A family affair

Barbara is a chef. Her passion for cuisine began when she was already over twenty: for her, becoming a chef was not just a personal choice, but a family one too. Barbara’s surname is in fact Scabin, and she’s the sister of the great chef of Combal.Zero. Indeed it was her brother who brought her to the kitchen, at the beginning of the adventure called Combal.

«It all began 22 years ago, when a dear friend of my brother, Celestino Aimaro, asked him for help after he had just taken over a trattoria. At that time, Davide was in a moment of crisis with this profession, for two years he had been selling beauty products. So he accepted this offer and asked me to go and work with him. Later, this friend of ours sold the place, because he couldn’t take care of it in the right way: this is how the first Combal was born.»

Before your brother made this offer, had you ever thought of becoming a chef?
«Absolutely not. After all, I had studied in Torino’s art school for fashion design, Aldo Passoni, so I saw my future as a designer, working in fashion. I must say, however, that these studies came out to be useful: even my brother would have liked to attend art school, and today always asks for my collaboration when he has to create a new dish, in order to take care of perspective, colours, lights and shades.»

What were your first steps in the kitchen?
«Perhaps to second my artistic spirit, I started with pastry making, which is also a specialty that is often more fitting for women. I began with Davide and I always stayed with him: I remember very well the first thing he asked me to prepare. A panna cotta. He asked me to do it over and over, dozens of times, until he was satisfied, because even though at the time we were a simple trattoria, my brother has always been a great perfectionist.»

So your only teacher has been Davide Scabin?
«Yes, I never attended courses or took internships in other restaurants. But I believe that having Davide by my side is already a lot. He has always told me that an orchestra director cannot know how to play all the instruments, that for me it was too late to study and learn everything, and so I had to be capable of directing the orchestra even like this. And now that I am the chef at Blupum in Ivrea I really need to put this thing into practice.»

You’re not alone in guiding the kitchen of the Blupum, however...
«No, indeed, with me there’s Giovanni Ghigo, who’s also my partner. I have the great luck of having next to me, supporting me, a person who is also my life outside the restaurant, and who has always been working with Davide and I. On top of a staff of marvellous guys.»

Did you meet your partner at Combal?
«Yes, in other words, this experience has given me all that I have today, and I believe this will always be the case!»

Today you have a restaurant in which you can express yourself: how would you explain your vision of cuisine?
«I think a lot about the world that surrounds me, in the last years many things have changed, even in people’s habits: in supermarkets they focus on single-portions, street-food is increasingly popular, people dedicate less time to the ritual of eating and, in times of crisis, unfortunately many people try to save as much as possible on food. What I see for the future of cuisine is a meeting of this need for velocity with a great return to tradition.»

Why is tradition so important?
«It is crucial, because there are too many people who have lost the memory of the flavours, the tastes of our grandmothers’ and mothers’ food. I am lucky enough to know these flavours and I believe I need to hand down this memory to the new generations, with my work. And this type of message is what we try to convey with the dishes we serve at Blupum.»

Hasn’t working for all these years by the side of a man such as your brother, a genius but perhaps a little cumbersome too, been difficult?
«No, not at all, because I’m his opposite, his alter ego, and for this reason we compensate each other perfectly. I have never been envious of my brother’s popularity. In fact I’m rather shy, exactly the opposite of Davide. And even now that I have taken this more prominent role, having become a chef, it certainly wasn’t due to the fact I felt the need to emerge.»

Don’t you ever try to contain him, when he presents one of his new ideas for the future?
«Absolutely not! Quite the contrary. I cannot contain him, and I wouldn’t want to do so either. Now the Food Cleanique project will be born, which is very beautiful and important, after Ivrea we have even opened in New York, we’re thinking of other locations too... in other words, we all have many ambitious goals to reach.»

See also
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Respect as a goal by Caterina Ceraudo
Tenacity, love and quality by Patrizia Corradetti
Liberty in the dining room by Anna Sala
Pamela’s Passion by Pamela Filomeno
Dishes to chew by Teresa Buongiorno
Love is a raw material by Alba Esteve Ruiz
The art of never giving up by Deborah Corsi
Becoming a restaurateur by Patrizia Maraviglia
In search for passion by Anneke Van Sande
Challenging oneself in Norway by Lucia Tellone
I want to make bread by Roberta Pezzella
So young for everything by Rosanna Marziale
Rigour and cheerfulness by Serenella Medone
The chef from Northern Naples by Marianna Vitale
In the team with my mother by Serena D'Alesio
Men, what a disaster by Marzia Buzzanca
A total vocation by Antonella Ricci
A full life by Maria De La Paz
Mind and heart by Marta Grassi
Effort with a smile by Nadia Moscardi
Nothing is impossible by Emanuela Tommolini
Giving value to differences by Viviana Varese
The other half of the dish by Elisa Arduini