I deal in bar and restaurant equipment perhaps mainly out of passion, and out of passion, together with my wife Raffaella and my brother-in-law, we started our business-RG Commercial-which we have been running for almost 30 years.
I am a curious person. My private and professional lifestyles coincide, or at least I strive to make them coincide, and it is more out of curiosity than trade that I am always keenly interested in understanding the work of those behind the "counter." I try to assimilate from each of my clients what motivates them to open their own establishment every day, whether it is a bar or a cocktail bar, a nightclub, a pub, a trattoria or famous restaurant. My life is always out, always on the road, and like everyone who lives a good part of their day on the road, I eat in a different place every day.
I have been doing this for so many years that one look is enough for me to guess what I can expect from a venue when it comes to mixed drinks or cuisine.
This professional and personal association with bars and restaurants has allowed me to think a lot about mixed drinking, cooking, and the many strands and trends that both disciplines offer, and over time I have come to realize that there are no strands or schools to be demonized or unconditionally endorsed.
I have come to realize that everything is only divided into good and bad, into serious research or stupid improvisation. I mean that whenever there is work, research, technical skill, and true passion behind a drink or dish proposal, the result is always worthy of respect and often admiration.
Today I can confidently say that I love all strands of mixed drinking and I love all schools of cooking, my discriminator is only that of quality.
By quality I mean that of the raw materials, that of the ingredients of a cocktail or dish, and above all the quality of the person who proposes its creation to me. Whether it is a spherified or old fashioned cocktail, whether I am enjoying a trattoria dish, or whether I am venturing into the experience of a molecular chef to experience a unique thrill , maybe even once in a lifetime, my starting and ending point is always the same: I love research, passion, talent, experience, technique, manual skill, and all those marvels that enchant me when I understand that I am in front of those who are masters of their craft. I approve of anything that turns a mundane survival need (drinking and feeding) into a positive experience. Sometimes it is the "basic" senses, those of the palate, the taste buds that are satisfied first, and this happens to me especially when I drink and eat what I know, what is already part of me, my personal history, my family or my home territory. Sometimes, on the other hand, even though the palate has to take a little more time to understand the extraordinary nature of what it is tasting, it is the brain that basks and basks in what it understands to be a strong and positive experience and emotion.
I believe that in order to grow personally, to move forward, to understand the age in which I live, the only constructive way is to use the five senses (and perhaps even the sixth) as if they were radio antennae ready to pick up every signal that is in the air and to value every encounter with people, techniques, tools, implements and disciplines as an opportunity to improve, to deepen and thus ultimately to experience a wider and more diverse range of pleasures.
I would very much like to see us take a step forward and stop, at least in our industry, being for or against something, worshippers or denigrators of that or that thought, in the world there is room for everyone, for every kind of experience as long as it is valid and ideas that have no qualitative basis, history alone will take them away, into oblivion.
Each of us has the opportunity to choose people, bartenders, chefs, companies and professionals with whom to relate humanly and professionally .... Wouldn't it be time to look at fairness, competence, research and passion as discriminating elements instead of continuing to think about drinking and food-which are the basis of our survival-with the same childish and preconceived attitude as a football fan?
The blog www.barnews, bar and chef' s news, I designed it also for this purpose, to allow all quality professionals to express themselves, to confront each other, to exchange ideas and opinions.
I hope that all those who wish to participate in the mutual exchange that this blog offers, will understand that the spirit of this virtual, (and concrete) space is not one of partisanship and preconceived stances. I opened this space to dialogue, to grow, to improve, and I have to note that less than a year after its inception, the level of contributions that each professional brings to this space is important, they are many intelligent points of view, sedimented by experience and knowledge, and I am really proud and grateful that so many serious professionals have chosen this space to tell their stories and to leave a sign of their thoughts.
