Paulo Airaudo in Florence: we tried the jewel-like restaurant at Hotel La Gemma

As in a game of matryoshkas, one gem hides the other. The biggest one is the 19th-century Palazzo Paoletti between Via Calimala, Via dei Cavalieri and Via dei Lamberti, a stone's throw from Piazza della Signoria, right in the heart of Florence's historic centre: until 2021 it housed a Zara department store, then the effect of lockdowns prompted the clothing multinational to close its doors. The Florentine Cecchi family, active for two decades in the real estate brokerage business, seized this opportunity, immediately taking over the building and converting it, after major works completed in record time, into a structure dedicated to high-end hospitality, a boutique hotel with five floors, 23 spacious rooms and 16 suites/apartments, all furnished in Art Deco style contaminated by contemporary design elements. A gem of beauty.

What did they name the new structure? La Gemma, but as an acronym for the new Cecchi generation at the helm of the project, consisting of the young siblings Ginevra, Edoardo, Massimiliano, Maria Sole and Andrea, who succeeded their father Luca who passed away in 2020.

To unearth a further gem in La Gemma, it is necessary to go up to the first floor: there you will find Luca's, the gastronomic restaurant - dedicated to Luca Cecchi - that general manager Laura Stopani wanted to entrust to a strong name in international fine dining, which she had met when, between 2013 and 2017, she was director of another luxury hotel, Borgo Santo Pietro di Chiusdino, in the province of Siena. Few remember this, but a decade ago, leading the kitchen of the magnificent relais in the Senese region where Ariel Hagen's star now shines, was the Italo-Argentine Paulo Airaudo. He was then not even 30 years old. Meanwhile, he has become a sort of King Midas of the restaurant business, an endless series of establishments around the world between the San Sebastian head office, with Amelia, two stars expected to becoming three, plus Da Filippo, La Bottega di Filippo, 1985 Cantina Argentina, The Blind Pig, El Bar de Villa Favorita and the recently taken over traditional Basque tavern Irai. And then there’s one-starred Aleia in Barcelona, Noi, Haku and again Amelia and Da Filippo in Hong Kong, Anima in Bogotà, not to mention London's Da Terra, two macarons, opened with Brazilian Rafael Cagali, who in turn has Italian, Veronese origins.

In short: Stopani had already tried to 'bring' Airaudo back to Italy four years ago, it seemed all set for his landing in Ostuni, at the boutique hotel Paragon 700, scheduled to debut in spring 2020, then Covid arrived to mess up the plans. Now she’s made it, at La Gemma

In Florence, the chef makes use of two valuable residents, Tommaso Querini and Olivia Cappelletti; he reinterprets his dishes by adapting them to the Tuscan context; but overall he proposes himself, the style that characterises him. There is something in Airaudo's cooking that recalls that of the Cereas. Certainly, the Italo-Argentine rambles more than his brothers from Bergamo, he plays between the South American matrix, the Italian inspiration that is in his DNA, the fascination for the Orient and the Spanish lesson.

But there are common polar stars: enjoyment as a viaticum for the gastronomic experience; the idea that when dining opulence is not a minus almost to be hidden, to be ashamed of, but a privilege that is well paid for by the diner, and therefore does not lend itself to being restricted between ideological stakes; the conviction that a restaurant is first and foremost a business, which must function instead of chasing fashionable chimeras.

The Cerea family does all this somewhat under the radar, without proclamations; Airaudo states this proudly, he is not one for diplomacy. His phrase should be carved in stone, so that no one forgets it: 'Fine dining is changing and evolving, and we all have to understand that. People want happy places where they can enjoy themselves and spend pleasant hours'.

This also applies to Luca's inside La Gemma.

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso