Roberta Pezzella

Cinderella ends up in the kitchen. But she’s happy because this is where she meets her Prince Charming. Who is German and is called Heinz Beck. No, there’s no romantic side in the story: the passion of the tri-starred Bavarian chef of La Pergola for Roberta Pezzella is purely professional. She is minute, smiling and humble. Originally from Ciociaria, she has conquered the master with her fighting-robin-attitude. And the story has just began even if Roberta already lives happy and content.

Roberta is a chef, baker and pastry-maker because life can be a finely scripted fable, but not by chance. After attending the artistic lyceum, she ends up selling fish in a supermarket and it is there that she grows passionate about the happy mystery of raw materials. This is where the sparkle originates, leading her to attend cooking classes and then focus on the art of bread making. After hanging her diplomas “on some sort of wall” she decides to move on and in order to learn the job she chooses some excellent masters such as Gabriele Bonci. When she feels that her oven has reached the right temperature, she knocks on the doors of La Pergola. An internship, after which she is hired. Today she is responsible for one of the richest and “heaviest” (in terms of responsibility) bread baskets in the Italian restaurant scene. A playlist of delicious products which – weren’t the dinner at herr Beck a constant and unstoppable marvel – would be worth the trip to Monte Mario by itself.

Roberta is a fairy in Paradise, she’s more professional than many others. She doesn’t think she’s has already reached the top, but always keeps on learning. She believes in study and ferocious commitment. She hates trends, formulas, Anglicisms, shortcuts, ideologies. She looks for her trajectory in a galaxy, that of restaurant boulangerie, which sometimes looks like a black hole, clutched between excessive protagonists who don’t pay attention to the inevitably subsidiary role of bread, and unacceptable, gummy sloppiness. She bets everything on creativity, digestibility, range, aware that she’s playing in an orchestra in which talent and discipline go together and where if you make a mistake your road will end soon. But then it is renowned that Beck knows how to choose his collaborators: and this, for Roberta, is the medal that shines the most.