One believes he is entering a restaurant and vice versa does not imagine being immersed in an initiatory path that starts from a somewhat hermetic affirmation: "Until then if not before" (Until then if not before). Concept written in large letters like a large neon sign that strikes the eye when entering the first room, not too lit, of the Dina restaurant in Gussago.
In reality, that large neon sign is a work of art signed by the British artist Jonathan Monk, a conceptual and minimalist artist, created especially for the Dina restaurant in Gusssago, a town 9 kilometers from Brescia where Alberto Gipponi, 39, a an ancient passion for cooking, which actually began initiatingly and concretely only in 2015, has condensed the meaning of his life. If for Monk the karma of his artistic career is a recurring question "what will happen?" for Gipponi that writing is an invitation not to give in to the temporal geometries of existence because everything springs from an imponderable order that crosses the precocious of the individual.
What is certain is that his life path is incredible, always marked by a randomness that upsets his experience.
As a young man he was a gifted guitarist for whom a promising future lay ahead. But he doesn't feel adequate and abandons the idea. After graduating in sociology he became an assistant at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. An experience that soon ends because he opens up another one: social worker for the Municipality of Brescia, and yet another as Coordinator of the San Vincenzo de Paoli Onlus Society.
But there is something pressing in the air, an intense, voracious passion, intellectually speaking, exclusive to the world of cooking. In 2015 the conversion: everything he has done up to that moment is a thing of the past. “Decide that something can and will be done and then… find a way” said Abraham Lincoln, and he adds a tenacity and obstinacy to move mountains. And rashness too, this is the only way to justify the fact that he presented himself, without art or part, at Joe Bastianich's Orsone, in Cividale del Friuli, to do anything to enjoy the atmosphere of the kitchen, and where he works for some months every weekend. A year later here is another stroke of luck, he manages to get accepted by Nadia Vincenzi (1 Michelin star) in Castrezzato, he works for a year without ever taking a day off and manages to be appreciated for his constancy.
What he learned in such a short time materializes in a dish with which he participates in the "Chef for a night" competition of the Brescia newspaper and, guess what? He wins.
The recipe has a title that is an oxymoron "Future Memories" , which coincidentally recalls "Until then if not before". And it will mark the turning point in Gipponi's life. Because on April 9 ours manages to book a table at Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana, three Michelin stars, first restaurant in the world according to The World's 50 Best Restaurants in the years 2016 and 2018. And with great audacity, or driven by the heart, to at the end of lunch, give the great Chef his “Future Memories”. A pumpkin peel cream, which deals with the theme of recycling, respect for the raw material, to be used up to the last, the farmer's work, the meanings of the earth. The workhorse that Bottura was promoting in those years to combat food waste. The chef takes the sheet and puts it in his pocket. A little over a week goes by and Gipponi receives a call on his cell phone. He calls back and almost faints, Bottura complimented him and urged him to "follow his dream". For Gipponi it is the sign of a destiny that is leading him by the hand so that he can make it happen. From the next day he gets on the phone and tries to book a table again at the Osteria di Mantova but everything is full for months. Suddenly (“Until then in not before”) a possibility arises on June 9, two months after another 9, on April 9 when he hands over his recipe to the great Chef. And here he is still sitting at the table and chatting with Bottura asking what hundreds of young people from all over the world ask him constantly, to be able to do an internship at the Osteria. Bottura listens to him but nothing more, he doesn't commit himself. Gipponi is not discouraged. He waits for closure on the street and when he sees the Chef coming out, he blocks him while he is walking home. Such tenacity surprises and convinces the great chef: it can be done, but don't think that he will be able to access the stove, at most he will be able to shell the prawns. And instead Gipponi immediately puts himself on display, studies the master and studies the kitchen, learns the secrets. And he stays a year to gain experience at the Osteria. But no more because he has an unbridled desire to prove himself. “Until then in not before”… Challenging everything and everyone, but listening only to the reasons of his heart, only after 8 months he manages to open his restaurant in Brescia. And, incredibly, within 9 months, the restaurant was awarded by the Espresso Guide as the novelty of the year. If this is not burning stages…
Gipponi admits it "I love to dare and amaze, I love to surprise" and already the sign of his restaurant Dina, a tribute to his grandmother, and therefore to memory, hides a meaning that is not immediately perceptible: it becomes the expression of a constant game of roles "The The initial 'D', deliberately marked, represents – explains Gipponi – my masculine side, while the 'a' with the final grace expresses my "pink" note, which I hope is profound and can be found both in the environments and in the dishes" .
Let it be clear, therefore, that those who enter his restaurant do so with the awareness that at Dina's you don't sit down just to eat but to physically and virtually dialogue, enter into symbiosis with the Chef.
At Dina everything has a meaning, the works of modern art scattered randomly in the various rooms, expressions of her passions and moods, which mix with those of the Galleria Massimo Minini in Brescia: two photographs by Francesca Woodman which express great depth and melancholy; the "clothes hanging in Venice" by Paul P. and the trilogy on sins by the Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov or the installations by the Israeli artist Ariel Schlesinger. Each work is a feeling that is transmitted to the environment. And even the booklet left on each table for a thought, a drawing, wants to fix a moment of dialogue that becomes permanent.
Each room has its own soul and its own history – sociological studies warn us – like the dishes which are an instrument of dialogue between the chef and his customers. “Everything passes through us and changes us” a cream of mussels, tomato confit, lemon air, aromatic herbs and mushroom tartare according to Gipponi is a dish that embodies human nature. “We are filters and parasites, everything we meet leaves a mark on us and we try to attach ourselves to everything we desire” or “Inside the bag: raw, but cooked casoncello”, a casoncello, a traditional Brescian stuffed pasta dish, apparently with meat raw, but actually cooked thanks to a very special technique, presented in a bread bag. The theme in this case is memory combined with play, the revival of a gesture, that of a child who secretly steals a still raw ravioli, which brings us back to the spontaneity of childhood. Or “Vi gnaws your liver (envy)” a Fassona liver with Bordeaux sauce, fried onions, toasted walnuts, apple extraction and turmeric apple reduction which opens the series of dishes dedicated to the deadly sins. And you can continue with "The Lamb In the Bocca Del Lupo", Lamb marinated in lemon balm (the "wolf's mouth"), stewed and accompanied by a cream of roasted potatoes, soncino roots, spinach, lamb stock and powdered herbs accompanied by a mushroom and lemon balm consommé. A dish that talks about those attractions that in life "we really should let go".
To close with "Come una volta" a Tiramisu in a pan that represents a tribute to Christo, the Bulgarian artist who has packed monuments, historic buildings all over the world, to increase the desire for beauty or "There is something that is not… quail!”, Quail with honey, pine nut cream, sage caramel and toffee, cocoa and whiskey crumble and whiskey gelée, all accompanied by a quail broth, honey and spices.
All this is Alberto Gipponi, a sociologist in the kitchen who does not prepare food for customers but narrating dishes that put him in harmony with his guests to talk about humanity. Always remembering that "There is no right moment to do things, there is only the moment when your heart decides to do them".
