Giuliano Baldessari

«Whether you’re feeding a child, a couple in love or a businessman, the taste has to be right for everyone». Very democratic is the perfect way to decribe Giuliano Baldessari, sous-chef of Massimiliano Alajmo at Le Calandre in Rubano, winner of the first edition of the Premio Birra Moretti Grand Cru. Class of 1977, with Trentine origins and a boatload of talent, he has had the opportunity to work with great professionals like Aimo Moroni in Milan, progressing to the three-star combination between Marc Veyrat in Megeve and Annecy in France and the Alajmo brothers, where he’s worked since 2003.

If Baldessari has learned democracy applied to taste from the craziness of Veyrat, it was in the Padua area that he fully understood his mission. Life as a sous-chef, skilled in mediating the thought of the chef and considering restaurant catering on an all-round basis, even in its less romantic aspects. With the joint signature of a wide variety of dishes, conceived together with his mentor, who is also now his friend. See the dishes prepared for the Birra Moretti contest, which offer an interesting glimpse of his talent: Beef and juniper carpaccio with pine nut in water sauce and beer reduction and Birra Moretti ice lolly with white chocolate cream, chestnuts and coffee. Both are clear indications of his love of ingredients and are the product of immediate and very simple combinations.

Giuliano works with just a few ingredients: if he could, he’d pick just two. But chosen carefully and marked by the deepest sensorial characteristics. A chef who loves to observe traditions and legends, obsessively experimenting with new methods until he achieves complete satisfaction. A technical enterprise accompanied by a healthy, lively dose of instinct, which enables him to travel through the world of taste without prejudice, touching sentiments, triggering emotions every time he lifts a fork to his lips. A lively passion with which he’s made Le Calandre a home in which to refine ideas and possibly a trampoline to launch him towards signing a menu all of his own.