Umberto Giraudo

In a world in which only chefs can have the ambition of becoming stars, try to think how hard it is being a quality brand on the other side of the stove. That is to say, on the side of the guests. Umberto Giraudo, however, is succeeding. A little over forty, he’s already reached the top in his category, namely service, an art which, in our country, can boast a great past (see Luigi Carnacina) and a very bad present, since it is erroneously thought, over here, that what counts is only what is on the plate.

Giraudo is the first violin in the large orchestra playing, every night, on the rooftop of the Rome Cavalieri hotel, at La Pergola, directed by Heinz Beck. Who, it needs to be said, more than any other starred chef has always been careful to underline the importance of his team for his successes. And for Umberto, the Bavarian chef has always felt a special love, always had a kind word, even thanks to a more than decennial collaboration; when recently some health problems had kept Giraudo away from work, Beck never neglected to publicly ask to applaud him.

Umberto is the restaurant manager, that is to say the landlord. He’s a sort of super-maître, who almost seems like a superhero and in a way he is. And his peaceful smile, his suave behaviour, his subtle voice in a sector in which noisy communication triumphs are at the same time both true and misleading.

We don’t make a mistake if we match the word “vocation” with Giraudo. Born with the dream of directing a big hotel, Giraudo has experienced all the facets of service: he embarked on tourist ships when he was very young, from which he came back full of experience and tales (after all, a cruising youth characterised the life of many, in our country), then attended Alain Ducasse’s academy, for whom he worked first in Monte Carlo and then in Paris. His smile vanishes every time you ask him to comment on the state of the art in Italian dining rooms. It comes back, straight away, when he lists the tools of his job: the savoir faire, the modesty, the accurate knowledge of every ingredient... it’s an art that becomes a science, one that he loves to perfect and teach.