Ristorante Vite, run by the world-famous San Patrignano Recovery Community, is an interesting reality and represents a great social battle won.
As the chef at the helm of the restaurant, can you tell us how you arrived at the current organization of the restaurant, which it seems to me has recently changed a bit?
- We have tried to make Vite accessible to everyone, both in terms of prices and the more informal atmosphere that you experience at the restaurant. We are also trying to emphasize all our high-quality productions. Now only young people from the community work inside the restaurant, putting to use what they learn daily, thus creating a valuable job opportunity for their future.
The chain of products that you offer to your customers is mainly managed by the boys of the community, and here the term "zero kilometer" takes on a real meaning, not very dogmatic, where the search for quality and authenticity is tangible. Can you tell us what are the main products on which you are totally autonomous and of which you are most proud? How is supply organized at the restaurant, do you personally choose and order the products based on the menus you have conceived or is the menu built on what the supply chain offers at the moment? Or what else?
- The supply chain of our products currently is very wide. We have vegetables of all kinds, annually we do a planting schedule, and we can choose to plant and experiment with what we want. There are cattle farms with the famous Chianina, pigs, with the Mora Romagnola, a Slow Food presidium, sheep, goats and farmyard animals. Honey, oil, wine, a variety of fresh and aged cheeses, Mora Romagnola and Brinato (a cross between Mora and Large White) pork products are produced. Every quarter or so there is a discussion about present and future consumption, sometimes it is the restaurant's menu that follows the productions of the moment, sometimes it is the restaurant that at a moment's notice requests certain products, or gives indications of how they could be improved since it has direct feedback from the consumer.
How is the restaurant organized ? Do young people from the community work there, in what roles? Is there in your opinion someone really talented among them who will be able to turn this experience into a top-level profession?
- There are three people around whom the whole machine revolves, there is a maître d' and head of dining, Walter, a sommelier Luca, and me as chef, with a good right-hand man, Alessandro. All the other guys and gals who work there are still on the path, alternating frequently to be able to carry on both commitments, there are those who also attend hotel school, to better delve into the profession they have chosen to learn and have a diploma. In these years of running Vite, several young people from both the dining room and the kitchen have landed in the world of work with an excellent preparation, getting good satisfaction right away.
What are the most interesting dishes among the various proposals? Are you more oriented toward tradition and local recipes or do you also offer special dishes that can only be tasted at Vite?
- We have several interesting proposals both for the price and for the quality of the products. The dishes we offer are oriented toward traditional cuisine, logically lightened in seasonings and using modern cooking techniques, and we also always try to have a special eye for aesthetics. There are some dishes that are so acclaimed that they can't be taken off the menu such as Chianina battuta, Vite risotto, La pappa al pomodoro, girarrosto, pigeon cooked in clay, and others.
Now I'd like to talk a little bit about you. I am very curious about your career path. I know that your beginnings are related to Cammerucci and ala Grottadi Brisighella, that you met your laurels and fame with Acero Rosso in Rimini, where you gave birth to a great leading kitchen, but I don't know how you landed at Vite. How did you mature that choice?
- Yes I grew up with Cammerucci, and the Red Maple experience, which lasted 10 years. Then I was at a crossroads: do I stay here and try to do something that gives me satisfaction and stimulation, or do I go abroad? I already had my suitcase packed when I got a call from Sanpa about a job interview. As I walked into the restaurant, I looked around and fell in love with it. Within a month and I was hired, we started work right away, a good feeling was born with the guys, which lasts to this day.
How is the relationship with the guys in the Community, are they collaborators, friends, or what else to you?
- It is a beautiful relationship that goes beyond the work, there is mutual esteem. They show on a daily basis that they have a great desire to learn, despite the different issues that each of them carries within themselves. I realized that they can give you so much, too.
What intrigues you most about this experience that I imagine is intense both professionally and on a human level? What is the greatest satisfaction you feel in your profession?
-Before I accepted this position, I never imagined it would be like this. Seeing these kids grow professionally is very inspiring and pushes you to give them more and more. When they enter the working world and get good results, it all rewards you for your previous efforts.
Vite Restaurant
Via Montepirolo
747852 Cerasolo (RN)
Tel 0541 759138
Interview by Monica Palla