I think the first thing that jumps out at anyone who enters into a relationship with Giuliano Pellegrini and his restaurant Lio Pellegrini in Bergamo (a name dedicated to his father), is that being a famous chef, established and praised in so many guidebooks, is not your only interest. The relationship with art, with architecture with history, are palpable both physically and emotionally. Is food also culture?
Dear Monica thank you for this question. Let me preface this by saying that I am not a chef in the sense of a permanent executor of dishes in my restaurant. I oversee the brigade of 6 cooks divided among the various batches. Rather, I would call myself an "innkeeper" which in my opinion means many things. Yes, food is culture! Today more than ever. The proliferation of chefs on TV are confirmation of this. Although there is in those performances more entertainment than culture it is true that a variety of topics are touched upon. The research, the flair, the technique, the revaluation of poor or unknown ingredients, sometimes the link with art...in short, an acculturation of food! Unfortunately, if you will allow me to expand, I am also convinced that the TV box grinds and crushes even good cultural intentions. There are tight times and therefore more space must be given to only one of the five senses: Sight! Few of the TV stars, presenters or actors, talk about the other senses! Food is above all taste, smell, touch and even hearing.
Excellence of raw materials and long experience at the stove (very fresh fish, fine meats from the Valdinievole), to offer restaurant guests rich flavors, unprecedented and yet clean, precise combinations. How do your recipes come about? Are they long thought out or the result of the inspiration of a moment?
Curiosity, memory and passion! Curiosity I believe should be the first characteristic of a good cook! Memory, the second! Passion the third! If we can find within us all these three prerogatives together, we can seriously think of being happy with our chosen work! -If we have been kissed by the good fortune to be curious, we will always try to inform, learn, travel and compare ourselves with our work. Reading about cooking, learning new cooking or preservation methods, traveling the world as much as possible, and meeting new gastronomic cultures will allow us to shape our minds in search of our own sensibility at the stove. -I believe that a good cook also had a happy childhood and adolescence at the table. Some mother, father, grandmother or aunt in the family will surely have educated his taste buds! Suddenly, without too much mnemonic effort, those flavors will return, almost magically, whenever he finds in his hands an ingredient to manipulate between the stoves, a new recipe to make! -The last but not least characteristic is passion! It is hard work ours, particularly because of the too many hours that must be devoted to it. But if passion exists, nothing scares us! Passion is love, joy and suffering together! Passion allows us to go beyond all rules and obstacles! Sorry Monica for the long preamble but I wanted to explain well how my recipes and, presumably, those of many of my colleagues are born.
In everything around you you breathe love for the beautiful and for the past. It does not matter whether an object is precious or poor, it matters that it was loved when it was chosen. Of these objects, collected, I imagine here and there on various occasions, you make it part of the guests of the restaurant who will surely appreciate the harmonious atmosphere in which they will taste the food. As Paolo Marchi wrote of your restaurant, "A classy trattoria. A place where you feel good" It seems, therefore, that you are not content to satisfy some of the customer's senses, but want to satisfy all 5 of them. Is that so?
Yes it is! Just as I talked to you about how important it is to engage the 5 senses when tasting a dish, I try to do the same with the environment that surrounds those who sit at our tables. I love design restaurants very much. I frequent them and discover every time how much craft exists in the hands of the architects who made them! Nevertheless, I want to understand a restaurant as a comfortable home, with warm colors, full of a thousand objects that gradually over the years become the path of our lives! That is not to say that I do not like to change, on the contrary! I myself have been using for over 20 years the cooperation of a dear architect friend who develops my ideas each time making them correct and pleasant. He has now understood that he has to intervene unobtrusively as I then superimpose my own objects on his work!
I have seen a beautiful booklet that tells your story. It is very carefully crafted, with beautiful photos. It is written in elegant language that has little to do with marketing and advertising and yet is a very compelling image vehicle. What is the relationship between the food you offer and the image of the restaurant?
I wish there was a very close relationship! This is not always the case! An object, a book, a well-done and elegant communication stays pleasantly in people's memory for some time! Food does not always have the same impact on the public! Looking for the right ingredient every day, finding the same determination among the staff, communicating to the customer why one choice rather than another is not as easy. My restaurant has been in existence for about 28 years, and I have never worried about the image of the restaurant or the food. I have always understood my restaurant as a place where one should spend time in a serene and pleasant manner. I have always understood the food offered as the ultimate expression of my knowledge without ever caring too much about the cost of achieving that expression. Today, and particularly for the past couple of years, there is a need to communicate and communicate well, to pay great attention to the choice of collaborators, raw materials, costs and prices charged. My journey continues but I have the impression at times that I am on a new road, one that I do not know but that I am convinced leads to the same destination as the old one because the baggage I carry with me is the same as always and in addition it is getting heavier not because of the strengths that are lessened but rather because, along the way, I pick up something every day!
You also participated as a speaker in a conference on obesity Promoted in Bergamo by the Surgical Department of Humanitas Gavazzeni. In constructing a menu, how much thought is also devoted to proposing a balanced lunch?
Really a lot! I myself then have different food needs than I did a few years ago! Animal fats, garlic, onions, spices...are used in a very small part! I do not accept that a restaurant should weigh down my stomach! I do not accept that there is, most of the time, no fruit in a restaurant! I do not accept that the fryer is part of the cooking equipment... Unfortunately, people are eating less and less and worse at lunch! In the evening there is more time to eat but less to digest! It is therefore very professional to pay great attention to the quality and digestibility of food and wine.
Lio Pellegrini's has been in existence since April 1984, and this is truly a great accomplishment, a time frame that speaks for itself about the quality of the restaurant and your personal success. Was there ever a time when you felt that this business was too demanding, that maybe it was not worth it? Is there anyone you feel you can thank for where you've come from?
Yes, in an old interview I asked, in an old interview with a dear journalist friend, who would ever need my job...in case of war! I regretted at the time that I had not continued my studies by enrolling in college! The journalist friend immediately heartened me! "...but to feed the troops by golly!!!" In this year of 2012, my type of catering does not enjoy a good response and the job remains very challenging. Indeed, it is at this time that it is not worth it so much except for the fact that this is the only trade I know how to do and, as a dear friend of mine says, life always holds difficulties and compromises for us to face but every now and then it offers us some rays of sunshine! Like a reward! Like this craft of mine! It would not be enough all your space if I had to thank those who have made me grow professionally! But someone I want to mention. -My mother and wife who first believed in my choice to pour all my passion into this restaurant, making themselves totally available to me! -My father who unintentionally taught me a lot, including how to be a merchant! -Many of my collaborators! Some extraordinary, others simply happy to follow this path with me! -Different French colleagues who first pointed out to me how closely linked were the pleasure of food with the pleasure of the environment in which it is consumed. -Luigi Veronelli whom I experienced as a beacon of reference in several of my professional choices! -Gualtiero Marchesi who first threw the stone into the pond of Italian cuisine! In this regard I recall with pleasure the thought of a dear gourmet friend: "Those of your generation lived a happy and even easy time! You had two great reference figures for your profession: Veronelli and Marchesi! Today your young colleagues disperse their attentions to too many oenologists and too many kitchen chefs. And they are often confused ..." .
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Interview by Monica Palla
