MAESTRI ALL’OLMO – CORNAREDO

Here are the Maestros at the Olmo. Star chefs in the classroom

Fabio Pisani and Alessandro Negrini’s lesson at the Cornaredo Hotelier “Cooking takes time, you have to get back into the game without ever giving up”.

by Roberta Rampini

“Cooking takes time and patience, rigour and discipline, you have to get involved again and again, without ever giving up. You have to get to know the territories, producers and products, the history and traditions of Italian cuisine’. Friends and colleagues, one born in Valtellina and the other in Apulia, Alessandro Negrini and Fabio Pisani, chefs of the Milanese restaurant ‘Il luogo di Aimo e Nadia’, one Michelin star, met yesterday morning with the students of the first classes of the Olmo di Cornaredo High School of Food and Wine and Hospitality. A lesson in two voices that is part of the ‘Maestro all’Olmo’ project devised by chef Davide Oldani, mentor of the school, owner of the D’O two Michelin Star restaurant and Michelin Green Star for sustainability. For years the institute has been bringing great chefs into the classroom, who become ‘masters’ for a day and tell their story. Headmaster Luca Azzollini and teaching coordinator Titta Settembrale welcomed them. “We met in 2003 at the ‘Dal Pescatore’ restaurant in Canneto sull’Oglio and started working together. In 2005 we returned to the ‘Luogo di Aimo e Nadia’ and started an ambitious project together with Stefania Moroni, Aimo and Nadia’s daughter,’ the chefs tell us . And it is precisely from their experience that they have drawn some advice for young people who are studying to become chefs or who will be in charge of the dining room.

“To the speed of social media, to which you and society have become accustomed, you have to contrast the slowness of cooking. You have to travel and gain experience even abroad, but never forget your roots,’ explains Chef Pisani. Like Chef Oldani, they too believe in and bet on the future generations and have set up the Aimo and Nadia award to promote young people, ‘this year we are starting with a hotel management school from Puglia, but it would be nice to bring it to your school too,’ they conclude.