04-01-2013
Pascal Tinari, third from right, with part of the dining room staff at the Auberge de l’Ill in Illhaeusern, in Alsace. After cutting his teeth, today he’s the dining room manager at his family’s restaurant, Villa Maiella in Guardiagrele (Chieti)
I remember as though it was yesterday, the day when I arrived at Dal Pescatore in Canneto sull’Oglio. It was August 2008, I knocked on Antonio Santini’s door in the hope of working with his magnificent family, three generations in the kitchen, between his mother Bruna, his wife Nadia, and their children Giovanni, Alberto and Valentina. When I was a kid, to tell the truth, I wanted to work in the kitchen – while my brother, who’s now a chef, preferred the dining room. But our father forced us to stay, first of all, among our clients, in order to understand their needs and the meaning of service. Later, eventually, we would have been able to change and ask to work in the kitchen. The day of my interview at Dal Pescatore I would have liked to be part of the kitchen brigade, but Mr Antonio told me: «You are a dining room person. If you want, you can start at the end of the summer». These few words changed my life. When you start from a family restaurant, you think it’s the most beautiful place in the world. In Canneto, however, a true temple for the restaurant sector, I started to feel small, and to build a different and intense vision of this work.
With the team of Dal Pescatore in Canneto sull'Oglio (Mantua). In the bottom row, you can see Bruna, Antonio and Nadia Santini
With Marc Haeberlin, Auberge de l'Ill chef
Men who, for a moment, leave pots and pans to tell us their experience and point of view
by
From Western concert flute to cakes