They were recently celebrated with a very well-deserved Michelin star, but at Identità Golose we've been writing about the talent and creativity of Richard Abou Zaki and Pierpaolo Ferracuti for quite some time. Together, they run restaurant Retroscena in Porto San Giorgio (Fermo). Paolo Marchi wrote about them over three years ago, in 2018 (Retroscena, a nice new place in the Marche), when at the helm of the restaurant there was still only Pierpaolo Ferracuti with his partner Audrey Croccel.
Then, in June 2020, Richard Abou Zaki arrived. Ferracuti and him had already met when their paths crossed for a short time at Osteria Francescana; before then Richard, who was raised in Emilia, had worked for two years at Le Gavroche in England, while Pierpaolo was at Kontrast in Norway, and later returned home and launched Retroscena.
«We talked in late 2019 - Abou Zaki recalls -: he had this Chalet on the beach that his parents were running but wanted to leave. Pierpaolo suggested we manage it together, but then he also asked me to join his business with Retroscena. I told him: "Look, if I come, we will need to make many changes at Retroscena. I have different skills, different ideas". He believed in me and left me free to work, while always remaining at my side. We're 50% partners in everything».
Since then, the engine of the restaurant, which had already been working very well, found new energy. There's more: they worked on Pierpaolo's family's Chalet Sombrero, on the beach of Lido di Fermo, and then launched a third establishment on the 1st of July 2021, Opera bao, the first ramen bar in the region, next to the first restaurant. In other words: a rousing energy, that overflows and makes its way where anyone would see obstacles. But they do this with order, method, with a very precise idea of cuisine: a meticulous work on concentrated flavours, seeking the essence of flavours, concentrating them to the highest level, and reducing the use of fat as much as possible.
For the 2022 Guida di Identità Golose they were the Surprise of the Year. But these two chefs, you can bet, have only started to surprise.