Alessandro Negrini e Fabio Pisani

In Western circus tradition, there are two clown figures: Bianco and Augusto. The success of a clown performance is generated by the contrast of these two figures: the first one plays a more authoritative, serious, precise role, Augusto is more messy, outgoing and dazed. The greatest their professionalism, the quickest the exchange of their dialogues, the harmony of movements and mutual understanding, the better is the result shown to the audience.

When we watch Fabio Pisani and Alessandro Negrini working in a kitchen, we think of a couple of clowns during a sketch. And it’s not because they’re funny or ridiculous: together they deconstruct the axiom that a kitchen must be led by just one captain. Fabio is stubborn, proud and good-hearted, Alessandro exuberant, enthusiastic and generous. Both are curious and forthright. Their complicity and agreement required six years to be shaped, and it was a work of synthesis, under and the paternal look of chef Aimo Moroni. They met at restaurant Dal Pescatore in Canneto sull'Oglio, both with years of wandering just like jugglers: foreign experiences that gave them the confidence and the pride of wishing, one day, to work in Italy: Fabio spent 3 years in Paris at the Grand Véfour, 2 in London at the Waterside Inn while Alex practiced at Palace Hotel in Saint Moritz, Gallia in Punta Ala, Aimo e Nadia in Milan and then back again to Switzerland for 3 years at Geneva’s Domaine Chateauvieux. Then Aimo launched the challenge, a mission impossible: to find someone able to inherit his way to see cuisine, ingredients and the ‘Italian-ness’. Someone with passion, inspiration and humbleness.

When Fabio and Alessandro came to Milan they were, summed up, 52 years old: they used to joke about the fact that maybe Aimo would have made it better to recruit just one person of that age. Today we can say they achieved a remarkable balance, instead: Bianco and Augusto found maturity of their own gestures, a constant “give and take” exercise, the meaning and the summary of all previous experiences. Aimo has always chosen to enclose the whole of Italy in his dishes and so Alessandro (a fish lover from Valtellina) and Fabio (a passionate devotee to meat and turnip from Apulia). The same balance gave them the opportunity to lead also Ladybù bistro and, in November 2013, to win the Best Italian Chef title, given by Identità Golose guidebook.