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Niko Romito on the stage of Identità Milano 2021. All photos from Brambilla-Serrani
«A big job awaits us. Significant challenges await us in the coming years, because it is clear that things won't go back to how they were before the pandemic». The approach of Niko Romito on the theme of Identità Milano 2021, that is to say “Building a New Future: Work”, is in line with his personality: analytical, reasonable, never banal. On the stage of the Auditorium the chef from Abruzzo warns the audience, and speaks out his point of view: «We must look at the future carefully, both in terms of food (what will be cooks in the future like? And what will the dining experience be like?) and in terms of staff training». This because «cultural changes usually are not sudden. But the pandemic instead has launched a fast process of change, the world is already different compared to what we knew at the beginning of 2020».
Niko is pragmatic. And to try to give answers to the themes under inspection, he uses the trick of referring to his personal experiences, «first of all we must ask ourselves how the new skills will be developed. Ten years ago, I gave life to Accademia Niko Romito, with an 80% employment rate of its graduates». Yet even this success story will be subject to elements of discontinuity, «we must make the training current, and the same goes for the food offer. We need a real cultural revolution». Which will be based, according to Romito, on some well-defined pillars.
THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INDUSTRY – We must study a new relationship between fine dining and industry. «Enough with this commonplace that products are only good if artisanal– Romito stresses with even greater clearness something that has been on his mind for years. – On the contrary, we must make sure that industrial processes change» pointing more and more on “standardised” fine quality but for this very reason even more “democratic”: «And it's us chef who must allow this leap to be made, making use of our skills, knowledge, and research. The goal: the finest quality typical of fine dining must be applied to industrial products». Another crucial revolution: and Niko takes the example of Bomba, the new place he opened in Pescara at the end of 2020, where they sell his famous “bomboloni” (he sold 47K in a few weeks) «and I always said it clearly: these are industrial products», but they have nothing less than their artisanal version, in fact they're better, «we've applied our skills and replaced animal with vegetal fat. Hence they are also healthier». And easy to replicate, even long-distance: Romito will open a Bomba corner at the World Fair in Dubai, sending 50K to the emirate. Easy forecast: they will go superfast.
DIFFERENT FORMULAS – Romito has always been contaminating models to obtain different, contemporary formats. «For instance, it's good that popular culinary models overlap with the research that is typical of fine dining», this results in fertile ideas like Alt, the street diner that will soon double, when on top of the first location in Castel di Sangro there will be a new one, by the end of the year, in front of the petrol station in Montesilvano.
Romito with Marco Bolasco, who presented the lesson, and Paolo Marchi
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief
The nine speakers at Identità di Pizza 2022, a much-awaited section, as usual, at the Identità Milano congress, on Friday 22nd of April 2022 at MiCo in Milan, Sala Blu 2. From the top left corner, clockwise: Gianni Di Lella, Richard Abou Zaki, Alessandro Ratta, Angelo Rumolo, Pier Daniele Seu, Victor Lugger, Alberto Suardi, Andrea De Michele, Franco Pepe. TO REGISTER FOR IDENTITÀ MILANO 2022, CLICK HERE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS
The nine speakers at Identità di Pizza 2022, a much-awaited section, as usual, at the Identità Milano congress, on Friday 22nd of April 2022 at MiCo in Milan, Sala Blu 2. From the top left corner, clockwise: Gianni Di Lella, Richard Abou Zaki, Alessandro Ratta, Angelo Rumolo, Pier Daniele Seu, Victor Lugger, Alberto Suardi, Andrea De Michele, Franco Pepe.
TO REGISTER FOR IDENTITÀ MILANO 2022, CLICK HERE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS
Sylvain F. Ercoli
The "heralds" of Identità Milano. Eighteen years ago, the first edition of the new-born chef congress, founded by Paolo Marchi and Claudio Ceroni was taking place. Since then, over 16 editions, we've had 775 speakers from 42 different countries