The story of Sandra, Viviana and Alice

Even I swallowed the bait in the preface: I defined Viviana Varese’s world, a wonderland. Indeed, it is a wonder, only that seeing she is the chef at Alice’s, in Via Adige 9 in Milan, tel. +39.02.5462930, one should try to find a synonym such as magnificent or incredible, instead of hitting off Lewis Carroll’s Alice. Anyway, it’s a small detail, lost in the pleasure of having participated, with the introduction, in the making of a book signed by Alice n.1 and Alice n.2 that is to say by Sandra Ciciriello (the lady of the dining room and of the cellar) and Viviana Varese (the queen of the stoves, but, please, not in the sense of the angel of the hearth), with photos by Francesca Brambilla and Serena Serrani, texts by Fiorenza Auriemma, and published by Giunti. The title? Alice e le meraviglie del pesce, (Alice and the wonders of fish), subtitled “Dal mercato alla tavola in quaranta ricette” (From the market to the table in forty recipes).

The most beautiful part of their story is not just the end, that is the dishes they serve, but also the beginning. Before becoming a sommelier and restaurateur, Sandra used to work in Milan’s fish market while Viviana was working in a restaurant near Lodi and hadn’t yet decided to leave everything behind and confront herself with Milan – a beautiful market, but also a challenging ring. It can give you great satisfaction, but it also requires a lot of effort, and always puts you to the test.

While Sandra knows life among the fish stands, Viviana knows how to prepare and cook the fish selected by Sandra who, once the dish is ready, serves it to the client. This is why, of the two, the chef represents today, while her business partner represents the past and the future. In practice, they’re perfectly in tune. The first asks what has arrived in Milan, the other gets the information and replies, and note after note the menu is shaped.

This book tells their story and, even though it is the story of two women, and even though Viviana is the daughter of two restaurateurs and her sister is a chef, it is very distant from the Italian stereotype of the young woman who becomes a chef because she meets and falls in love with a restaurateur or because she was born and raised in a restaurant. Varese is a chef by vocation and for a totally personal choice, something not easy to find even among her male colleagues. Today, however, this isn’t a surprising novelty. Just think of Cristina Bowerman and Iside De Cesare, Antonia Klugmann and Marianna Vitale, Rosanna Marziale and Aurora Mazzucchelli, all complete chefs. They are the sun shining over an activity where men (when they are present, that is) are complimentary to women, because when they move around the tables in the dining room and the shelves in the cellar, as many other husbands and partners do, they don’t set the pace but follow that of their other half.

On top of telling a really beautiful story, this book also explains how to choose and then clean and preserve fish. Thanks to the forty recipes we’ll also understand how to cook it, with starters, first courses and main courses, snacks (such as Pizza fritta with tomato, mozzarella, capers and horse mackerel) and raw preparations. Of course, one could argue that raw fish precedes cooking and the work of a chef, but Viviana’s raw fish is not just a tartare. Hers are very thought of preparations that require diligence.