It's a year with the wind in its sails for Antonello Sardi, born in Florence in 1979 and Tuscan by nature, Michelin-starred chef since 2014. In February, an important appointment with life: he got married to his lifelong partner, a girl of Somali origins, whom he met fifteen years ago through mutual friends, he is 24 and she is 22, with whom he has two children, a girl of five years old and an eight month old male.
“We are fresh and fresh, what do you want, we don't sleep at all, but we carry on well. Thanks to her taking care of her children, I can devote myself to cooking, it's a great support for me. It's a myth, she thinks that she also manages to work, at the same time, at an accountant firm in Florence ”. Congratulations!
The second appointment is with professional life. Upon returning from his honeymoon, at the beginning of April, Antonello Sardi moved bag and baggage among the gentle slopes of the Mugello hills - land of artists, nobles and leaders, and which, according to some, would have given rise to the family of the Doctors – going to lead the brigade of the restaurant "Il Virtuoso" of the "Tenuta Le Tre Virtù", in the Municipality of Scarperia and San Piero, a former exclusive farmhouse, a few km from Florence which boasts a huge private park with an organic farm that produces grapes, olives, ancient fruits and various vegetables: the dream of every cook who wants to have a raw material close at hand intense and defined flavors to try your hand at in the kitchen.
For someone who has loved the nature and colors of his land since he was young, especially the real flavours, the traditional ones, unfiltered or tamed by entrepreneurial processes, it was, one can say, a compulsory course.
Tenacious and stubborn self-taught, struck by the kitchen
Why Antonello is not "son of art", his parents did a completely different job, his father was an employee of the railways and his mother worked at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Florence. The boy had grown up with no dreams in his drawer and had found a job at a company that produced congressional audiovisuals. But to tell the truth, it didn't interest him that much, in fact it didn't attract him at all. He began to set foot in the kitchen at the age of 20, when, out of love for freedom, he left to live alone leaving the family. It happened by chance: “we met with friends, we spent an evening at home, we had to go to the stove to cook something. I realized that I liked, very much, cooking something fun, and hearing that my friends appreciated. We made an appointment and everyone asked me: Antonello, what are you doing tonight?”.
Nothing convoluted, simple dishes, especially pastas. He had "made his palate" from those as a child, thanks to his grandmother from Romagna who prepared fresh pasta at home. He liked seeing her knead eggs and flour, seeing how incredible flavors such as tagliatelle, ravioli, tortellini came out of her from that fountain. “At the time I didn't realize it, but it was she who made me understand which and where the real flavors are…”.
He starts cooking and is so passionate about its results that he can no longer do without it. It's a stubborn, with an angular, punctilious, precise character. He admits it himself: “I have a terrible character, I demand the best from myself and I also demand it from those who work with me”. So overnight he says goodbye to the audiovisual world and begins to think only of pots and pans.
The experience at Fuor d'aqua and the encounter with the raw material
And with his character he doesn't go to school, he doesn't enter a professional hotel institute to study as a chef, he decides that, if this is his job, he must start from the bottom, that world that fascinates him, so much must be explored and discovered by basis. And that's how it is proposes himself as a humble dishwasher at "Ricchi" in Piazza Santo Spirito, a restaurant that during the day offers cheap menus for the lunch break while in the evening it transforms into an appreciated and welcoming restaurant mainly of fish.
He is a dishwasher, but he is appreciated by the chef, Pierluigi Campi, a Chef known in Florence for his creative Italian cuisine based on classic Italian seasonal products with a touch of molecular "fusion" style.
Campi appreciates his tenacity and lets him do some small operations, such as working with a knife, plating some sweets. Antonello is at the stars. The dishwasher begins to give way timidly to the cook, albeit for elementary tasks. He is so happy that he is the first one in and the last one out, because to get these satisfactions he then has to stay at the restaurant until late to finish washing the dishes and pans that have been left there waiting.
The next step, decidedly important, is the Fuor d'acqua, refined restaurant opened in 2000 in an old carriage depot in the heart of the historic center of Florence, a few steps from Porta San Frediano, specializing in fish that arrives every day from the Viareggio market. Antonello stays there for two years, conquers the rank of match leader: “Two incredible years, spending all day filleting fish, it was a great school, you get into the meaning and substance of the matter, you get hold of it, you also understand how can manipulate it."
The arrival at the court of King Bartolini at Devero
But the great leap is the one that leads him to the gates of Milan, to Carate Brianza, at the court of Enrico Bartolini, the first chef in the history of the Michelin Guide to have won 4 stars in one go: two at his restaurant inside the Mudec, the museum of cultures in Milan, in the heart of the Design District, one at Casual, the refined wood and stone restaurant open in Bergamo Alta with a breathtaking view of the mountains and one at La Trattoria di Castiglione della Pescaia at the center of the La Badiola estate, 500 hectares of captivating Mediterranean scrub. To which was added the star at the Glam in Venice.
Antonello thus arrives at the Bistrot 12-24 which flanks the Devero, starred restaurant where, however, from time to time he is called to collaborate. Working in Bartolini's bistro and restaurant is exciting, "for me it was a personal entrepreneurial journey in constant growth together with cooks who at the age of 20-25 had already worked with chefs such as Cracco, Berton, Sadler (I had the books of these chef, I had read and studied them, imagine the emotion for me to work side by side with people who had seen them live). I must say that the experience with Enrico was incomparable, every day we learned double, even triple”.
Bartolini understands his potential, appreciates him, encourages him, gives him space but not as much as Antonello would like. And there is a reason. The great Chef has a nice independent project in store for him, which one day he reveals to him: "I have to open a restaurant, the Perillà in Rocca d'Orcia, you can have a good experience there". It is an Osteria, in the center of the medieval village in the province of Siena, a perfect combination of modernity and history, with a refined gastronomic offer that uses the excellent products of Podere Forte. Antonello stays there for two years, and grows, grows, accumulates experiences, new preparations, makes himself known around. He has his botanical garden at his disposal, where he wanders around to check the vegetables that mark the course of the seasons from which he draws inspiration, there was also a farmyard, chickens, guinea fowls, an all-round inspiration. But Rocca d'Orcia remains close to him, too isolated, and after a year he decides, albeit reluctantly, to close that beautiful experience.
The arrival of the Michelin star has been preserved for five years to the present
In 2012 he is ready for another great leap, he can return to his native Florence. They call him at Good coffee shop as sous chef. But not a year goes by that there is a change of management and this time Sardi is consecrated Executive Chef of the restaurant which takes its name from an ancient roastery in Via dei Mille, its original location, which then moved to the banks of the Arno , Oltrarno, in the San Niccolò district, where the new owners Jeanette and Claus Thottrup have personally taken care of all the details to make it a very elegant and refined environment.
Jeanette Internationally renowned designer sets up the venue by jointly declining classic design with contemporary elements and handcrafted luxury furnishings from around the world. In practice it is the figure that Antonello Sardi adopts in his open kitchen. His command post is like a deck from which you can overlook the kitchen but also see the dining room (and vice versa) and from where the angular and rigorous chef can also study the reactions of his customers to his preparations, because he leaves nothing unnoticed.
Its menu aims to offer the customer an innovative and stimulating "from nature to plate" experience, which allows guests "to taste the freshest ingredients harvested directly from our gardens" or strictly seasonal products that reflect the unique gastronomic heritage of the region and its vibrant culinary culture.
The long-awaited star arrives soon, only after a year. The judges of the Michelin Guide awarded it to him with the motivation: “On the Lungarno, an urban chic atmosphere, but also Florentine style, in an elegant restaurant with a lovely dehors and rigorously open kitchen. Dishes centered on high quality raw materials - without territoriality and tradition limits - treated with intelligence and respect in a creative, reasoned and spontaneous twist. Beautiful wine list with over 1000 labels!” .
Only 10 years have passed since Antonello started cooking, for the ex-dishwasher, punctilious and tenacious self-taught, there is no denying it is a great satisfaction. And of course that star hasn't let it go since, they've confirmed it to her consecutively to this day.
Il Virtuoso, a sensory journey through the meaning of the products
This brings us to the new chapter this year, the arrival at the "Virtuoso". They called him, and he accepted with enthusiasm – and let's also say a little courage, because let's face it, leaving a place where you've won a star is no mean feat – Christian Priami and Valentina Sabbatini, two young people in love with this precious corner of Tuscany that evokes history, humanity, culture, ancestral traditions, authenticity, who have worked by committing considerable resources, not only economic ones, to create a location of great charm under the banner of a suggestive claim that says a lot, a "sensory experience" because "the senses are satisfied by authentic and genuine sensations fruit of the love and attention to detail that we put into our work every day".
“I felt the need to change – says Antonello – and the project of the owners of this extraordinary estate conquered me. The desire to work there gave me great motivation for this choice. I knew Mugello, a place that has always attracted me for the quality of the products. I love cooking, I especially love feeling the products, feeling their meaning and passing it on to my customers. A tomato, a courgette, an aubergine, a chicken or a fish individually represent a world of their own, rich in flavours, transmitting intense and complex sensations made up of history and traditions. AND' I want to transmit these sensations in full to those who come to my restaurant. Here I have the opportunity to use great products, all rigorously Made in Tuscany. I don't want to do anything different from what I usually do: a large risotto, fresh pasta, meat and fish on the menu, seasonal produce, herbs. No improvisation, no nouvelle cuisine, no small portions, but great products and lots of love".
We can swear that soon even the Mugello sky will light up with a new star.
