Fratelli d'Italia

Two weeks ago I was on the stage of the Auditorium at Identità Milano, speaking with Alessandro Negrini and Fabio Pisani, the two young chefs of Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia. The pretext was the story of the historic restaurant in Milan, as seen through their perception. The – more ambitious – objective was to speak about Italy and the Italian restaurant scene starting from their experience.

I accepted to do so because these themes are very dear to me and because I’m strongly convinced that the story of Il Luogo is a paradigm of how one can get out of the identitarian impasse of a great part of the Italian restaurants while reaffirming records that are often wrongfully claimed by the international one. It would have been enough to listen to some of the speeches that preceded us, to realise that the most recent trends in international fine dining have for a long time been an essential part of our culinary tradition, they are its solid background, from which one only needs to draw and get inspired. I refer to products that are unique, to high gastronomic craftsmanship, to producers who are handing over cultivations and cultures, to the great family cuisine that continues changing appearance yet not substance, to the many territories full of resources and to the chefs, who are stubborn ambassadors of this priceless heritage.

Being aware of this, Fabio and Alessandro, with the decisive complicity of Stefania Moroni, decided not to limit themselves to the preparation of a dish, but to give shape to their thoughts on the subject. These were the direct and sincere thoughts of people who spend the whole day in the kitchen and are absorbed by its endless duties, from preparations to clients’ needs, from managing a team to calling suppliers, from food cost to new dishes to create and present.

Thoughts that speak of great national products; of modern techniques that need to coexist with ancient ones, in order to enhance the latter to the highest level; of the network of suppliers who are great promoters of products that often risk extinction; of kitchens that need to be laboratories, places where knowledge can be shared; of the value of a team, in which one always needs to know when to step backwards, listen and wait; of the courage of being Italian all the way, without feeling inferior; of the necessity of feeling a central part of a culture capable of generating masterpieces the whole world envies us.

The chosen dish, then, getting to the action, to the production, to the future, is a dish that is both ancient and modern and starts from a popular ingredient – prepared on site by one of their trusted suppliers, the great Apulian butcher Michele Sabatino (of Apricena, Foggia) – and then becomes contemporary fine dining. The Lamb torcinello from Gargano with chickpea flour from the Murge, Tonda Gentile del Piemonte hazelnut brittle, dried mushrooms from Valtellina, wild marasciuolo and mosto cotto made with figs is a compendium of Italian excellences, it is Italy’s unification, from North to South; it’s the finished metaphor of a possible Italian system to be transferred, with all its values, to the world.