Getting ready to release Italy at the Bocuse d'Or

Everything is ready in Lyon: tomorrow, Tuesday 24th January and on Wednesday 25th the finals of the Bocuse d’Or 2017 will take place when the best 24 candidates from all around the world will compete. Participants were first selected in the national rounds, then in the continental “semi-finals” which nominated the 24 countries admitted in Lyon. Ever since there has been a European round (access was previously by invitation) Italy has never qualified in the finals: sometimes it was fished out but even then it always ended in the last places. A trend that needs to be inverted: this is why we’re publishing an article written for Identità Golose by young Piedmontese chef Paolo Griffa.

Since 1987 Bocuse d’Or has been the most important fine dining contest in the world. Every two years, following national and then continental selections, 24 nations choose their best candidate to compete for the prize. France and Norway dominate. They got on the podium respectively 10 and 9 times (with 7 and 5 first places). In these countries there’s a very strong collaborative spirit between colleagues and sponsors: while training, candidates are put into the best conditions so as to be ready for the finals. Thanks to a cohesive system it’s easier to face prestigious challenges: results prove it. Italy, instead, has never shone in this competition, except for Paolo Lopriore, best fish course in the now distant 1999.

Why am I mentioning this? As many people know, I love contests, competition and all the process of growth that lies behind. Like for a sports person competing in the Olympics, the audience of a competition only sees the performance on the final day but in order to reach those results there’s lots of work to be done. When I set as a goal that of trying to bring Italy on the podium of the Bocuse d’Or I had to take long-term decisions. It’s not an adventure you take on all of a sudden. You must be ready to admit your pros and cons, your competences and wants so as to grow and know where to improve. And then, most of all, you need to find the support of people who can guide you and direct you, because you cannot win such a competition on your own… This is how my current adventure began, these are my reasons.

A small step back: it was thanks to a competition, which I won like on other occasions, that after catering school in 2010 I went to work for Davide Scabin at Combal.zero, the first phase in my career, which lasted two years before spending three at Marco Sacco’s Piccolo Lago. Since April, instead, I’ve been in France, in Auvergne, in the kitchen team at Restaurant Serge Vieira – its chef having won the Bocuse d’Or in 2005.

The reason why I chose France is soon explained. First of all, I want to know two cultures so different yet so closely connected: on the one hand, Italian cuisine, has strong tastes, history and products; on the other, the grande cuisine française is precise and technical, elaborated. They have two ways of understanding and conceiving food, both deserving to be fully understood and discovered. All the great chefs have spent some time in France to complete their training. What do chef-trainers in France have that we lack? I must admit they know how to shape the new generations and convey their knowledge, but most of all they know how to give value to what they have and to themselves, they work as a team (and not just seemingly so, but with elegance). One could sum this up by calling it “French attitude”.

Becoming a part of this mechanism wasn’t easy for me: yet over here they respect professionalism, they listen to everyone’s knowledge so as to make use of it in the best way and get better and better results.

In my case, however, France has a further meaning, as I mentioned at the beginning. Putting aside my desire to discover a new culinary culture, I’m here most of all to study. To learn why and how and then interpret it following my personal taste... And to get ready for Bocuse d’Or! I didn’t choose this restaurant by chance. In fact, it was the result of some happy coincidences. The sous chef here is Australian. His name is Dan Arnold and he’s in the finals at Bocuse d’Or representing his nation, having arrived third in the Asian finals.

Where did he train in these months, in view of Lyon? But at the restaurant, of course! And what was the clause that could induce me to come here at Serge Vieira? To train beside him! Even in this season, while the restaurant is closed for the holidays, the kitchen is always busy, in fact, even more than usual: every day, from six in the morning until the evening, a group of people of which I’ve been part has constantly worked in search of perfection, trying to put into practice Dan’s idea, so he can do well in Lyon. A great work for which I will support the Australian team in the next super finals (given there won’t be an Italian candidate) till I will be able to compete in the Italian selection for the Bocuse d’Or 2019.