Friendly and immediately sympathetic, Filippo Saporito he is not only a cook, he is also a lively enthusiast of art and rugby. After dinner, he guides clients to discover the works exhibited at Villa Bardini, the splendid museum complex that houses his restaurant, and always finds the time to follow the oval ball championship, among the thousand commitments that entails the role of chef-patron of the the only Michelin-starred restaurant in Florence.
Fortunately it is very supported. First of all wife, the chef Ombretta Giovannini, known among the school desks at the Chianciano hotel institute and since then with him first around the world to refine the culinary art and then to Castellina in Chianti, where together they opened the first restaurant and brought two sons into the world . At his side there is also the excellent brigade (10 people for 26 seats), composed of selected professionals super close-knit. Also thanks to the "boss" who, since he was a small participant in the demonstrations for the great battles in the wake of the environmentalist and feminist mother, has a marked sense of sociality.
Respect for work above all: we eat good things together, we talk, we joke and … if there is the game "there is no high season that takes: the restaurant closes for typhus, as happened for Italy Germany ", explains Saporito," and we go back to work happy. They all earn us: staff and customers ". Because one good atmosphere is essential ingredient for an excellent dish, prepared with taste and ethical sensitivity (chicken livers and anchovies yes, fatty liver and oysters no). "The cook he has a great responsibility: what he prepares he enters you and yes turns into energy. I want it to be beautiful and good".
And it succeeds: with the purple rice we present, the tongue in savoy and apple sauce or the spelled guitar with almonds and wild herbs pesto.
Traveling you learn
Filippo Saporito (46), formerly a sous-chef at the noble Arnolfo di Colle Val d'Elsa, is JRE Europe Manager, where it would like to facilitate the bureaucratic simplification for professional exchanges among restaurateurs, so that young people can easily organize periods of qualified work abroad: fundamental experiences to open wide horizons. The autobiographical idea is not lacking, given that with his wife he worked for years in Paris, Berlin and Atlanta before opening together the restaurant of dreams, 1 Michelin star since 2017.
The restaurant of Filippo Saporito and Ombretta Giovannini, open to Florence in 2015 inside Villa Bardini (overlooking the city, waterfalls and park), has retained the name of the previous room, housed in a convent of Castellina in Chianti. Amazing locations, elegant and polite as the recipes, which you can also cook with the chef during his courses dinner included (lalegendadeifrati.it/).
Land and sea
The chef Filippo Saporito (in the picture with the director of Sale & Pepe, Laura Maragliano) slices the very thin squids, so that they soften with the sole heat of the risotto at the end of cooking.
VIOLET RISOTTO with CALAMARI AND LIME
for 6 people
1 purple cabbage – 300 g of Mediterranean squid – 500 g of Carnaroli rice – 1 glass of wine – 100 g of butter – grated grana padano – 1 untreated lime – salt
● Prepare the ingredients
Wash the cabbage, dry it with paper towel and slice it; centrifuge it or blend it briefly; let it drain into a medium-sized sieve and keep the juice aside. Thoroughly clean the squid by removing the inner cartilage and the entrails, rinse them well and cut them into very thin slices with a sharp knife.
● Cook the rice
In a large pan toasted dry rice, without oil, butter or other seasoning, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the wine and let it evaporate completely. Add, a little at a time, boiling water while continuing to mix.
● Season the preparation
At about three quarters of the cooking time (after about 12 minutes) add the cabbage juice. Finish cooking and remove the rice from the heat. Mantecatelo with butter, add a little 'grated parmesan and, only at the last moment, the slivers of raw squid; set salt.
● Complete and serve
Distribute the rice in individual dishes and decorate each portion with a pinch of grated lime peel at the time directly on the preparation, and placed with a kitchen tongs. As an alternative to squid, you can use codfish cooked in frying pan or mussels.
Silvia Bombelli
December 2018
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