This club has been open for a short time if I'm not mistaken since 2011, but your professional history goes way back.How did you get started? Did you always know you were going to be in this business or was it a fluke.?
Yes, this club has been open for a few months. I started as a child to be interested in both cooking and baking. My parents dealt in confectionery as wholesalers and supplied pastry chefs, so from an early age I had to deal with small pastries and sweets in general, plus the women of the house (we are from Brescia) always took great care in the kitchen by also making pasta at home....so I grew up around these things. Then I went to hotel school in Desenzano del Garda and many "seasons," where I learned to put theory into practice.
You are considered a "so-called" emerging chef, even more than emerging, now unquestionably established among those to watch very carefully, an outlier, in short. Of your cooking I have read a lot of praise, among which the phrase "bewitching cleanliness of scents and flavors" stands out do you find it a definition that responds to your style?
If this is what is thought of my cooking obviously can only please me very much. My premise is to start with high quality products and respect for the raw materials. I try to offer well-balanced dishes where the ingredients stand out and everything is very well cared for and well-defined.
You have worked with the famous London chef Marco Pierre White, the first English chef to receive three Michelin stars, and also in London at Zafferano with Giorgio Locatelli Has this international experience served you most for ?
To train me professionally to understand what work is and especially teamwork. I stayed in London more or less two or three years, I was only 20 years old, and above all I learned how many things are important in our profession besides knowing how to cook: respect for roles, respect for colleagues, discipline, punctuality and respecting even the most menial jobs in the profession such as cleaning the kitchen and tools. There we were about 20 cooks, I was a boy and I was just a number, one like the others,...it was really very formative.
In your professional resume appear names at the top of this profession, chefs with whom you worked and where you trained like Carlo Cracco and Aimo and Nadia. What did you learn from each of them and what did you learn instead that unites the great chefs, a lesson that applies to all?
From both experiences I got confirmation of what I was saying before, which is how important respect, passion and discipline are in our profession. Of Cracco I most admire his creative flair, his ability to link ever-new ingredients together and his continuous search for perfect harmony. From Aimo and Nadia I learned how to recognize raw materials, how to buy them, how and where to search for them, and how to treat them to enhance them.
You have the credit that is given to you by all food and wine critics for having restored breath and dignity to the Savini. In particular, your prime rib has enjoyed a word-of-mouth buzz that has convinced everyone. How long was your experience at Savini, what was it like confronting a sacred temple of "milanesity" ?
My experience at Savini was short, about a year and a half, but it gave me the opportunity to also deal with important entrepreneurial and organizational aspects including the complete makeover of the kitchens and the total renovation of the equipment and spaces. I worked on this project for 7 months; we were 45 people. It was a big undertaking, and I am very happy if I left a small positive mark, if the effort we put in was recognized and appreciated by critics.
Let's talk now about your place (Cristian Magri) run with his wife Emanuela, which is simultaneously restaurant and bakery, with a nice list of great sandwiches as well. Why so many facets all at once? To cater to different types of customers, different times of the day, or to express yourself in an all-around way?
More to optimize team and family work. With my mother and brother Alex, we have two other places, two pastry shops, one here in Settimo Milanese, on Via Gramsci, Dolceccetera, and the other in Brescia. I thought it might be interesting to let restaurant-goers taste our all-homemade pastries, too, so we put a small pastry sales area next to the restaurant.
What do you love to cook the most? What ingredients? What cooking methods? How much do you bring your Brescian roots into your recipes?
There are no foods I don't love. I like to cook all kinds of traditional and non-traditional dishes, and there are no foods that I don't eat... The important thing is as I have already emphasized respect for the raw materials that are being used. Of the Brescian tradition, every now and then I offer some specialties, but without a doggedness in claiming my roots, I make "beef in oil," which a typical dish of Rovato, reproposed with some personal touches.
What kind of clientele do you have at this restaurant today?
It's too early to say for sure.... I don't know yet, I do know, however, that when they come here to eat, then they usually come back. Definitely executives and officials come, but also other types of people, freelancers and more. I think I do an honest job, and I try to give my best, with the effort to stay in rather low prices, with various menus at several price ranges, but always of equal level of quality of proposals and ingredients, and we also accept tickets.
New projects, new ideas? Any dreams in the drawer?
For now I am fine, I am stopping here, I am totally focused on consolidating this restaurant. The most important project is my daughter ... 20 months old !
References ? Blog, Social networks ?
Our website is under construction,
CRISTIAN MAGRI Via Meriggia, 3 20019 - Settimo Milanese Tel. 02 33599042
are on Facebook and anyway we can also be found through the Dolceeccetera pastry shop website
Interview by Monica Palla
