Marco Sacco
Sea Bass and D’O Tapioca Caviarby Davide Oldani
Dall'Italia Retrobottega a Roma, una tavola con l’ingrediente al centro
Amass, restaurant with vegetable garden (photo facebook/amass)
When Gabriele asked me to tell about Amass from my point of view, I immediately thought there are different ways to represent this place. Not just a place, perhaps it would be better to call it a concept, or better still, a lifestyle. I had never been very interested in Amass before moving to Copenaghen. I had of course heard about it, but I would have never imagined that such a strong principle of innovative catering could exist. Believe when I say that this style of inclusiveness and culinary perspective could be taken as a model, and that each single molecule and small atom at Amass represents contemporary avantgarde. It could sound as an insult to other institutions, or perhaps as too egocentric but, in my opinion, I believe it’s interesting to examine what some people (many people in fact) cannot see. The capacity of seeing beyond being a team, and a unique idea that works together and transmits only one sound: because when the machine starts every morning, and every part starts to work, everything automatically fits its place. And, of course, almost in every restaurant around the world everything works more or less in the same way, but for us I think this is slightly, and at the same time extremely, different. (Because when we work, we work for two teams.) Back and front of house are like pieces of an organic puzzle, varied and complex but also functional and incredibly psychedelic. I don’t pretend to make comparisons, but I think our work, and what Matt Orlando has created over the years, is something extremely varied and fluid, structurally intricated but amiable and hallucinogenic. Farsightedness and fatigue are strongpoints of the restaurant, which once again I wouldn’t like to call just a “restaurant”. Since day one at Amass I’ve told myself that my life was about to change, both from a mental point of view, and of attitude. A new nuance that I knew would be added to my way of seeing things. Perhaps what I prefer the most of Amass is this: the way in which, by simply taking part in a small revolution we can all feel part of the revolution itself. No big words but a proven reality, because Amass is, has been and will continue to be a revolution, and each small action in the world can be considered as part of an evolutionary change.
Amass, ristorante con orto (foto facebook/amass)
The dining room (photo facebook/amass)
The full team at Amass. Second from the right, Erica Parrino. In the middle, chef and patron Matt Orlando
Californian chef Matt Orlando. He opened Amass in 2013. He also owns wine bar AFC (photo Brambilla/Serrani)
Born in Ragusa in 1992, raised in Sicily, she soon left home to attend university and follow her passions. She moved from Rome to Milan, travelled around the world, and in 2021 joined the dining room team at Amass a Copenhagen, and became assistant manager one year later. She’s driven by the (re)discovery of an eternal love for food, art as a sole creed and a famished vision of life
Eric Vildgaard and Tina Kragh Vildgaard, the two souls of restaurant Jordnær in Denmark
Mattia Spedicato, from Lecce, and Giulia Caffiero, from Cagliari, respectively restaurant manager and floor manager at Geranium, in Copenhagen, the new Best restaurant in the world according to the World's 50 Best (photos from Gabriele Zanatta)
Scoby steak, the kombucha starter, one of the steps in the summer-vegetarian menu at Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark. The establishment, opened in 2003 in the old location in Strandgade 93, has 3 Michelin stars and was the World’s Best in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021
The public side of a restaurant seen by its protagonists: maître, restaurant managers, waiters