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exploring taste – Spring/Summer 2016 people – Da Vittorio’s cuisine

Today, it is one of the most affluent areas in Europe, it has its left. And his Paccheri pasta with the three-tomato sauce: it is
own airport which attracts international visitors, it is close still one the most sought after items on our menu.” Having
to Milan but immersed in tranquil countryside.” We end up tasted it, It is not hard to see why.
talking about sustainability, and the ‘zero food-miles’ slogan For Enrico and Roberto cooking is a constantly-evolving
that has become such a buzzword in the Italian food industry. research, open to unexpected combinations and in an ongoing
“Our area has one of the highest concentrations of protected conversation with its natural partner: wine. “It’s like, when
denominations in Italy, when I travel abroad I like to bring you create a dish, there are certain rules but you have to keep
with me wild strawberries and ‘Sciur’, a matured goats’ cheese yourself open to surprises. A cook’s palate has to be trained
with berries that is typical of this area. But haute cuisine is to evaluate even the most unusual flavor combinations,
a world that cannot afford to close in on itself, it cannot do unexpected and wonderful things can happen that way,” Enrico
without excellent produce from all over the world. Here at Da explains. “When it comes to wine, nowadays, it is all about
Vittorio everyday we get Alaskan king crabs delivered still playing with contrasts and serving temperatures, it has now
alive. Being able to offer produce such as this is a privilege but become admissible to cool down some reds and leave certain
also the duty of a great chef.” The crabs arrive on the morning whites quite mellow. Lately, I like to pair the classic Milanese
we meet as well, together with crates of Mediterranean cutlet with a good rosé. Cooking is a subjective field, no one is
shellfish, an octopus which Enrico personally weighs and ‘right’. All you can do is offer new experiences to those who are
evaluates, and a ten-kilo sea bass that is simply too beautiful willing to embark on that journey with you.” Which brings us
to pass up: “Come on! Make me a deal!” he jokes on the phone back to the relationship with our customers, who arrive to this
with the supplier. One of seven regular suppliers, and that’s home where everyone, in some way, feels welcomed in a family.
just for the fish, he tells me later. “That’s also how menus are “As long as it is just in the chef’s mind, a dish doesn’t exist,”
put together: choosing every day your raw materials, often Bobo reflects. “It is the diner, the one who eats it and likes it that
you come across things you hadn’t even thought of ordering.” gives it life, that brings it into the world, in a sense.”
Chicco ‘the visionary’ and Bobo ‘the stalwart’ preside over 1966-2016: Da Vittorio celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. “We
the kitchen, for them it is a kingdom, for others it can feel a have officially reached the third generation, it is not something
bit like a labyrinth. Where the stoves for the main courses we take for granted, it makes us feel honored, and inspired,”
end the patisserie section begins, and then there’s the table Roberto says with a smile. “After fifty years we can say that
for assembling the entrees, and the storage room where the food is in our DNA, but I have no idea what our children will
copperware is kept, and so forth, you could get lost in here. The do in the future. You cannot force anyone to undertake such
brothers keep their distance from the trendy gastrocracy that a demanding profession: we could not be here without a lot
is transforming many of their colleagues into TV celebrities. of effort and sacrifices, in terms of time, of relationships,
“The televised popularity of food is a great showcase for all and the best years of your life. It is a work that can reward
cooks. But as a chef you have to be in your kitchen, not on you beyond measure: it is not by chance that all of us siblings
camera, it is vital: you can’t leave it to somebody else,” Enrico have followed in our parents’ footsteps.” And here Enrico gets
explains. “With experience, you cook with your sense of smell a little nostalgic: “My father has created all this from nothing,
and sight, we instantly know if the guy in charge is doing well he felt the weight of a growing family on his shoulders. But
or not. It is the secret of expertise. I feel strange about having that is the past, now we have a future ahead of us. The next
suddenly become the one who teaches others a craft, and not challenge is to celebrate our one-hundredth anniversary and
just someone who is still learning.” Just like they have learned then move beyond that. Da Vittorio has come of age, and the
from their father. “Dad got me inside the kitchen when I next goal is to branch out, acquire an international presence.
was eleven years old,” Roberto recalls. “I fell in love with the It is something we have been considering for a while now.”
first courses, they are still my passion: when I have an idea Are their sights directed to the West or to the East? “I don’t
for a dish, that is the shape I like to give it. The most recent want to jinx it, I guess I’m a little superstitious that way.”
creation? A risotto with smoked Giarratana onion cream, raw And lastly, everyone comes together for a family photo shoot,
Mazara prawns and mandarin drops.” But the foundations of the Cereas get ready, posing on the staircase that leads to
the Cerea brothers’ tastes are the foods of their childhood: the entrance. For a moment, all of them exchange glances.
“Peperonata, just like our father would make it, with any Maybe it is all here, in this ability they have of understanding
vegetables he had close at hand and a little pancetta: we would each other without a word, the secret ingredient that makes
eat it with bread straight out of the pan until there was none Vittorio great.

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