Lucca Cantarin

Scene 1, 1995. The main character is Lucca Cantarin, from Arsego, near Padua, born in 1978 to a dynasty of ice cream makers for 110 years, having inherited the art from his grandfather Mario and his mother Marisa, in the small village workshop; he attended catering school in Castelfranco, but as a dining room and bar professional, «as in this way I would better fit my family’s activity».

Cantarin then knocks on Le Calandre in Rubano, looking for a waitressing job. There are no positions for that role however... The dialogue goes more or less like this: «…however – the Alajmos tell him – we have a post as pastry chef open. Would you like to try?». Lucca thinks for a moment, he’s determined: «Of course».

Sliding doors, from that moment on his road takes a different direction. Because Cantarin is talented and is also lucky. Not immediately («After my first day at work they brought me home urgently with very high pressure») but a short while later: the Alajmos have to face a turn over in their pastry making lab, they’ve noticed how good this young man from Padua is and hence appoint him as new manager, together with Massimiliano’s mother, Rita.

This is the perfect viaticum for a career that, after four years in the tri-starred restaurant, led him to Paco Torreblanca in Spain, then again for two years in Rubano, then France, in Besançon, at Maison Baud (where he participates in the French championship for best restaurant dessert), and finally to Luigi Biasetto.

Scene 2, it’s now 17th January 2002. Cantarin feels ready to return to Arsego and insert his experience as pastry chef in the family ice cream business. At pastry shop Marisa – named after his mother, who continues to work hard – you can now find ice creams but a lot of work is dedicated to leavening, that is to say to delicious baked products, «we offer 24 different ones for breakfast, every day». Marisa (the pastry shop, not the mother) has 25 employees; Lucca (with  two “Cs” due to a mistake in his birth records) has two daughters aged 3 and 5, and a trophy on the dashboard: the one he’s most fond of, the third place in the 2013 Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie when he was the captain of the Italian team.