Chef and writer, art lover, firmly rooted in your local area and local products. I understand that your interests are many and all harmonious with each other.
What made you choose to be a chef rather than a writer, or a painter or whatever?
Actually although it is true that I have many interests, since I was a boy I always knew I would be a chef. That's why I studied, that's why I worked hard. Let's say that the many facets of my character and interests are not watertight compartments, but have a single humanist matrix that unites them.
The exquisiteness of your dishes has transcended the local area, and to eat at your place we gladly travel from even more distant areas. The care and detail with which you choose producers and farmers is well known. In your opinion, those who choose to approach your cuisine, do they choose it simply because they know that they eat well at your place, or do you think there is also a certain awareness that by choosing places like yours you also lend a hand in safeguarding local microproductions ?
Awareness is the mathematical equation of distance. I mean that those who travel from afar to come and eat at my restaurant, by and large, do so not only because they appreciate my cuisine, but also because they are pleased to help keep the business of so many small and formidable producers going. I am sure that many of my customers have a full awareness and enjoyment of this.
How do your recipes come about? Do they change with the changing seasons and products, or once the recipe is defined, it never changes ?
It is the season that determines the menu and it is the availability of local products at certain times of the year that suggest my menus, so in that sense my proposals change all the time. The recipes do not change, though. The construction of a recipe may require many trials, many improvements, or more be the spontaneous fruit of a happy intuition and already perfect from its first attempt. But once the recipe is defined, once it passes the test and I deem it suitable to be proposed, when I am certain that each ingredient has its perfect place, that the harmonies of scents and flavors are in place, that the textures are the ones I had in mind, from that moment on the recipe, it no longer changes.
I know I am lapsing into triviality because in every interview you have given you have been asked questions, about your book NEAR HORIZONS -COKED STORIES, which I believe came out in 2011. More than the book I would like to talk about the last page of the book where you describe in little flashes, in sentences left in the middle, why you wanted to write this book and why you are glad you did. These are thoughts in the wild, but very effective to make people who want to read your book understand that in addition to the recipes, in addition to the story of products and producers, they will also meet the man, Mario Cornali, his sensibility and his dreams.... Am I wrong?
No, you are not wrong at all....that is exactly right. The book is a narrative in which I mainly tried to tell the emotions I experienced in meeting so many small and extraordinary producers who work with great talent, expertise and passion. I wanted to narrate these encounters and share them with those who read.... convey my feelings, the pleasant discoveries, and I'm really glad I wrote it, because the return I got was just that: those who read the book grasped the meaning and shared it. When what's in your mind matches what you can communicate-that's great, I'm really very pleased because I feel like I succeeded.
From the words I've heard, I gather that you delegate little or nothing to others in your choice of raw materials. What does your typical day look like?
No, in fact I do not delegate, it would not be possible, because all the products I bring to the table are not born out of commercial relationships, but first of all through good human relationships, made of mutual esteem and that I personally cultivate almost daily. I know what I buy and whoever sells it to me knows that I will do my best not to mortify his hard work, but rather to promote it. Of course, I cannot say that the ingredients in my kitchen are 100 percent all from small local producers, that would be a fallacy that no competent person would give credit to, but I strive to get as high a percentage of local products as possible, as long as their quality matches my expectations. We have also joined together in an association called slow cooking -culture of the territory- which groups about ten restaurants that have similar philosophy and a shared approach to the best local producers. ( www.slowcooking.org )
At this time what ingredients stimulate your creativity the most?
I am not someone who falls in love with a spice, an aroma, an ingredient and proposes it for a certain period in every preparation. Every season, every period has a shortlist of ingredients that are always the same, but also always different in relation to the climate of the year, or the different seasonings of production... nuances that I am inspired by.
What is the best compliment a guest who has tasted your dishes can give you?
...the hug. It has happened to me several times, and each time it is an unrepeatable, unique emotion. Many messages are contained in the hug, mixing many kinds of feelings: affection, understanding, mutual gratitude.... I would almost say friendship.... And above all, the hug is a definitive breaking point in the "restaurateur-customer" relationship . it is a beautiful silent way of sharing something intimate... I even have a hard time talking about it....
If someone wants to purchase your book, how can they get it?
They can ask me directly,(www.ristorantecollina.it ) or they can find it in some local bookstores such as Libreria Arnoldi in Bergamo, Parnaso in Ponteranica, Liberamente in Oggiono and others in the Bergamo area. For more information: info@ristorantecollina.it
Interview by Monica Palla
