There are chefs who feel the need to live in intimacy in their kitchen. Their mission is, as well as cooking, give the correct expression of the territory to the dishes that process.

In this regard I think of the words of my dear friend Roman Giorgio Ferrari: “The History of Italian territory pulses at each step. Why do some dishes are done so in a certain place and not in another? Because creativity, the imagination and the needs of the people of that place have created the kitchen”.

It 's so that Roberto Franzin, a cook Treviso moved to Rome for a few years, I described his work. I got to know him recently at a workshop organized by the Group Restaurateur of the Treviso I attended.

He Treviso, I ... well Treviso, the result was a lot of chatter and smiles. Roberto has a dream, tornare home, return to his Treviso. A dream that we share… But now it is his time, and then I will tell him.

He started working at a country inn where the kitchen was poor protagonist.

"Cynthia, I remember that period with deep emotion, because today more than ever I am convinced that what they taught me then, is more important than what I thought I had found out later ".

His father worked the land on behalf of third parties, Roberto sometimes followed him in the vineyard. The earth teaches ...

"With him I learned to smell the scent of the earth, but not only, I learned that plants should love, not dominate ... nothing should be forced ".

His mother briefly met Sicily and the warmth and scents of a unique.

"She gave me a love of cooking and the respect of those products that expertly cultivated in his garden. I have taken away so the taste of the simple things… I interpret this in the memories ".

His career as a chef began in 1985 at the Restaurant The Estrosi, a Oderzo, in the province of Treviso.

"The years go by, and a decade later I realize that in order to follow my passion well I get rid of bureaucracy and accounting. Hence the choice to work as a chef employed, occupandomi only the menu and kitchen management… reached my maturity I could finally dedicate myself to my passion: I offer to take the guidance of the Court Family Restaurant Zanon at the Relais & Chateau Villa Abbazia Follina, noble palace of the seventeenth century. "

The 14 August 2009 Enzo Vizzari, Director of Espresso, organizes a conference in Treviso on the kitchen while making two great teachers of the European landscape: Feel Santimaria, Spanish chef of the restaurant Can Fabes, batches and chef Jean-François Piège, cuoco francese di Les Ambassadeurs Hôtel de Crillon di Parigi. On that occasion, Roberto notes trying to figure out the two poles of the conjunction of two large kitchen which has the honor of assisting.

"Hokey great technique, Santimaria territory pure. I'm curious, I learned to observe, I do not just watch: are two different things. I think it is important to research, but I do not like things extreme. Sometimes I give myself some flight, but were still attached to my territory. I try to reassess the raw material, because I consider it the starting point for good food ".

And it is with the Saints Santimaria, that, After a long chat and a piece of bread dipped in a tomato and seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, opens the way. The dishes Roberto begin to lighten.

"I therefore decided to concentrate on the search of my roots, find the words to hear who I was and where I came from. Today, my kitchen is so…. Territory ".

The path of Roberto continued in Rome, all’Osteria Le Coq. The fate sometimes takes us away from our land, by memories, its perfume. The lure of the roots, however, is too strong ...

"When I go back to Treviso emotion is always the same. I believe that within each of us lies the lived this link, the recall of the roots, almost an umbilical cord ... The memory of Sunday lunch, dell'profumo of boiled, horseradish that my father scratched and kept under vinegar, Bread festival, the smell of burning wood in the fireplace ... in my kitchen and prepare dishes that usually, are evoked those moments ".

Oggi Roberto, at the restaurant Le Coq, prepare a menu named Crumbs be related to its. A sequence of courses that tells, looking out from the kitchen to the tables, to engage the customers as if they were sitting in the kitchen of her home.

“No shortage of contamination, Carbonara goose come hell bigoli, Geese that the Romans brought in Mondragon, small hill of Treviso. Li raised to the power the Jewish people of Giudecca, are born so that my dishes. We must not forget the story ... if we step back, back to what I believe is the future. As for sturgeon in pork, to remind the Romans who once also the Tiber was populated by this prehistoric fish. This genre has never evolved to the needs of the territory, but he preferred to move away. Today in the Sile and the Piave there are still copies that are protected. The game will, resides in that hot stone collected in the Piave holding a slice of the fish that once inhabited most of the Adriatic and its rivers, the embers below to form a slight smoke, accompanied by an ice-water marinated radish and onion Bassano with hints of smoke. The carp was the custom of the kitchen of a time as the savor, for longer storage cooked foods… but here put to preserve its history”.

Do not forget where you come from, otherwise you can not tell who you are, These are the words that told me the Saints Santimaria… Roberto Franzin

The recipe : “Bigoli vellututata of sauce with leeks and fried bread”

Come diceva William Shakespeare, there is a story in the life of all men, and hear is my passion.  A few nights ago, sitting next to Kim and Gianni Serandrei, on the 50th 'anniversary of the Restaurant "La Caravella”,  I spent a pleasant evening listening to the story of a Venetian family in a city that always fills me with eyes, the heart and soul ...

“Without memories, we are nothing. So it is with the people. The Italians are the sum of experiences in History. If you lose, returns to be confused that the common people have no voice. So it is with wine and food and wine. The kitchen becomes poor that wealth, wine farmers who becomes DOC. This too is History. Our roots gave birth to the Italian people, with its traditions, with his creativity, with its excellence known in the world”. Giorgio Ferrari, Professor of Contemporary History

Era l’anno 1905 when Zoe Lustig of Hungarian origin, and Ugo Serandrei, Born in Pisa, but moved to Venice, married. They rented a small pension of eight rooms, which they called "International" and began the hotel business.

Ugo, once returned from the Great War, together with his son Renzo he devoted himself to the hotel amplifying and enhancing it. In 1908 nasceva l’Hotel Saturnia & International. Saturnia, Virgil's ancient name of Italy.

Located in the heart of the city, between Piazza San Marco and the Accademia Galleries, the hotel was the ideal meeting point to return, after the war, to that desire for normality that would allow to talk again of art and culture. Under the guidance of Renzo Serandrei, Thus was born the Ciro’s bar, famous club at the time attached to the hotel, who had the honor of welcoming the likes of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

In 1963 another turning point. Ciro's bar was transformed by Renzo, great lover of cooking, in the restaurant "La Caravella"So named for the interior who reported memory environments characteristic of an ancient sailing vessel.

The creativity of Renzo, man in constant search, meant that the restaurant might acquire for twenty-five consecutive years, the Michelin star. Fifty years of history and tradition: 1963 – 2013.

The continuity in the family has meant that, after the death of Renzo, follow the activities the child Alberto.  From 2012 The hotel is run by Ugo Serandrei assisted by his sons, fourth generation of the family: Marianna, Gianni, Greta e-Zoe Kim.

From 2000 a new challenge, the’Hotel Ca’ Pisani that, Kim told me how Serandrei, is inspired by the principles of "Design Hotels" reinterpreting the art deco style in a contemporary. Being a passionate story that retrieves antique pieces here and there, I was struck by how, with patience, Beds have collected original '30s and '40s, all different from each other.

Chatting sitting next to Kim, I have noticed his ability to "look beyond". Not all have the, is a skill that you purchase through the difficulties… which gives richness of mind and sensibility. Suddenly, while I told him about my habit of collecting rocks and stones in memory of the places I visit, mi have detto: "Cynthia guess? My mother is a geologist!”

Rossana Serandrei Barbero, a woman to the ground in a seaside town. I asked the reason for his choice of life, and, consequently his extensive studies related to the foundations of Venice, I updated the state of health of the city.

• My choice of life is easily explained. As a teenager I was madly in love with the mountain, of the rocks and, for extension, dell'arrampicata. I joined because I wanted to be a geologist geology in Tierra del Fuego. I studied for forty years underground in Venice and I can say that his health, compatibly with age, It can be described as good. Rossana Serandrei Barbero

During our talk of land and sea, that evening, celebrating fifty years of the history of "La Caravella", it Chef Silvano Urban told us about his cooking simple and respectful of tradition and high quality raw materials.

“Today we talk about food in many ways: we move from show food to the food art, from media food to the concept food up to the food design. In my view the time has come to back to basics, or to a kitchen in which the research is based precisely on the study of product, without vulgarity, without excess and the desperate attempt to spettacolizzare at all costs.”

At the end of my story I want to bring the recipe for the main dish chosen by Chef Silvano Urban, a dish of traditional.

Bigoli and salsa, served warm with creamed leeks and fried bread

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:

• 200 g of onions;
• half a cup of olive oil;
• sale as just;
• 300 g of dark bigoli (whole wheat spaghetti);
• 75 g of salted anchovies;
• a pinch of pepper;
• bread crumbs.

Procedure:

Peel the onions and slice finely. Then, pour half the oil in a pan and add the onions; let them dry on low heat. Bake in covered container, for about 15 minutes, wetting the onions occasionally with a little 'water (not more than a glass throughout), stirring the mixture until it will be reduced to a pulp. Meanwhile, put on the fire water for cooking pasta: just bubbles, add salt and the pasta.

When the onions are cooked, add the anchovies previously washed, desalted and boned; mash with a fork repeatedly, until a brown sauce. Then turn off the heat and add the remaining oil to the sauce, mixing. Drain bigoli, rovesciateli in a bowl, toss with the sauce and the fried bread crumbs.

Cut into rounds 200 grams of leek; let it dry with a little olive oil and a little water. Correct the mixture of salt and when it is cooked, whisk all getting a soft cream, but sustained, that will accompany the recipe. Finally, completed the dish with bread crumbs and fried extra virgin olive oil

The addition of the last ingredient, or leeks, aims to mitigate the strong taste of anchovies. "It 'a dish explained by the same chef,  that makes no compromises with modern culinary visions ".