I know that you have been in the barbecue business for many years, that you research all over the world, that you never tire of selecting the best. How did it all start? What users have you oriented your work toward?
It all started with a pleasure visit to Canada in 1986, in our store we always dealt with foreign furniture and sometimes we had included grills for cooking but always with an eye to quality. The great proposal seen in Canada stimulated more information, and slowly we began to offer barbecues in Italy as well. For many years our users were only private individuals because the restaurant industry often does not easily accept innovation and in any case considered grilling as an approximate method and not of quality, only for about ten years even the high catering, up to 2 and 3 stars, have begun to believe in barbecue cooking as a new opportunity to obtain particular flavors and softness is not replicable.
Yours is not just a company it is a real "world of wonders" for those who love and those who use this type of cooking, which may seem primordial, since man has been practicing it since the discovery of fire, that is, about 500,000 million years ago, but which actually requires a lot of technique and skill. How is your enterprise organized? Company, school, outlets, distribution, etc....
It started out as a classic product trade, then we realized that it is essential to offer the user of our barbecues also information on how to use them, and this led us first to courses for our dealers, to qualify those who have to give answers to the consumer and are the first to be contacted, then we organized our school that was born in Bologna, but for a few years has also been moving throughout Italy. Our distribution is, and must remain, traditional, so stores of various types where the only common denominator is the passion for Barbecue.
One of your strengths is definitely the privileged relationship you have with many of the best Italian and international chefs starting with Igles Corelli, how do these collaborations develop?
As I was saying for maybe ten or twelve years now, the big restaurant industry has been focusing its attention on our world, and the first one was Igres Corelli himself, then to follow, relationships, including friendships, have developed with many other chefs.
Each model of barbecue serves a different kind of characteristics that you want to impart to the food, or the various models are designed for various levels of professionalism, or for different environments in which to use them, in short, how do you choose the right model for your needs, what should you pay attention to?
The barbecue (which is just the one with the cooking lid) has a market of 7 to 8 million gas and 10 to 12 million charcoal, this stimulates a lot of research and consequently a lot of ideas that can be developed into different cooking methods; however, all of them belong to one cooking philosophy. It is clear that depending on the type of use and food you plan to cook we try to recommend the most suitable barbecue.
A tip for choosing: the barbecue must be American (North America USA or Canada) but built there not American brand and manufactured in China, the Chinese do not use barbecue so they do not know what it is.
I really appreciated that your online cookbook devotes a lot of space to food preparation and the type of cooking needed, (timing and method), how important is it to follow these directions to the letter to achieve the desired result?
We have always pitched ourselves as a barbecue school not a cooking school, we try to explain a technique not recipes, for that there are chefs. Usually barbecue cooking does not require absolute adherence to the directions it is clear that the less they alter the closer the result will be to the desired one.
Soon you will have a new important event on November 11 and 12, "The Chefs' Marathon "a 30-hour consecutive event. What is the purpose of this event, what kind of audience will attend?
The purpose is to launch in our store the new department dedicated to quasi-professional cooking equipment, blast chillers, vacuum, low-temperature cooking, ovens, robots, icemakers, and much more but all for the private individual.
One last question I would like to ask about the word "barbecue." I have read at least five or six different versions about the origin of the name. According to " The Lords of Barbecue" which one is the most reliable ?
To my knowledge there is no reliable version all the meanings given so far are valid and/or debatable.
For professionals who would like to get in touch with you how can you be reached online ?
Facebook, Googleplus,Twitter, Pinterest, but the website is even easier www.isignoridelbarbecue.com or www.athosguizzardi.it
Interview by Monica Palla
