Your story is not one that starts out with the classic dream in the drawer, with the usual tenacity of the little girl who dreams from a young age of having her own restaurant, but that is not to say that yours was not a real choice, in fact perhaps because of that, yours is really a very strong choice. Tell us a little bit about your path and when did the decision to launch into this profession happen?
It happens, every once in a while, that I linger a little longer chatting with some curious customer (that's my favorite breed) and, in the end, there always comes a question: why did I choose this profession after such a long and demanding course of study and, what's more, one that has nothing to do with cooking. I think I have given at least a dozen variations, at some point, though, I really and seriously thought about it, coming to see what had always been there.... All the paths taken, the people met, the masters met or chosen, the books read or those yet to be read, the films seen and the music heard, the landscapes admired and the journeys trapped, the smells smelled, the flavors experienced were always directed toward one goal: to get here, to my "doing." And this is the philosophical path. The world of catering has always fascinated me: the contact with people, the communication, the dispensing of small or great pleasures..... then meeting with some artists, sculptors especially, with whom we were talking about the concept of creativity, at some point they asked me why I had not yet chosen my expressive material since I was a creative. I thought about it, I tried, I experimented and then I realized that it could be food and then it was time to confront the market, it was 1998.
Your background in the humanities, your cultural, theatrical, musical, and artistic pursuits make me think that for you, cooking is nothing more than one of the many angles from which you can look at the world and through which you can express yourself creatively, intellectually and also physically, manually, as it can be to bring a painting to life or to go up on a stage every night. Like all artistic manifestations it is a gesture of love toward others, a proposal of communication..... am I wrong?
No, you're not wrong, in the early days I used to say this a lot: I go to open the curtain of my private theater, actually I do it even now; it happens that during the preparation of the cooking line I let slip expressions like, "this dish on stage will look great." Once a young lady had asked me about a dish on the menu, it was a "soup of cabbage and squid," I replied, "It's very Zen," then I noticed the dumbfounded look and tried to explain the dish in a simple way just as I called "worthy of Caravaggio" a dish in which the colors were truly Caravaggesque. Then when I find those who speak the same language as I do, I am a happy person, but I am happier when I find those who do not know it but want to understand and learn it.
Is "anomalous chef" a term you like or one that annoys you? Because this is the adjective I have encountered most frequently in reading about you.
"Anomalous chef" ... more than anything else it makes me smile, a bit because you can use words in so many ways and understand them in a thousand others; then it almost comes naturally to me to make jokes with them: but am I as anomalous as the wave? I wonder if I cause damage.... or: if my anomaly is due to my previous experiences I wonder if it is anomalous that chefs are also educated people however I understand that so many of my colleagues are people who read, travel, go to the theater.... but I think the anomaly mentioned is also due to the fact that I am not a "child of art" (although I consider myself as such: my father was a Grana Padano cheesemaker, of those who "felt" the texture and thickness of the grana in cooking by passing his hand in the broken curd) or that I have not been a student of famous and multi-starred chefs..... The real masters are the ones who explain the difference between hearing and listening, between seeing and watching, no matter what their work is and in the end it matters the choices made and what one has become.
I read a sentence of yours that really struck me, a very deep reflection even if summarized lightly and succinctly. Somewhere, I don't know on what occasion, but I know you stated that: cooking cannot be separated from love for others because what you cook becomes part of another human being and this fact is a great responsibility. I really congratulate you for this concept (which I hope I reported correctly) that I find in exact balance between spirit and matter and therefore perfect. Is this really a responsibility that you feel and face every day in your kitchen?
"We are what we eat," this phrase I first heard when I was 24 years old, I was going through a very emotionally exhausting time and stress had given me decidedly major health problems, I solved with homeopathy, turning to really serious doctors who explained to me that homeopathic medicine to be effective, must start from an organism in balance and the only way to achieve and maintain this balance is to understand and know what you eat and how you eat, I very narrowed the concept, but for me it was also enlightening because after a year of dietary attention my health had definitely improved. After experiencing on myself what power daily food has on our bodies, I feel almost obligated to use these "courtesies" to my table-goers.
You are one of the most interesting emerging chefs on the national scene, you have many eyes on you and your culinary proposals, your dishes are highly appreciated, because they recover the knowledge that you have known in your family and enliven it to make it usable to most people and to make them try new flavors, although belonging in their primary form to the historical memory of the territory. Tell us quickly how do your recipes come about? What do you save and what do you generally modify from the traditional recipe?
Of thetraditional recipes I try to keep the flavor and fragrance, the one that makes you come up with pleasant thoughts or pleasant memories when you feel it: a "madeleine effect" as Marcel Proust would say. But because of the principle enunciated earlier, if I know that a particular dish is difficult to digest because of too long classic cooking or the traditional recipe calls for too much fat then I "help" with new techniques: vacuum cooking, which does not require the addition of fat or low-temperature cooking, which does not break down the molecules of food. Then curiosity pushed me toward spices, herbs, seaweed, and anything that can serve to achieve a balance or to make a classic dish more spirited and fun. I also like to combine very territorial elements, such as the wild herbs that grow in the fields around the restaurant, with ingredients that, in the lower Po Valley, are not to be found; then dishes such as "spaghetti with plantain and three roe" or "manioc soup, risina beans and cubes of Tuscan pecorino cheese"are born
When a guest at your restaurant leaves after tasting your dishes, what would make you really happy that they were thinking?
"I'm really happy: I had a good time, it was a good experience, I learned, I feel good, and I want to come here often!"
To a person who, in addition to admirable chef, has had in-depth experiences in the world of theater and art, music and literature: I can't help but ask at least one question that ranges beyond cooking. We talk a lot about the combination of art kitchen, music kitchen, theater kitchen.... then the whole thing often boils down to events where someone paints, acts or plays while someone else cooks.... but in your opinion wouldn't it be possible to make these subtle cultural links understood in less mundane ways? Do you have any ideas in this regard ? Do you cherish any projects in this direction ?
I think that in order to make these links understood, we need to start the discourse much farther than the final representation i.e. someone playing/painting/acting/singing/reciting and someone else cooking. In my opinion we need to start right from the concept of creativity. Years ago I would have liked to organize a conference (an idea that I have not abandoned) where the theme was precisely the path of the creative process within the various artistic expressions including cooking, precisely because I am convinced that this is where the link is born, then it is only a choice of techniques, materials and places.
If any professional who follows this blog would like to contact you, would you leave us some references and if you frequent social networks also these directions?
L'Osteria di Chiara Rizzi - Caput Mundi is in Viadana (MN), my email address is chiara@caputmundi.mn.it I have a profile on facebook
Interview by Monica Palla
