio Tanfani, overseen by hospitality manager Cristian Staurenghi.
The book takes in some of the best dishes to emerge from their kitchen, race after race across all four corners of the world. Accompanying the recipes – all naturally based on Italian cuisine, but often influenced by the flavors of the countries visited during the year – are strikingly original photographs of the ingredients in a Formula One context, particularly when it comes to pasta.
So the agnolotti are in the shape of racing cars going head to head around a corner, the paccheri are single-seaters driving down a straight flanked by tires made out of tomatoes and pine nuts, sprinkled sea salt is a gravel trap, a basil leaf is a green light, and even an octopus takes on the form of a mechanic with eight arms – ready to launch into the fastest pit stop imaginable.
Each recipe is accompanied by anecdotes that tell the story of every circuit from the point of view of the tires and of the kitchen. So we find out that Australian Angus beef is the best possible choice for a typically Italian steak, in the markets of Delhi it’s possible to find plenty of ingredients normally used in Tuscan cuisine, if you look hard enough, and that avocado can be the best accompaniment to a Mediterranean seafood salad.
There is also plenty of behind the scenes stories and atmosphere from the Pirelli motorhome and the company’s engineers. This takes in moments of relaxation such as the “Italian Sunday” – a short break originally designed to beat the equatorial heat of Malaysia – to the everyday hard work of meetings, strategy analysis, data collection and calculation of camber and set-up for each race.
The recipes in “Miles and Meals” will also be available soon in digital form on the company’s website.
For more information, visit www.pirelli.com.
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