Roberto Franzin, a chef in Rome with my heart in Treviso

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