Joia turns 25

Yesterday, on Tuesday 16th in the morning, I had the pleasure of returning to the Pavé, in Via Felice Casati 27 in Milan, to speak of vegan cuisine with Pietro Leemann, who was original even when it came to breakfast, thanks to a barley cappuccino, something that unites two things that don’t thrill me much: cappuccino (it kills the coffee) and barley. He ordered it and drank it, that’s fine. I kept my black and hot espresso close to me.

As the meeting was about to finish, the surprise arrived: “Today [yesterday, for our readers] it’s Joia’s 25th birthday”. I didn’t say it seems as if it were today, but I clearly remember the first steps and the first dishes. In the evening, a letter arrived that I’m publishing because Pietro deserves the highest esteem thanks to the long road, dominated by natural cuisine, that he took a quarter of a century ago: “Hurrah! Today, on September 16th 2014 Joia turns 25. I had just turned 29, I was back from a fascinating journey across China, Japan and India, that lasted a little over two years, and I strongly wanted to make the most of the ideas I had developed.

“The cuisines I had explored, the fascinating places I had visited, but most of all the profound inner journey I had taken, had changed me completely. I wanted to pursue new perspectives through what I knew and loved to do, that is to say cooking. I was almost a vegetarian and I had the intuition that that pacific perspective could have had the strength to change the world.

“Food changes and everything changes, from the health of people to that of the planet, a silent revolution I tried to act out, in my own small way, with Joia.

“It is a known thing that meetings are fortuitous but crucial. For me this was the case with the meeting with a group of farsighted people, who then became good friends, who that year wanted to open a vegetarian restaurant. I’m profoundly grateful to them and they are still very dear to me.

“Nicla Nardi managed the dining room and the finances, I was in charge of the kitchen with a small group of young cooks. Since then, in the dining room and in the kitchen many skilled people have worked (today there are 20 very talented professionals) who have supported me, by working on an unimaginable quantity of vegetables in order to nourish the crowds of precious clients who have followed us during all these years.

“I’m happy of the time that has passed, even more than I am of this present, and I also confide in a future that is visibly projected towards a greater food, ecological and animalist awareness. It’s a nice way of experiencing food and the ideal world in which to cultivate and protect our inner landscape. At some point our world, which was previously smaller, was animated by a dimension that went beyond, the true substance of life. Thank you Joia, thank you to all those who have been and those who are now a part of it, thanks to all of you people who visit us and are with us.

Kind greetings and hugs, Pietro”.

Important note: in August, when the restaurant was closed, Leemann renovated it by changing some important details. We leave you the pleasure of discovering them, besides the pleasure of the food, at 18, Via Panfilo Castaldi, tel. +39.02.29522124.