Vittorio Fusari

Vittorio Fusari, class of 1953, Lombard from Iseo, son of a train driver, with an educational past made up of studies in philosophy, before becoming a valid chef he was station master in the town where he was born. As of 1981, he managed Il Volto, in Iseo, for many years: it was a nest of 4 friends who wanted to be able to taste great wines and eat excellent food in an inn. Six years later, he had discovered so much passion and talent in the kitchen that he moved on to Maschere, a restaurant serving signature high cuisine, a delicious adventure that continued until 1995 with its closure and the transferral of its “high” soul to the kitchen of Volto, one of the few authentic village inns where you can play cards and enjoy a good drink at all hours, allowing for coexistence with dishes characterised by absolute creative quality.

On the day that the list of great Italian dishes is drawn up, alongside Open Ravioli and Cream of chickpeas and langoustines, there will also be Fusari’s Potato puff with caviar. He created it in the middle of Franciacorta, to celebrate the new vintage of a winery, a potato encased in puff pastry which Vittorio dresses with sour cream and caviar as soon as it comes out of the oven. Initially it’s scorching hot, so you have to put down your fork and wait, blow, open and play around a little, afraid of spoiling the magic “delicatesalty” roe, a refusal by the food which almost obliges the diner to perform a courtship before the union between morsel and palate can be consumed. And as the temperature gradually falls, you realise that you can move in a bit closer and reach the apotheosis of taste.

Fusari’s cuisine is obviously much more than this and includes curly endive with oysters and buffalo mozzarella, which sounds odd but finds its logic in the desire to recreate the land and sea of Salerno, from which all his love originates. Then it might just happen that his meat is the most territorial thing of all in the area: Rovato beef in oil which, in Spain, at a highly creative congress, where no one knew about the past of the Brescian province, caused those who tasted it to hail the creative genius who pairs meat with oil during preparation and not as a condiment. These are all alchemies which he has been reproducing for several years now at Dispensa Pani e Vini di Franciacorta, a magical multifunctional venue set up with the complicity of Vittorio Moretti, a man with a nose for great chefs (and great wines). Between 2015 and 2017, Vittorio was also at work in Milan, at Al Pont de Ferr. Then came the choice of slowing down, and moving to Balzer in Bergamo, where he could have some extra time to spend with his family. Death arrived suddenly, after being hospitalised, on the 1st of January 2020.