Tag: Michelin

Niko Romito, the 2021 Chef Mentor according to the Michelin Guide – Italian Cuisine


The chef wins the award which confirms his commitment to training the young talents of tomorrow. Because as a self-taught he created the school he would have liked to have

Niko Romito has won three Michelin stars, self-taught, in just seven years, breaking a kind of record. His training curriculum is quite short: catapulted into the kitchen for life's cases. He did not go to college and instead of spending years climbing the military hierarchy from the rank of commis, he sat at the university benches. It could have been the worst testimonial of professional training never seen, and instead he created "the school he would have liked to have". Since 2011, the Niko Romito Academy, in football terms, is a nursery of under 35 where you train for a career in Serie A. After exactly 10 years, the commitment to training the chef is rewarded by the 2021 Michelin Guide: the prestigious Michelin Chef Mentor Award 2021, offered by Blancpain.

The Romito system, from haute cuisine to fried chicken

Niko Romito is not a guy who is easily satisfied, thinks big, and with great meaning, scalable and multiplicable in always different catering formats. The kitchen of his Reale restaurant in Castel di Sangro (AQ) is part of a system that goes far beyond the few tables set in the middle of the Abruzzo hills: it is a laboratory of ideas, techniques and research, to be then spread in other forms, without changing the substance. Romito speaks of "drip, A process by which the technical work and the reasoning made at Reale percolate into the rest of the system that brings its brand, towards replicable formats and products that, while expressing a philosophy, have a life of their own. Each project is based on the application of techniques and concepts developed by Romito al Reale, rethought to adapt to a donut like a fried chicken: in the Romitian universe, haute cuisine, widespread catering, higher education and products for domestic consumption coexist. There are Spazio restaurants, those of the Bulgari Hotels in Beijing, Shanghai and Dubai, the Alt taste station, the Bomba street food format and the Nutritional Intelligence project in partnership with La Sapienza University and the hospital menu production chain.

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The Academy, the forge of human capital

How to handle all this? In Rivisondoli, 688 inhabitants in the province of L'Aquila, since 2011 young promises of catering have occupied the classrooms of theNiko Romito Academy. Sixteen students per course, thirty-two students a year, which generates human capital (Romito is a failed economist) for the group's restaurants and projects, and at the same time spreads an approach with building its own culinary language. After six months of immersive training we leave for a six-month internship, in one of the great's satellites widespread project by Romito. The rates of occupation post graduate students are Bulgarian majority. Hence the decision to entrust him with the prestigious award, with this motivation: «Niko Romito is an example of tenacity and energy and proposes a cuisine whose fundamental trait is the purity of flavors. The young chefs who work alongside him or who attend his school assimilate his philosophy, capture its essence with the aim of giving continuity to his method by customizing it to become great chefs and, in many cases, even young entrepreneur chefs! ".

But what wonderful surprises from Michelin! – Italian Cuisine

But what wonderful surprises from Michelin!


All confirmed the three stars of Italy. Eleven were and eleven are. From Norbert Niederkofler to Enrico Bartolini and Enrico Crippa, Nadia Santini, Mauro Uliassi, Massimo Bottura, the Cerea brothers, Heinz Beck, Massimiliano Alajmo, Annie Feolde and Niko Romito.

What satisfaction and what satisfaction to see that friend Niko Romito, chef director of the month of November, took the special award like Chef Mentor of 2021. And he deserves it all. As much as Norbert and Massimo the green star, a tribute to their sustainability in the kitchen and in the heart.

And then there is Davide Oldani, the friend and the director of our August issue. Here is the long-awaited red star, the second, well deserved. On the phone with Evelina, he told me that he was completely in the dark. For those who have followed the live stream, they were exceptional at organizing the surprise. From Petra Loreggian, the presenter who faked a technical misunderstanding to call the swimmer Federica Pellegrini and Davide Oldani on the stage and Marco Do, head of communication at Michelin Italia, also casually acting. When our chef realized that he was given the star … He was moved like a child on the first day of school. Without words. And it's hard to take David's words away! Bravo, our most sincere compliments and good Evelina and Camilla, and mother Maria Luigia.

And good at Matteo Metullio who, with the heart of a lion, left a restaurant where he already had two stars in South Tyrol, to take the reins of Harry's Piccolo in Trieste and conquer two, once again. "I'm happy because it was a choice I made for the family." IS Antonia Klugmann rejoices with him. «It is the first time in history that Trieste has had two Michelin stars. I'm happy for my city and I'm proud of Matteo . The guys too, many very young who deserved 26 new flaming stars, five in Tuscany, and then scattered throughout Italy. The only drawback: it was a pity that there was no woman. Girls, step forward!

Who is Antonio Ziantoni, Michelin young chef 2021 award – Italian Cuisine

Who is Antonio Ziantoni, Michelin young chef 2021 award


Smiles, humility, technique and a team of close-knit young people: the announced success of Antonio Ziantoni, Ida Proietti and Christian Marasca, who have conquered the only new star in Rome with their restaurant in Trastevere

When a couple of years ago he opened this beautiful restaurant in the heart of Trastevere, a stone's throw from Piazza San Cosimato, we had already had the opportunity to talk about a gourmet revolution that was experiencing that somewhat secluded side of a tourist district, but also definitely alive in the capital. Immediately Antonio Ziantoni and the delightful Ida Proietti, his partner in work and in life, had made it clear that they wanted to aim high.

And if at the beginning everyone was talking about the fact that he was one of the "Genovese boys", the boys who grew up professionally in the kitchens of Pagliaccio (the only two-star restaurant in Rome), it soon became clear that not only Antonio Ziantoni was one of the best, but also that his project was probably the one that best suited Michelin's ethical and aesthetic standards. A creative and technically flawless cuisine, a room managed with grace by Ida, who set it all up an informal elegance, with a nice equipment e a cellar more than at the height. Youth and smiles to season everything, with a healthy competitive attitude (they never hid that the goal was the star), but with humility. All sweetened by the pastry shop by Christian Marasca, which alone has earned a delivery and take-away line in the darkest moments of the pandemic.

From here to star, complete with an honorable mention as Young Chef 2021, it took too long, because those who live and attend restaurants in Rome had already had this group of young talents under their lens for some time. After 2019 of understandable caution, in the last edition many had said: "Too bad, it will be for next year". In between there was a pandemic, the fear that the projects of enterprising young people like Antonio and Ida could go up in smoke, between one lockdown and another.

Finally the recognition they were waiting for has arrived, to give a well-deserved breath of fresh air, because you can bet that Zia will be sold out at the evening reopening. Those who have already been there will certainly go and seek out the sensations of very successful dishes such as veal sweetbread, three milks and tomato, or the oyster that goes with cucumber and gin in summer and goes well with cabbage and nerves in winter. In the first courses the pasta is strictly homemade and a risotto can never be missing (now the one with buffalo, lemon and gentian is on the menu), while among the latter the choice falls easily on the the civet pigeon, which is now a signature dish. The desserts, as mentioned, deserve a separate mention: an ups and downs of memories, from babà to millefeuille, where however the technique of another great young professional prevails, Christian Marasca.

Last but not least, here you have a starry experience a more than competitive prices, even low for the capital. The five-course tasting menu is € 55, the seven-course menu is € 75. It is hoped that they will manage to maintain these near-crisis prices. For now only for lunch, from Wednesday to Sunday, hopefully soon also for dinner.

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