I inherited my brother’s love for history and combined it with my love for the kitchen.

After the pandemic, my brother and I decided that we had to start again with a new spirit. It wasn’t enough for us to re-propose a high-level cuisine; we wanted to offer experiences capable of merging the pleasure of the table with history. Thus the “Heretic Dinners” was born, and it’s only the beginning of a new path. Our “Heretic Dinners” will not only be tastings of flavors lost in the mists of time but real cultural evenings. Between one course and another, Armando will tell the story of the Cathar movement, an important and influential portion of our Italian roots, from its birth in France to its spread in northern Italy, then arriving at the persecution by the Church, which took the form of a real genocide, and at the end his disappearance. Still, in the context of dinners, we are studying a rich and varied calendar of meetings, shows, and historical insights that will be held in our restaurant.

Private time for a chef is very little and precious, so I pay detailed attention to the service and experience. Establishing empathy with guests is crucial, allowing them to taste the dishes and experience the atmosphere of the room with serenity and conviviality. It’s not always easy, but I think it’s above all, a duty for me as a chef and then an enrichment as a person. Exchanging opinions and listening to different points of view leads to improvement day after day. Part of my job involves knowing how to listen to others.

Every time I try a new dish it’s like I face a personal challenge, and I’m very strict with myself. The other side of the coin is that I have a lot of fun cooking, and what I prepare, I do with love; it doesn’t matter if it’s a complicated dish or a hard-boiled egg; if you don’t put love into it, it’s not cooking but just preparing food.

I’ll leave you with a maxim by Jean Brillat-Savarin, an eighteenth-century French gastronome, which I have made my own – “The discovery of a new dish is more precious to mankind than the discovery of a new star.”