If St. Paul was struck by lightning on the Via di Damascus, 38-year-old Giacomo Pouch, a Chef trained at the school of the great protagonists of Italian cuisine, who settled last year at the La Cru restaurant of the historic Villa Medici Maffei Balis Crema, in Romagnano, a splendid village in province of Verona, was instead electrocuted at his brother's first communion lunch many years ago. At the end of the meal the Chef and his brigade were called into the dining room for applause of thanks. A handsome big man dressed all in white showed up, with the classic Toque on his head, a ruddy face made more imposing by a nice gray moustache, there was an explosion of applause, compliments, comments, pats on the back, all the hall was as if enveloped in a cloud of good humour, happiness, sympathy and admiration. This scene, which seemed to come from the film Rataouille, struck him a lot.
He was young, he loved football like all boys, he always went, as he could, to play games around with friends, he dreamed of being a footballer when he grew up. But that day he wondered a lot. The idea of running after the ball was strong, but the idea of becoming a "hero" of the kitchen, of knowing how to arouse admiration for his preparations, of knowing how to create atmospheres of joy, conviviality, participation , to make people feel good, and why not? to receive applause of gratification and even get on TV one day.
To tell the truth, he was not alien to the pleasures of the table because as a child, when he stopped playing football with his friends around the country, the best hours he spent, by his own admission, "with his hands in pasta" in cooking with grandmother Norina, a cook by profession. The two stayed together for a long time (the father was a nurse and sports masseur, he practically worked all day while the mother had to take care of all the household chores) and grandmother Norina kept him with her asking him to help her with small services while she cooked . His grandmother was of Venetian origin and this is how the young Giacomo got to know incredible dishes and flavors from an early age such as Sarde in saor, bigoli with sardines, stewed octopus, polenta with cod.
It was certainly not the air of simple bread and butter or bread and jam, but of great complicity. "When he saw me a little down in the dumps, he would prepare me the" banana sbatua ", the banana beaten with sugar with the addition of a little Vov, if my mother didn't notice".
This concept of the kitchen as a place of pleasure not only for the stomach but also in general, a place where we meet cheerfully, with a smile, where we have fun, feel good together, relate to friends and relatives, the young Sabato always carried it with him: for someone as shy as him with an introverted character, the kitchen became a place of physical and mental relaxation.
Of course, even if the first culinary experience as a young man was a disaster "I still remember it, an overcooked Quiche Lorraine with a very hard shortcrust pastry at the base", in reality,cchetto did not lose heart: over time he largely redone. Strengthened by his grandmother's home teachings, he began his long apprenticeship, without stopping, passing through the kitchens of the greatest chefs in Italy and abroad, never feeling satisfied with the result achieved.
After a brief experience as an apprentice in one of Verona's historic restaurants, he immediately embarked on the road abroad in search of experiences and open-mindedness and landed in London, alongside Chef Paolo Simioni at Toto's Restaurant, a super restaurant frequented by royalty, from the upper middle class, from the great entrepreneurs where a concept of cuisine is affirmed that protects quality but at the same time promotes innovation.
From there he returns to Italy and goes to the “St. Hubertus” in San Cassiano (BZ), where Norbert Niederkofler reigns who lived over 15 years abroad, working in Germany, the United States, Switzerland, Austria and assimilating concepts, knowledge of cooking techniques and cosmopolitan cooking cultures , which Giacomo Pouch enriched during his three-year stay alongside the great Chef, then one Michelin star, now consecrated to the three stars that have placed him at the top of the ranking of great Italian chefs.
From the mountains of Val Badia we find him again in Verona at the Perbellini Restaurant in Isola Rizza, 2 Michelin stars, and these are two very fruitful years for the young Sabato who grows stronger by learning from the great Chef the extreme rigor with which the raw materials are selected , but also the respect for the seasonality of the territory and the declination of the ingredients that characterize his cuisine in a skilful play of contrasts.
Sachet is now an all-round chef, long gone are the days of his disastrous Quiche Lorraine. And it is no coincidence that Norbert Niederkofler, who has in the meantime received his second Michelin star, calls him back to St. Hubertus as sous chef for two and a half years. The next step in his career sees Borsetto alongside Andrea Berton, who from his experience with Gualtiero Marchesi inherited a concept of rigor in the kitchen that knows no hesitation or excuses, a kitchen understood as a mechanism of a Swiss watch that Berton from above of his multi-starred experience he transfers to Sabato.
And then again Verona, guess by whom? But with Giancarlo Perbellini who keeps him close to him, like him, his right arm, for four years, the years in which he wins his second Michelin star. “When the 2 stars arrived at Casa Perbellini – recalls Sabato – it was a great celebration. I had worked very hard in that kitchen and in that working group, which was now a family, so much so that when the award arrived I really felt part of that success".
Thus we arrive at the present day. In the meantime, an entrepreneur, a great Veronese real estate developer, Diego Zecchini has carried out a recovery operation of an important complex of buildings in the Veronese countryside: the restoration of a historic residence that belonged to one of the most important noble families in Italy Villa Maffei Medici Balis Crema in Romagnano, the oldest Venetian Villa in Valpantena, included in the Register of Regional Venetian Villas.
The court is made up of three units. The central body consists of the Villa once used as a noble residence, a second body once used as the caretaker's house and finally the stable, the barchessa. The whole complex is immersed in a large Brolo, garden-vegetable-orchard and neighboring land, cultivated with vineyards and olive groves.
The restoration includes a series of lodgings for the Resort, a library, with the historical archive of the Medici family, large frescoed halls with 500th century paintings for events that can accommodate up to 150 people, a Spa. And then of course a restaurant, an innovative structure with a glass window that overlooks the overlooking garden and the valley and a pantry-shop and laboratory, for the sale and transformation of both garden products and local products selected by the restaurant staff.
A complex project that seems to incredibly anticipate what will be the future of the restaurant and hotel industry which promises to be a greater desire for socialisation, interpersonal relationships and, in terms of food, greater attention to naturalness, the environment and biodiversity. Given his young age, his high school experiences gained with great chefs, his culture of the territory and his memory, he is the right man to preside over this operation.
“Our project – explains Diego Zecchini – was born with the aim of satisfying the needs of consumers attentive to the genuineness and traceability of products, in a historical context that transpires culture and artistic heritage and thanks to the work of a chef and a young, cohesive team and with an important career in the restaurant world behind him. We aim to show the customer how tastier and more enjoyable it can be to consume his meal knowing all the "behind the scenes" of production and cooking.
In addition to this, we set ourselves the goal of stimulating socialization through a series of extra activities, such as workshops, in which the pleasure of food can be combined with that of knowledge, understood not as learning but as a proper cultural exchange, intended for a hungry public, not only for food, but also for culture and the desire to feel good, in a unique and genuine environment".
And so that there are no doubts about the relationship between food, territory and culture that underlies this original culinary-gastronomic project, the restaurant is called "La Cru", a name derived from an engraving of a four-armed cross found on a stone, centuries old, near the old house.
From historical research carried out in the archives of the archbishop's residence we have come to the news of a walkway of pilgrims who from "Caravaca de la Cruz" a town in Murcia, where a relic of the Cross set in a four-armed cross is kept, passed parallel to the Camino of Santiago and then proceed to Rome and the Holy Land. Almost a predestination of the concept of hospitality which is the basis of the restaurant.
“One of the fundamental values of La Cru – explains Chef Giacomo Pouch – is transparency. Of the service and food offered, of the raw materials, which come from our garden, from our trees and from a guaranteed supply chain of artisans that we have discovered and selected on site. A territory, the one in which we find ourselves, which has extraordinary and largely still little known products. The other key element is the team, united by a passion for a constant search for flavors and stories”. A team that sees Alberto Andretta and Nicola Bertuzzi at his side.
Under the banner of this transparency, restaurant guests are invited to visit the biodynamic vegetable garden and orchard that are part of the structure, to observe the research and recovery work of traditional products, even those that are not commercially available. And with this in mind, the wine and oil productions are also managed, managed directly by the property in the adjacent land.
And after the visit there is the approach to a cuisine, that of Sabato, which can be defined in three terms: territorial, concrete, refined. Like the Mioline (pastina in Venetian broth) and Lumachine, the dish of children and of memory, for those who are from these parts, in this case the childhood memory of the young Giacomo with his grandmother Norina, Tagliatelle di Riso, crayfish , vine leaves pesto and pomace powder "one of the dishes - the chef is keen to underline - that best represent me".
But we should also mention the Sturgeon, toasted corn cream, radish, oyster leaf, caviar and acidulated vinaigrette, obtained from sturgeon bones or again, the Memory of snow, a Lessinia ricotta mousse, lemon Chantilly, almond biscuit and lemon, goat yoghurt ice cream and a crunchy isomalt wafer, which recalls, perfectly outlined, the shape of a snowflake, a memory of when he worked in San Cassiano and went to eat at Maso Runch.
A territory evoked, as can be seen and appreciated in deeds, in its ancient meanings and not in words, but a territory that rises to excellence because it reverberates the experiences of Norbert Niederkofler, Andrea Berton, Giancarlo Perbellini, who it has been able to metabolize and rework it in a form all of its own, of high caliber.
