Tag: Francesco

Francesco Panella: Open letter to restaurateurs at the time of Covid-19 – Italian Cuisine

Guest at EPCC, Francesco Panella tells Alessandro Cattelan about the future of catering and sends a message of positivity to colleagues, heart in hand.

Francis Panella he is not only a successful restaurateur who conquered the United States with Italian cuisine, he is above all a visionary. So he defined it Alessandro Cattelan, on the occasion of his participation in the TV program EPCC – And then there is Cattelan on Sky. Live from the Milan studios, Francesco Panella brought his testimony on the restaurant situation at the time of Covid-19, which turned out to be a true declaration of love.

Friends of … table

Alessandro Cattelan has known Francesco Panella last year when he went to New York to record the special episode with Jimmy Fallon, one of the most famous American anchormans. To celebrate the milestone, Cattelan and the crew chose Francesco's restaurant and a good friendship was born from there. Cattelan could not have chosen anyone better than the known face of Little Big Italy to feel the pulse of the restaurant world from one side of the ocean to the other.

Raised in the historic Antica Pesa restaurant since 1922 in Rome owned by his family for four generations, in 2012 Francesco Panella set out to conquer New York by opening Antica Pesa Brooklyn and then Feroce in Manhattan in 2017. In his restaurants made in the U.S.A., resumes the Italian culinary tradition that in Rome carries on the brother chef Simone Panella with creativity and dedication. The American success of Francesco Panella and his restaurants is confirmed by the large clientele, which has VIP names of the caliber of Leonardo Dicaprio, Quentin Tarantino or Charlize Theron, for an endless list of Italian and international stars (take a look at the Gallery!). A further confirmation took place live during the EPCC broadcast when Cattelan and Panella connected live with the actor Andy Garcia, passionate about his carbonara strictly without cream.

Panella and the lockdown

Francesco Panella he lives in New York, but managed to return to Italy in time before the lockdown. Incurable optimist, the Roman gentleman has transformed the unpleasant situation into an opportunity to spend more time with the family and to help others. If on the one hand he became a "professor" for young Food & Beverage students, on the other he collaborated with the Italian chefs of theItalian Chefs Association New York creating una onlus Italians Feed America which served to prepare one hundred thousand meals for people in need in coronavirus emergency. As communication director of AICNY, Panella thanked his friends chefs connected live as a virtual audience for the wonderful collaboration, all superstars of Italian cuisine in the Big Apple, from Rocco DiSpirito to Ciro Iovine or Fabrizio Facchini until Barbara Pollastrini, just to name a few.

The future of catering at the time of covid-19

Between a joke and a laugh, Cattelan has dealt with Francesco Panella the future of catering, in serious difficulty due to the pandemic. It is time to put an end to the invention and work in a way that was not imagined before, suggests the conductor. "Now there is the emergency that needs to be addressed as such. I think the two fundamental things in this period are communication and the focus on security. If once the benchmark of a restaurant was the name, a dish, an ingredient, now the polar star to follow is definitely safety ", said Francesco Panella confidently.

Between social distancing, masks, gloves, and all the (very right) precautions of the case, it is difficult to combine security with the pleasure of being at the table together, says Cattelan. With his proverbial positivity, Francesco Panella he replies smiling: “There was a bit of confusion in my opinion, but luckily we have fantastic engineers, very good teachers, creatives, designers, who have given us solutions that are beautiful, innovative and also very technological! ".

Hear about it Francesco Panella about the future of catering is reassuring: “Many things will change in catering. Fortunately, architects, designers, etc … have done a lot of crazy things, for example on conservation. We will have a hot fridge that will keep the dishes at temperature and will be served in two minutes because they were previously cooked and made safe in the hot refrigerator ". Another innovation due to the ban on paper menus concerns the technology closest to us, smartphones: "The menus will be directly on the mobile phone thanks to the QR code that goes beyond the order with the waiter and the tablet, it is you who interact directly with the kitchen by sending the order. " There is no shortage of curious news such as special copper pots, antibacterial material, which will also act as a dish and allow the chef to bring the dish directly to the table by recreating theexperience direct. The importance of the experience will also be redesigned as regards the ritual of the cocktail at the counter before sitting at the table for dinner: “When we enter, it will no longer be possible to stand at the counter to enjoy the cocktail before dinner, it will be a direct experience one on one at a safe distance from the table. "

Open letter to caterers at the time of covid-19

Upon conclusion of the participation in EPCC, Francesco Panella he put on his glasses to read what his message is for the restaurant and his actors, all together to make it a film with a happy ending.

"A love story" by Francesco Panella

Work is not a job if it is not done with passion. How many times have we heard this phrase? So many. How many is it really like? Few. I am among them.

Being a restaurateur is more than a passion for me, it is life. I was actually born in a restaurant and from that moment it has always been my home.

The noise of the kitchen in full service, the screams of the chef, the waiters who move to the rhythm of the courses, the voices of the diners, the laughter, the tears … you will think "what a mess!", A mess that, to my ears , it is better than rock'n'roll.

But catering is also renunciation: it means not having schedules, it means taking risks… because a dish does not have a second chance and if you are wrong, you have failed; it means questioning yourself every day, making miles and miles to find the perfect ingredient … is giving up parties, family …

In short … You are there day after day, between the kitchen, the hall, the customers and in the end you don't know what time it is and how long you have been there. You work while others celebrate, you concentrate while others relax your nerves, you don't drink while others enjoy a good glass of wine … Yet there is something that keeps you there, nailed, that makes you get up every morning with one big awareness: that with your dishes you can make people happy. Yes, people. How important are they? For me they count more than anything else and I try to please them by doing the simplest thing in the world, by feeding them.

For this I will continue to do what I do and I know it will be hard, that we will want to throw in the towel and give up, but I want to tell you one thing dear colleagues: even if the covid-19 has bent us and many of us have failed to reopen, we must remember that what we do is important. We make people forget problems and make them feel what they really are: special. We take care of them … that's why we can't give up.

Taverna Estia by Francesco Sposito – Italian Cuisine

Volcanic and solar, like his land. Francesco Sposito, born in 1983, has very clear ideas immediately. Sixteen, helps dad Armando when in 1999 he took over the Taverna Estia, in Brusciano (NA). After a "taste" of university, he hears the call of the toque and he works "a lot, a lot" with his father at the restaurant.

Sacrifices and passion increase the desire for to grow up and the need to know, and the very young Francesco goes in search of guidance ed experience in Europe with great chefs: Igles Corelli, who will meet in 2002, will inspire him, as a true master. Back home, around 2005 he took over the Taverna's kitchen, reduces the number of seats to 30 and, with the full support of the family, begins his personal culinary journey, soon rewarded by the first Michelin star in 2008.

Francesco is only 25 but his kitchens are a real laboratory culinary: he spends a lot of time there, he studies, he dares without exaggerating, he develops his ideas creating dishes that surprise without ever forgetting his land. «At the center there are always the elements of my Campania he explains «sometimes declined in a classic key or transformed into a modern key.

His dishes they are always more brilliant is inspired and in 2015 comes the second recognition from the Michelin Guide. «To always maintain excellence you never have to stop or give stars for granted. It is essential to work with the utmost professionalism, also allowing for impromptu exploits he laughs. Like this recipe, spontaneous homage to great friend Franco Pepe and to his Margherita Sbagliata: il Risopizza it's a innovative dish which, while anchoring itself in the tradition through the typical ingredients of pizza, surprises with its strong individuality. Sposito style.

One success leads to another
Passion for tradition, ingenuity and skill earned Francesco Sposito the first Michelin star in 2007 and 2009 the entry into the talented JRE family. The following year it is Emerging Chef from Italy for the Gambero Rosso Guide and in 2012 he is Young Chef of the Year for the Espresso. In his early thirties, he conquers the Tre Cappelli of the Italian Restaurants Guide of L’Espresso and the second Michelin star. A wheel, the arrive Tre Forchette del Gambero Rosso.

Comfort and warmth
The restaurant that Francesco Sposito manages is named after Estia, Greek goddess of the hearth together with his brother Mario, passionate sommelier and restaurant manager (Taverna Estia, via Guido De Ruggiero 108, 80031 Brusciano, NA, tel. 081 5199633). Very welcoming atmosphere and a well-kept garden, in a corner of which Francesco Sposito wanted to create a vegetable garden. "I believe in Km Zero and in the products of the earthHe explains.

by Francesca Tagliabue,
photo by Michele Tabozzi

video Diego Stadiotti

July 2019

The wine of the week: IS Iss 2015 Tenuta San Francesco – Italian Cuisine

In the hinterland of the Amalfi Coast, there are vineyards with plants that are three, four centuries old: a spectacle of nature that is a real open-air museum. From very rare native vines are born wines with a unique character

The curves of the Amalfi Coast with the incredible overhanging views to the beach of Maiori. Then, a detour to the right, uphill, and within a few minutes the geography is distorted: the sea gives way to the mountain, the temperature drops, the crowd disappears.

We are in the heart of Monti Lattari park, with peaks that touch the 1,300 meters of altitude. As the name says, here once dairy cows were bred and the area was rich in dairies. Today, almost no one produces the mozzarella fior di latte and the viticulture resists only thanks to the determination of some willing, who decided to put their free time at the service of a wine heritage that has no equal in the world.

No description can make the beauty of the tiny plots, in which vines with a flat foot they touch the three, four centuries of age. From the huge and twisted trunks, tied with the willow to the chestnut poles, branch tents spread over ten meters long. Obviously the processing is done entirely by hand, the yields are basic, the sale of the wine, made with unknown native vines, very difficult. “For this reason we have decided to call our most important red, based on the dye grape, is iss, which in the local dialect means here he is, "says Gaetano Bove, who together with Generoso Bove, Vincenzo d'Avino and Luigi Giordano founded the Tenuta San Francesco company in 2004." First we sold the grapes, but in that year there was a market crisis, nobody wanted them, we didn't know what to do, so we tried to make wine by ourselves ”.

Without knowledge, the first results were not exciting, but with the arrival of the avellinese oenologist Carmine Valentino, the company has embarked on a path towards quality that today has led it to be one of the unmissable realities of the Amalfi Coast . The annual production is around 65,000 bottles and in the 13 hectares of property, divided into forty tiny plots, falanghina, piedirosso, aglianico, biancolella, biancazita, pepella and broom are also cultivated.

"The vine dyer it was saved in part because it was cultivated in isolated territories, partly because it gave color and acidity to the wines of Gragnano, very popular in Naples, ”says Bove; the particular volcanic soils did the rest, preserving the local vines from phylloxera, the terrible insect that devastated the vineyards of all Europe. È Iss offers, therefore, the unique opportunity to taste the dyer vinified in purity. Its dark color would make you think of a warm and muscular wine, instead the great acidity makes it agile and smooth, a true mountain wine which is remembered for its long and sapid palate, able to gracefully carry the aromas of wild plum and black pepper. It's a really unsettling red that doesn't look like any other wine. Is iss, in fact.

Why now: it is a wine that deserves to be discovered by those who do not yet know it.

As did: ferments in steel with indigenous yeasts at controlled temperature, then refines in wooden barrels of various capacities.

To combine with: meatballs with tomato sauce, pasta with meat sauce, roasts.

Serve it at: 16 ° C.

Price: 34 euros.

vinitenutasanfrancesco.com

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