“M'arrecorde” is the constantly recurring expression in his speech. A mantra that makes him retrace the emotions of the progressive discovery of the world of cooking, the flavors of his land, the humanity of his people of Capitanata, a sort of film shot backwards that Nicola Russo, a smiling, enthusiastic and pleasantly talkative 42 years old from Foggia, he often broadcasts in his life and in his work. It would be better to say that that film, in his restaurant, is seen almost daily, in a continuous reference to its origins, to the roads travelled, to the memory of family traditions and of his land.
His "M'arrecorde" also embraces the enormous pleasure felt as a child in cooking something in the kitchen under the benevolent gaze of grandmother Maria and her mother: "Our house had a large garden and, after the rain, my grandmother and I used to go on the wet lawn to collect “i caccavùne” (snails) punctually come out of their shelters, just to be placed in a saucepan by my grandmother who, after having purged them, would cook them in the Foggia style: plain or with cherry tomatoes, garlic and onion. All of this always under my gaze, eager to steal culinary secrets”.
Memories that also involve the distant and fascinating world of the great-grandmothers, Raffieluccia and Nannina in Siponto. Above all grandmother Nannina, called "Trippara", "because her husband and my father brought her guts and tripe which, perhaps cooked, but also raw, she sold to neighbors and farmers returning from the countryside".
His "M'arrecorde" takes him back to the times when on Sundays the whole family gathered together in the ritual of cooking, when the cannelloni were prepared and he was responsible for filling them with the stuffing, which he did with great commitment.
His "M'arrecorde" embraces school days when he attended the afternoon shift and when he came home and mum wasn't there because she was at work and "it was nice to prepare dinner by myself, even if it were a fried egg or pasta and peas with bacon”.
The memory of those stolen meatballs
Or when, now a grown-up after the "revelry" on Saturday evening, he returned home at night, his nostrils were "dominated" "by the inebriating scent of the Sunday ragù, which my mother, for reasons of mere practicality, had been preparing since Saturday evening . Like a hunting dog, with my eyes closed for pleasure and, following the trail of the perfume, I reached the kitchen. And here the sacred rite of every Saturday night was repeated: immerse a spoon in the sauce, extract it filled with a delicious meatball which greedily, almost in a magical atmosphere, I ate accompanied by a slice of bread”.
His "M'arrecorde" also embraces his best friends Paolo and Francesco with whom he took his first steps in working life, a series of commercial initiatives among the most disparate and disconnected such as a telephone shop or a supermarket in Foggia a mare” near Zapponeta they called "The Fishing Fox" in which, in addition to a delicatessen or fruit and vegetable department, there was also a butcher's shop, a tribute to his grandfather who had one in the city which was very busy. Since then, evidently, food timidly began to be a constant in its evolution.
“In fact – he realizes today – that experience gave me the opportunity to learn about the world of food and the principle of qualitative selection of food produced, perhaps, at zero km. For example, I realized that Zapponeta, thanks to the chemical-physical characteristics of its sandy soils, was famous for the production of excellent products such as potatoes, onions and carrots".
And this passion became so pulsating over time that the supermarket soon turned into a bar-restaurant-pizzeria. The first step was taken, his business had now taken on the typical characteristics of catering. But they were uncertain first steps because shortly thereafter Nicola and his friends opened a point of contact with the public in the telephony sector in Giannone, "Wind World”which became the first franchise with a bar attached – here we go again with the passion of food – where you could have breakfast, refreshments and similar things.
Fortunately for the many admirers of his restaurant today which attracts customers from all over the Capitanata, relations with Wind were interrupted and from the ashes of the remaining bar the project of a restaurant began to materialize where he could concentrate all his great passion for cooking like the memories of cooking above all his love for the area and its products.
Above the bar was a vacant room. Nicola, left alone, after his friends had taken other paths, thought well of climbing those few steps and building a restaurant entirely of his own there, which he minimally called"'O Prìme Piane”, “a name which, although not very imaginative – he admits – is certainly intriguing and direct, immediate and spontaneous like when the old commoners, at first glance, gave names or nicknames to streets, localities, people”.
The pleasure of discovering typical foods in local markets
At first the restaurant was managed by an experienced cook. Nicola responsibly reserved for himself the role of manager and coordinator. But how long can such a choice last with someone like Nicola driven by an imperious desire to put himself to the test and professionally retrace the memory of his family, his ancestors? Very little, the trouble by now agitated him.
“During the holidays with friends, returning at five in the morning after having spent a good night, I didn't go to bed, but from six to nine I visited the local markets in search of typical foods. Only after having satisfied this need, did I go to sleep with the others”.
Is there anything else to add to understand nicola-russo-thought?
A thought that permeates, spreads, conquers the entire space of his restaurant "Al Primopiano" in the very central Via Pietro Scrocco. Where above all for the meats that are the hallmark of this place, his family tree takes shape, that of his father, Sabatino, butcher, of his grandfather Nicola butcher, of his great-grandfather Sabatino butcher. Nicola has not followed in the footsteps of his ancestors but it is certain that that imprinting carries it in large letters in his DNA, as well as the secrets and techniques of his mother, grandmother, aunts and their customs. And even for fish, if the memory of the family does not rule, what passes through the Gulf of Manfredonia rules with particular attention to the poor species of the past to be re-evaluated today such as pomfret or flag fish.
You enter a restaurant but it's like reading an ancient book
Entering the First Floor is like leaf through the pages of a captivating historical novel of the Capitanata, that of the terraced farmers of the great landownership whose cuisine, linked to rituals and times marked by the seasonality of foods, was made up of the expedients of the dispossessed, or rather of the only poor opportunities offered by the earth, the wild herbs gathered in the fields, the transhumance cheeses with which one exchanged the grain that survived the burning of the stubble, that burnt grain today appreciated by gourmets, which at the time was the sign of a humanity that lived on the scraps of the masters, on the fifth quarters of the meat, the entrails, the only delicacy they could actually afford of meats.
Simple, natural, but hearty dishes. Which took on the flavor of the fragrances of the earth's seasonality. And virtually in his restaurant it is also a meeting at the table with his grandparents, his aunts, his great-grandparents to taste and experience the flavors of a lost time.
This whole world is transformed on the first floor in a kitchen of remembrance, treated with love and devotion. Nicola Russo with a happy hand elaborates the consistent flavors of the past, bringing them to new lightness, to new gastronomic significance. An alchemy made possible by falling in love with his land, the Daunia, and with the "terrace cuisine" linked to the products of the earth and rivers, woods and lakes, pastures and marshes, which here takes on extremely convincing meanings .
"Cooking - he says - is an act of love towards oneself and towards others: forget, for a moment, the outside world and the stress of everyday life, and regain possession of time, one's abilities, the use of hands, knowing recognize and use one's senses, recovering the physical, bodily dimension that is proper to cooking".
And it must be said that this love can be found entirely in his dishes.
