Some restaurants can be extremely anonymous: it’s just about feeding people at a market price given by who the customers are (occasional tourists, workers in the area, students, retired). Whoever could be in the kitchen, no empathy, no personality. Pros for this is that the restaurant, as far as it works, no problem for the owner. Many places are like this, (often) cheap personnel and “delivery comes first”.By the way, these personal considerations don’t necessarily mean that food is not good. A good place for the kind, I’d say, a family-run trattoria, a worthless one, well, so many… Continue Reading…
Carmela (born 1913) was a butler in a forgettable place between Verona and Vicenza, Zita (born 1917) an austrian blooded artist (a painter and a piano player), Fiorenza (my mom, born 1947) a flower child artist. To them food meant Continue Reading…
One step back…Chefs are a peculiar sample of human being: genial, enthusiastic, humble, featureless, self-centered, insecure, petty thieves, day-dreamers. It could take days to make this list…and it could remain meager anyway… Continue Reading…
A few months ago Mafe and Filippo went to NY, they gifted me a few tiny packs of red thai paste. Dried red chillies, lemongrass, garlic, shallot, galangal, kaffir lime, coriander, shrimp paste, sweet basil leaves, cumin, pepper… Continue Reading…
I wrote in a previous post that my dad attended university both in Florence and in Venice; because of this he learnt to master the cooking of Continue Reading…
These days Milan hosted another fantastic edition of the Salone del Mobile exhibition. To me it is a great occasion to Continue Reading…
My dad was born in 1948 close to Vicenza, he attended the first two years at Architecture University in Florence. He met the girl that… Continue Reading…
These are the days for asparagus (thanks to www.carlpendle.com)! It is a wonderful source of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, and… Continue Reading…
A few years ago I was a 255 pounds lad on a 5.67 feet height. I was lazy, anxious and looking for the instant comfort that junk food gives.
I was also a heavy smoker. I realized that I needed to stop this and in 28 months I lost 120 pounds. In the making of this path I got truly passionate with ingredients: properties, how to manipulate them, how different cultures deliver a variety of stunning outcomes, its impact on health and wellbeing.
Now I am a food enthusiast, I spend plenty of times studying whatever has to do with it, but I am not a Chef. Not even a marmiton. I have no part in a professional kitchen and I don’t have one as well.
When asked who I am I answer I cook, I read and talk about food. No specific roles. Roles don’t match with my nature.
That’s why I cannot be a Chef.
As summer gets closer, aubergines take the main scene in my kitchen, as I love them because of their sweet and bitter taste. And as it comes with cooking they are extremely versatile and fit for great pairings (tomatoes, basil, anchovies, mozzarella, burrata, breadcrumbs, garlic, capers to begin with).