All united with Marco Baglieri

Knowing how to react, overcoming the drama, turning page can be the best way not to give in to destiny, especially when it’s a very cynical one. Fate was cruel with Marco Baglieri, patron-chef at restaurant Crocifisso in Noto, one of the favourites among local food enthusiasts or travellers looking for some delicious food together with the Baroque art. He went back to work a few hours ago, after six long, sorrowful months of inactivity.

Baglieri stopped working to concentrate, heart and soul, on his eldest daughter, who was very sick. A teenager, Aurora passed away on the night between the 6th and 7th December, that is to say on what would have been her mother’s birthday, who also passed away some ten years ago because of the same illness, leukaemia. A few hours later, Marco Baglieri posted on Facebook a touching message: “Aurora didn’t make it... Yesterday she went to Heaven to be reunited with her mother... My sorrow is endless... Love your children every day, every moment... Love them and make sure they feel this until there’s time... My time flew away with her... Love you children, always...”.

There was, in his words, a sense of torture and incredulity. The one arising in front of something too big, unjust and unacceptable. We’re happy dad Marco is back in the kitchen, next to his wife Vanessa: work can often cure the sickness of the heart better than what chemotherapy can do with the sickness of the body. When announcing his return, the chef wrote: «I decided to go back to work with the same commitment and passion as always, taking as an example the strength and determination my daughter had in facing her illness, continuing the project I’ve always had: to make my clients eat well».

Marco Baglieri knows he’s not alone. Many people have shown their solidarity. Already on 18th December a charity dinner was organised which had the participation, on top of the unfortunate father, also of Corrado Assenza of Caffè Sicilia and Salvatore Vicari of restaurant I Vicari. Other events will follow, always to collect funds for the Children Oncology and Haematology Ward at Ospedale San Matteo in Pavia, where Aurora fought her illness for six months (for those wishing to participate: Iban code IT44X0569611300000021008X87, Bic/Swift code POSOIT22XXX, motive ‪#‎amateivostrifiglisempre‬). Here’s what they wrote at Cronachedigusto.it: “Here’s how cooking – with its highest value of nourishment for the body and the soul of men – can be transformed into a way to create a network of protection and charity mechanisms, transforming itself into a gift that goes far beyond the time spent sitting around the same table”.

They’re right and we’re happy to quote them. And we rejoice because Baglieri is back in the kitchen. Cooking is about life.