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I N I TA LY 2 0 17 September 5th–11th

Winning the Fight for Ch a rities i n I t a ly w i t h A n d r e a B o c e l l i Our Very Special Stars for Celebrity Fight Night in Italy 2017 Include: 2Cellos • Malika Ayane • Andrea Bocelli • Chris Botti • Brooks & Dunn José Carreras • Kristin Chenoweth • David Foster • Aida Garfullina Andrea Griminelli • Sumi Jo • Elton John • Reba McEntire Brian McKnight • Anastasiya Petryshak • Smokey Robinson • The Band Perry Steven Tyler • Joe Walsh • Zara • Renato Zero Celebrity Fight Night in Italy benefits the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center.

Winning the Fight for Charities Celebrity Fight Night Foundation, Inc. 2111 East Highland Avenue, Suite 135, Phoenix, Arizona 85016 602-956-1121

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Jimmy Walker, President and CEO | Sean Currie, Executive Director

FROM THE EDITOR “Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.”

This issue we bring you an amazing front cover with the blessing of Giorgio Armani’s PR team, who went above and beyond to assist us, and an article about the man himself, his life and his empire. A designer of clothing that is simple, classic and accessible, Armani is an icon and a man of pure quality who continues to stand at the helm of his brand. He sees his work as art and I have no doubt that this has added to his success as a leader in his industry. Armani is our cover star, turn to page 10 for more on this genius. So this issue is extra exciting for me as we had the pleasure to work in collaboration with Il Palato Italiano – a marvellous brand that is taking the gastronomy world by storm. Il Palato Italiano is a business that has its consumers in mind, it was launched some years ago thanks to Nadia and Luciano Bertani who saw a gap in the market for a bespoke company that could bring Italy to anywhere in the world in terms of flavours, events and gastronomy. On the board are Francesca Bertani, Marketing Manager, Executive Chef Filippo Sinsigalli the brilliant creator of cuisine and heads up the culinary section and Tiziana Sinsigalli who understands the beauty of the wines with such elegance. Read their interviews from page 30. To round this very special issue off I have included articles dedicated to luxury, lifestyle, art, culture, travel, and fine dining – including a line-up of our favourite member’s clubs. I hope you love reading it as much as I did preparing it. Wishing you all the very best. DINA ALETRAS, EDITOR IN CHIEF

Cover image Giorgio Armani © Julian Broad

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Filippo Sinisgalli

Executive Chef Il Palato Italiano

Italy Out of Italy Your Private Food Experience Wherever you are in the world, Il Palato Italiano can bring an authentic Italian culinary experience to your home. Our Executive Chefs with dedicated Kitchen Brigade and Sommeliers will fly from Italy to have you enjoy a unique experience, created just for you.

Il Palato Italiano, main sponsor of the Gala Dinner on Sep 9th in Rome, is proud and honored to support Celebrity Fight Night, the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center on their quest to deliver happiness to those in need.

Our food and wine culture is rich in stories of craftspeople, manufacturers and refiners: we at Il Palato Italiano only seek products made with dedication and precision to take you through a journey of taste. Italy Out of Italy is not only a pleasure for the mouth, but also for heart and mind. Get ready to be amazed.

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CONTENTS PLATINUM EDITION – IN COLLABORATION WITH IL PALATO ITALIANO

Giorgio Armani

Renato Missaglia

A suitable man

The Master of Modern Art

Norman Foster

Prince Rainier of Monaco

Lord of Thames Bank

The Builder Prince

Andreas Panayiotou

Franck Giovannini

The Grounded Billionaire

3 very Swiss Michelin Stars

H EDITION GLOBAL • H EDITION GLOBAL • H EDITION GLOBAL • H EDITION GLOBAL • H EDITION GLOBAL

“ To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail” Giorgio Armani

S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino 11 years of Dreams

102

Global News by Roberto Pucciano CEO of anchoragegroup.org

H E DG LOI T ION BAL Editor in Chief Dina Aletras PR & Communications Director Massimo Basile Sapori & Dining Dany Stauffacher Design Team Kevin Dodd Michael Cushing Special thanks to: Armani Silos Museum • Armani PR • Andrea Bocelli Foundation • Andreas Panayiotou – The Ability Group • Antonio Mazzetti • Anchorage Advising • Anchorage Group • Celebrity Fight Night • Euro Toques Italia • Foster & Partners • Il Palato Italiano • Road To Dubai Expo 2020 • Renato Missaglia • Trois Ville • The Falcon Cup - Ras Al Khaimah • Andy Warhol VIP Society • Patrimony 1873 • S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino• Carlo Germini Villagio Ploner • AV Buyer • Euro Toques • Chateau Cos d’Estournel • Top Marques Monaco • Bentley & Skinner • Laurent Perrier • Franck Giovannini • Gaggan Anand • Enrico Derflingher • Dimitri Augenblick • Network PR London Writers & Contributors: Roberto Pucciano • Dany Stauffacher • Massimo Basile • Marco Gagliati • Carlotta Girola • Alessandra Gesuelli • Danielle Betts • Joanne Walker • Natalie Read • Matt Harris • Gareth Herincx • Suzanna Chambers • Katy Harris • Eline Maager • Michi Prendin • Rachel Arnold •

Antonio Mazzetti Where religious art is not a Crime

Rolls Royce Its a New Dawn

Gaggan Anand Winner of the ‘Worlds 50 best’ Asia 2017

100

Out of town Head out of the City & Relax

Château Cos d’Estournel Spending time in Bordeaux with Dimitri Augenblick

106

The Science of Sleep Why do we need it?

110

Immortality Would you live forever?

For editorial and advertising enquiries please email dina@fusionmediagroup.com Front cover photo: Giorgio Armani © Julian Broad Designed by Typetechnique, London @HEditionMag

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Synchronise the right team at a moment’s notice anywhere in the world. We know that each business scenario is unique, so we apply a range of techniques and specialisms to your situation, creating a bespoke service designed to address your specific business needs. The Group is uniquely placed in the global market; with a range of expertise, geographical spread and with local knowledge. REORGANISATION: FOR BUSINESS GROWTH A growing profitable business is a more valuable one. Our team is multi-disciplinary and specialists in business and operational reorganisation, and we know the difference it can make to profit, business growth and, ultimately, the value of your business. We can manage all your business requirements, so whether you need to increase recurring revenue and long term contracts, or diversify your client base, we’ll ensure your business becomes more efficient and effective. LEGAL SERVICES: FOR CONFIDENCE, GLOBALLY Our Clients are located across the globe, so we have built a global network to support their international legal strategies. We specialise in Merge and Acquisition, Capital Markets, Competition, Finance, Tax, Regulatory Work, Disputes, Restructuring and Insolvency, Employment, Real Estate and Intellectual Property. CORPORATE SERVICES: FOR EFFICIENCY Whether you are an established business or about to start, we will support your business needs effortlessly through our global network. From strategic accounting and administrative support, to international business operation in multiple jurisdictions, we have the expertise and presence to support and guide your business to success. FUND ARRANGER & SECURITISATION: FOR STRENGTH When money’s tight, it can be difficult to realise your assets. We specialise in raising finance through the securitisation of your assets, improving your cash flow and balance sheet information. Our service is broadly divided into three key areas: Securitisation, Finance raising through bond or coupon-based credit, and Real Estate.

Scegli la squadra giusta, quando vuoi, dove vuoi. Siamo consapevoli che ciascun contesto imprenditoriale è unico nel suo genere. Per questo motivo adattiamo la nostra offerta di competenze tecniche e specialistiche alla vostra situazione, dando vita a un servizio su misura pensato per soddisfare le vostre specifiche esigenze aziendali. Grazie ad una vasta gamma di competenze geograficamente distribuite su scala globale e ad una capillarità che ne garantisce la presenza locale, il Gruppo vanta un posizionamento unico sul mercato. RIORGANIZZAZIONE: PER LA CRESCITA DEL VOSTRO BUSINESS Redditività e crescita sono i principali driver di valore di un business. Il nostro team di esperti è specializzato in strategia d’impresa, ristrutturazione dell’indebitamento e riorganizzazione operativa. Questi elementi sono determinanti nella massimizzazione degli utili, della crescita del business e, conseguentemente, del suo valore. Siamo in grado di gestire tutte le esigenze del vostro business. Ci assicuriamo che la vostra impresa sia quanto più efficace ed efficiente possibile nel perseguire i propri obiettivi di incremento dei ricavi, stipula di nuovi contratti e diversificazione e ampliamento della base clienti. SERVIZI LEGALI: PER LA PROTEZIONE A LIVELLO GLOBALE L’esigenza di assistere clienti di tutto il mondo ci ha spinti a costruire un network globale per dare il massimo sostegno alle loro strategie legali internazionali. Siamo specializzati in operazioni di fusione e acquisizione, accesso al mercato dei capitali, gare competitive, finanza aziendale e dei mercati, arbitrati, ristrutturazione dell’indebitamento, superamento dello stato di crisi e di insolvenza, diritto del lavoro, proprietà immobiliari e proprietà intellettuale. SERVIZI AZIENDALI: PER L’EFFICIENZA Che il vostro business sia già avviato o in fase di lancio, noi ci dedicheremo alla soddisfazione delle vostre esigenze imprenditoriali sfruttando appieno le potenzialità del nostro network globale. Sostenere e guidare la vostra impresa verso il successo sarà più semplice con le nostre competenze al vostro servizio. Potrete contare sulla nostra presenza negli ambiti di contabilità strategica, supporto amministrativo, operazioni commerciali internazionali in più giurisdizioni e molto altro. ACCORDI FINANZIARI & CARTOLARIZZAZIONE: PER IL RAFFORZAMENTO Quando le risorse finanziare scarseggiano è difficile sviluppare la propria attività. Per questo ci siamo specializzati nell’incremento delle fonti finanziarie tramite la cartolarizzazione di asset, con immediato beneficio sui flussi di cassa e sulla struttura patrimoniale. Il nostro servizio si suddivide in tre aree principali: Cartolarizzazione. Reperimento di risorse finanziare tramite emissioni obbligazionarie. Proprietà immobiliari.

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Courtesy Giorgio Armani

GIorGIo ArmAnI A Suitable Man

t’s almost impossible to imagine fashion design without picturing the classic lines and subtle colours of an Armani suit. Like Coco Chanel before him, Giorgio Armani transformed the world of tailoring and fashion permanently. Yet, incredibly, his innate understanding of the human body, which meant he knew how to dress people, almost led to a career in medicine and he recently said if he was to live his life again, he would use his creative energy to work in films. Fortunately, his career didn’t take either direction and his has been a life lived in fashion design, where he has single handedly created one of the world’s most iconic brandings and become, despite his disavowal of the term, an icon in his own right. He was born in 1934, in the northern Italian town of Piacenza. He has described his childhood as “tough” explaining to Harper’s Bazaar that his family was poor and that he felt the hardships of World War II keenly – some of his friends were killed during the Allied Bombings. It was at this time, escaping to the cinema in Milan, that he discovered a love of Hollywood movies, and was enchanted by the style of its stars. As a boy, he was also fascinated by anatomy – he described to The Guardian how he used to make dolls out of mud “with a coffee bean inside.” This fascination led to two years studying medicine and spending his time on military service as a medical assistant. Following his military service, he found a job at a Milan department store, where he

deepened his design and fashion knowledge by working first as a window display designer and then as a buyer in the men’s fashion department. This led to a job as a designer at Nino Cerutti, where he worked for six years, and to freelance design work for several other companies (at one point he was contributing designs to up to ten manufacturers at one time). In the late 1960s, he met Sergio Galeotti, an architectural draftsman, this marked the beginning of a personal and professional relationship that lasted until Galeotti’s death in 1985. It was Galeotti who persuaded Armani to open his own design office in Milan in 1973. Here his love of understated glamour combined with his understanding of the human form, and he worked with several fashion houses – creating an awareness of his presence in the international press as well as helping him to develop what would become his distinctive style. As a result, just two years later, he founded Giorgio Armani S.p.A, and launched his iconic Deconstructed Jacket, described by Elle magazine as a turning point in the fashion industry. The jacket transformed the men’s suit from a highly-tailored item into an androgynous, unlined, graceful item which was worn by both men and women. Armani went on to create flowing, wearable clothes that men and women could move comfortably in but that still conveyed a sense of understated elegance and glamour. His European success was soon followed by fame in the USA as his suits were worn in the TV Series Miami Vice and in

“In many ways Armani created red carpet fashion as we know it – to date he has dressed over 60 actresses for the Oscars.”

FASHION

films such as American Gigolo and The Untouchables. In many ways, he created red carpet fashion as we know it – to date he has dressed over 60 actresses for the Oscars. His essential style has changed little over the years, which has provoked criticism from some elements of the fashion industry, who feel that this undermines what they feel fashion design ‘should’ be – artistic and ever changing, rather than the commercial and popular work Armani produces. However, his elegantly draped dresses, slouchy trousers and longline jackets in neutral colours have become fashion staples for a generation of working women. He is also one of the first designers to make designer fashion accessible to men, as high profile actors such as Richard Gere, famous sportsmen like David Beckham and City lawyers and bankers the world over show. Armani has become the designer of choice for men who just a few decades ago would have had little or no interest in who had designed their clothing. This focus on one classic style, rather than on following trends means he’s been described by Times journalist John Aldridge as “the anti designer designer” and it seems Armani himself agrees, saying “I design for the public, not the fashion industry.”

“Armani remains the founder, the chief executive and the sole shareholder of his $3.2billion company.”

He is also unique among today’s designers in that he still owns 100% of his company. Many of his competitors, such as Fendi, Gucci and Bulgari, have been bought by luxury goods conglomerates, but Armani remains the founder, the chief executive and the sole shareholder of his $3.2billion company. Over the years, he has expanded into sportswear, fragrances, make-up and skincare, spectacles and, most recently, into the hotel business. He owns two hotels, one in Milan and one situated across 39 floors of the spectacular Burj Kalifa skyscraper in Dubai. In many ways Armani himself, with his steel blue eyes, golden tan and white hair, is as much of a brand as his clothes are. This may account for the fact that, as Alridge points out, since the death of Pavarotti, he is possibly the most famous living Italian in the world. There is even a museum – the Armani/Silos in Milan – which is dedicated to his work. Yet, he remains intensely © Larry Fink

Far left top: Armani Silos – Exoticism 4. Far left below: Armani Silos. Top: The Beats and The Vanities – Larry Fink 5. Left: Giorgio Armani. Next page: Armani Silos – Entrance 2.

“Now in his 80s, Armani shows no signs of slowing down or retiring.”

• The Armani/Silos exhibition space, situated in the heart of Milan, opened in 2015 and is dedicated to forty years of Armani design – allowing a glimpse into the mind of the man who transformed the fashion world. • Going against the trend for a more elaborate architectural aesthetic, Armani’s renovation of the building reflects his desire to achieve rational form – a search for simplicity, a preference for regular geometric shapes and a desire for uniformity – and has produced a sober yet monumental building. • This breath-taking 4,500 metre, four level, space is housed in a renovated granary which was originally built for storing cereals. Armani explained: ‘I decided to call it Silos because this building used

private and rarely talks about his personal life – the slight mystery of which perhaps only adds to his iconic status. Now in his 80s, Armani shows no signs of slowing down or retiring. He insisted to Alridge that he would continue working for as long as he was able, saying: “I don’t want to come out on the runway propped up on a stick. But I do want to go on until I don’t understand what is going on.” It seems there may still be more to come from Giorgio Armani.

to store food, which is, of course, essential for life. For me, just as much as food, clothes are also a part of life.’ • The museum showcases over 400 garments and 200 accessories from 1980 to the present. • The permanent exhibition, which covers three floors of the building, is divided up based upon a number of themes that have inspired and continue to inspire Armani’s work: Daywear, Exoticism and Colour Schemes. • The space includes not only exhibition areas but also a Digital Archive of sketches, technical drawings and material for prêt-à-porter Giorgio Armani and the couture Giorgio Armani Privé collections.

INTERVIEW

Norman Foster Lord Foster of Thames Bank

orman Foster was born in Manchester. After graduating from Manchester University School of Architecture and City Planning in 1961 he won a Henry Fellowship to Yale University, where he was a fellow of Jonathan Edwards College and gained a Master’s Degree in Architecture. In 1963 he co-founded Team 4 and in 1967 he established Foster Associates, now known as Foster + Partners. Founded in London over the past five decades the practice has been responsible for a strikingly wide range of work, from urban masterplans, public infrastructure, airports, civic and cultural buildings, offices and workplaces to private houses and furniture design. Norman Foster was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1983, the Gold Medal for the French Academy of Architecture in 1991 and the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1994. Also in 1994, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture in France. In 1999 he became the twenty-first Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate; and in 2002 he was elected to the German Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste and in Tokyo was awarded the Praemium Imperiale. He was granted a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 1990, and appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit in 1997. In 1999 he was honoured with a life peerage in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, taking the title Lord Foster of Thames Bank.

You’ve recently been working with Kulm and Kronenhof Hotels to restore the beautiful sports pavilion for Kulm St Moritz. How is that going?

The project has been completed, and opened officially on 27 January. The main aims of the project were fourfold – firstly, to restore and revitalise the existing 1905 Eispavilion which played host to the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics by bringing the building back to its original state with the ice skating rink as the focus. Secondly, to expand the historic building’s capacity by introducing a new multipurpose pavilion with links to the historic structure providing a new platform for a wide variety of sporting and cultural activities throughout the year. To re-establish Kulm Park as a new social focus for St Moritz and provide a new destination for visitors and residents of the Engadine valley, reinstating the historic spirit of the place – a celebration of skating, sport and sun. And finally, to bring together historical memorabilia and incorporate it throughout as a museum of the place. © Nigel Young – Foster + Partners St. Moritz

Obviously restoring a building differs from original design work but do these sorts of projects have anything in common?

We have often worked with historic structures, giving new life to them through contemporary additions. The true challenge of renewal is to continue the historic tradition of change, but with a sensitivity to the spirit of the past. We wanted to marry the old and the new such that the existing building and the new pavilions work together to form a new social focus. While refurbishing the existing building, we ensured that the new additions, though contemporary in nature, continue the same historic essence of the building. We also retained and restored many existing elements in the building such as the kiosks, lockers and balustrades, central staircase along with the glazed windows. The structural timber elements – roof, beams, and columns – were also sensitively redesigned. The end result is true to the 1905 original.

The new pavilions – also made from timber – define the urban edge of the site and bring back life to the pedestrian routes. The timber fence is designed to preserve transparency from the road through to the valley. You’re known as one of the most prolific architects of your generation. Where did your love of building and design come from?

Working in Manchester when I was younger, I spent every spare minute wandering around buildings in the city. I wasn’t consciously thinking, ‘one day I am going to be an architect, therefore I should be doing this’. I was just drawn to buildings for the aesthetic experience. Some buildings and parts of that city were particularly inspirational – the cast iron tradition of Barton Arcade, the Victorian architecture of Manchester Town Hall or the modernist Daily Express building, for example. There is another more modest building which changed my life forever. This was my local lending library, built

in 1906, in one of Manchester’s working class suburbs. There, as a youth, I discovered books by Le Corbusier and the work of other modern architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright. Without that building I would never have gone to university – never have become an architect. You’ve designed everything from buildings so iconic that they have literally changed the skylines of the world forever to projects for the charity Article 25 (which designs and constructs safe, sustainable buildings in some of the most inhospitable regions of the world). How do you approach these projects? What’s your thought process?

Over the past five decades, I have had the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of projects, and the process always starts with research and exploration – for example, the things that can be measured like the site, the climate, and the needs that generate demand for a building. Then there are influences that are less tangible and more difficult to quantify – issues of culture and tradition. The process is non-linear and often involves evaluating options. Being a good listener is always important – curiosity is also critical to the process and goes down to the smallest detail of how the building is made. Your work on 30 St Mary Axe (the gherkin) saw the beginning of huge changes to London’s skyline. Do you think this marked a change in how people received and understood architecture?

I am not sure about the specific link to the building, a more enlightened debate on architecture is always a good thing. Over the past few years, the built environment has come to the fore in popular media, which signals that people are becoming more aware about the spaces that surround them. This is a positive development that must be encouraged. 20

The Gherkin, London

Much of your work has been concerned with adopting an environmentally sensitive approach to building design. What do you think the future holds for building design from an environmental perspective?

and infrastructure, harvest energy rather than endless consumption. I believe we can do this, while at the same time improve our quality of life.

Buildings that emerge as a response to their environmental context also tend to have better performance standards, allowing users a more pleasant experience. Moreover, the last decades have witnessed key shifts in public attitudes to ecology and energy consumption, and sustainable infrastructure developments like these support and encourage heightened awareness on issues of sustainability. Our projects have, since the beginning of my first practice in 1967, always anticipated these trends, pioneering sustainable design solutions. Sustainability is not a matter of fashion, but of survival affecting architecture at every level, be it an airport or a small apartment. Sustainability requires us to think holistically. The location and function of a building; its flexibility and life-span; its orientation, its form and structure; its heating and ventilation systems, and the materials used, all impact upon the amount of energy required to build, run and maintain it, and the travel to and from it. Architects cannot solve all the world’s ecological problems, but we can design buildings to run at a fraction of current energy levels and we can influence transport patterns through urban planning and infrastructure. We can, through buildings

You’ve received so many honours and awards for your work. Is there any award that you are particularly proud of?

Each and every award is special and I am delighted to receive public recognition on behalf of the work of our team. However, awards and honours have never been a primary motivation – we do what we do as architects because we are motivated to do our best, and we believe that our surroundings directly influence the quality of our lives. Of all the buildings you’ve worked on, do you have a favourite? Or one that you feel was particularly important?

Different works for different reasons. Although, choosing a favourite building is like asking me to choose between my children – impossible! I am always looking forward towards the next challenge. What would you like your architectural legacy to be?

I would like to leave that question to the historians! In 2012 you appeared on Sir Peter Blake’s new version of the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. How does it feel to be a cultural icon?

It never crossed my mind – just one of many other images.

BUSINESS

The

grounded billionaire

business sells a residential empire at close to its peak price, raising a £1 billion cash windfall just before the banking crisis and credit drought. Instinct, luck or good timing? Andreas Panayiotou, founder, Chairman and CEO of The Ability Group, made a major strategic call in 2006/07 to sell the approximately 7,000 residential units he had built up, mostly in London. People who call this lucky are missing the point. It would still have been the right decision even if the credit crisis hadn’t hit. There are many attributes to this lucky general, who was born to a family of Greek Cypriot immigrants in the east end of London in the 1960s. Confidence, astute reading of markets, and the ability to think strategically are the most obvious; but he is subtly different in ways that may surprise, and management theory is now catching up with the merits of doing business the Panayiotou way. Outwardly, he is very much the alpha male as you meet him in his office on the sixth floor of the Hampton by Hilton hotel that his company built, next to Luton Airport. He is tall, trim, confident, with tailor-made suit and designer watch. Yet he talks to a remarkable degree about modesty and staying grounded. ‘My way of doing business is about relationships,’ he says. ‘It’s also about not becoming complacent. You keep your feet on the ground and accept that you’re always learning. Be humble in business. Listen more than you talk. With most successful people, the more money they make the more arrogant they become, whereas the more humble you are … the more people trust you, and want to deal with you; there are people who come back to you.’ He also emphasizes social responsibility, having set aside 30% of his residential developments to social

housing. He expresses concern over the plight of firsttime buyers and key workers with current high property prices. He stays resident in the UK: ‘I’m a believer that if the money has been made in this country your tax should be paid in this country.’ Though he warns that high wealth taxes are self-defeating, simply driving business out of the country. An approach of building businesses for the longterm, and of ‘my word is my bond’, has helped him form strategic partnerships with the hotel giant Hilton. ‘We hit it off from day one,’ he recalls. Much of the war chest that his sale eight years ago provided has enabled him to build a thriving and still-growing hotels business, including opening the first Waldorf Astoria in the UK. His business, which now employs around 3,000, is in the midst of a £200 million investment in new hotels throughout the UK. He thinks differently from others. This probably stems from undiagnosed dyslexia as a school-boy. ‘It gave me a different way of thinking – memorizing words rather than reading them …I can calculate deals in my head. I do a lot of thinking on my own – all the time. Maybe that’s why I’m more successful than some other people. Another major point that makes you different, that makes a business successful, is if you always look at what someone has left behind – something someone has not thought of.’ Panayiotou began his business in the mid-1990s, in London locations that were then unfashionable, but quite central London, such as Hoxton and parts of Islington. His first job was to help run his parents’ dry cleaning business. A turning point came in 1994 when he renovated an apartment above a shop and rented it out. He realized that some areas were underpriced and expanded his ‘build to let’ business. But as more individuals and businesses piled in to the sector, the margins became squeezed by 2006/07.

So, does he take time off? ‘People ask me that all the time,’ he replies, cheerfully and courteously. ‘If you find something you enjoy, it’s not work. If I’m at home and thinking about work, because I’m excited about what I’m doing, it doesn’t feel like work.’ He does set aside time for family, however. He has five children. His two grown-up sons work in the business, but he says he is ‘too young’ to think formally in terms of setting up the firm as a family business to pass on to the next generation. In the interim, the company is owned by a trust and all the families are beneficiaries.

©hfusionmediaggroup

‘I was the largest private landlord in the UK. I was looking at the returns on my investment – they had been 25%-plus during that period. Then the market started to understand residential; there was the buy-tolet phenomenon … yields went from 25% to about 3% over the period. To me, it became very straightforward. It wasn’t a good investment. ‘I found myself with a big war chest [in 2007]. Where do we go from there? The nearest asset class to residential is hotels. Looking at hotels you can add more value, as against residential where, once it’s built and let, you’re relying on indexation on rents – with hotels you can improve facilities – build a gym, conference facilities.’

“…yields went from 25% to about 3%… To me it became very straightforward. It wasn’t a good investment.”

“In a big business you are going to have big stuations every day. You have to make a decision.” Many aspects of the Andreas Panayiotou’s way of doing business are now becoming mainstream. Business schools report research findings showing the importance of strategic relationships, employee engagement, agile strategy-formation, and avoiding irrational exuberance. ‘No one is a genius,’ he observes. ‘In a big business you are going to have big situations every day. You have to make a decision. If on the Monday you have five issues unresolved, by Wednesday you have 15, by Friday you explode. As long as you are making more right decisions than wrong ones, you stay ahead.’ Despite staying grounded, it’s also good to enjoy success. The US investor and guru Warren Buffett famously opted to stay in his modest three-bedroomed house in Omaha after becoming wealthy. ‘That’s taking things a bit far!’ says Panayiotou, relaxing into a smile. He enjoys dressing well, having a large house for his family and a nice car or two. He just doesn’t let success go to his head. That space is reserved for smart thinking. By Philip Whiteley

His approach in the hotel sector is similar to residential. He builds and owns the buildings, arranging management contracts with operators such as Hilton. Another attribute where he has been ahead of his time in management thinking is the importance of the engagement of his staff. ‘If they believe that it’s also their business, because they also benefit, that is paramount. If you’re squeezing them, the project will suffer.’ Like many successful business people, Panayiotou does not over-estimate his ability to predict future events. The trick is stay agile and alert. His formidable mental agility means that his commercial brain doesn’t really have an ‘off’ switch. He is puzzled by the idea that he might take up a hobby like golf. 27

Art & Culture

www.hfusionmediagroup.com

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Anywhere I go, there is always an incredible crowd that follows me. In Rome, as I land at the airport, even the men kiss me. I love Rome.â&#x20AC;? Muhammad Ali

Il Palato Italiano Il Palato Italiano is an exclusive club of food lovers, a world engaged in the discovery, appreciation and disclosure of Italian culinary art through experiential and cultural activities, and a meticulous selection of excellent food and wine products. 30

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Italy, limitless flavours waiting to be discoveredâ&#x20AC;? 31

IL PALATO ITALIANO

Nadia, Luciano & Federica Bertani The Il Palato Italiano project is an exciting venture undertaken by the Bertani Family. It is committed to the promotion of traditional Italian cuisine and to the discovery and selection of top-notch and niche agri-food products. It provides a powerful way to deeply understand the natural wealth of authentic Italian flavours. Dina Aletras met with Nadia, Luciano & Federica Bertani to find out more about Il Palato Italiano.

his dedication to authenticity means that some products may not be available all year round. Nadia makes clear that, whilst at the heart of everything is fresh seasonal produce, this means that some delicacies days are naturally numbered, saying “how can we satisfy the demand? You want it but it’s out of season? We will book it for next year! The modern world has given us the unacceptable view that everything is at our disposal at any time but the truth is that food is a matter of important variables that should be respected; time, nature, heritage and love.” Launched in 2013, Il Palato Italiano is an exclusive club for food lovers and is the ideal food and beverage partner for any kind of event or experience based on Italian top quality products. The Company has been built to be flexible and has more than 20 business lines which can be used to create a tailor-made product for the client. It also has a fully controlled import chain that ensures everything is 100% Italian before it is sold in Europe and in the US (Miami is the location of their first American warehouse). The strict portfolio of Il Palato Italiano’s board of food scouters include exclusive businesses such as bespoke ham producers along with first class wineries. It’s an Italian company with a global perspective as Luciano explains: “Travelling around the world made us understand the urgent need of people to professionally use the products we were selecting, and that’s the reason why we set up a company, based in Italy, that can literally fly everywhere to bring Italy to your doorstep.” Il Palato Italiano’s headquarters in Bolzano (state capital of the green Region of Trentino – Alto Adige in Italy) offers tasting sessions, tele-cooking lessons for pro and hobby chefs (a new way to shorten distances between countries and easily teach with the help technology) and private F&B auction sales. The company also travels the world, offering planned menus for events and large

parties on request, providing what Federica Bertani, Marketing Manager, describes as one of their most requested services: “we not only select the menus and all the small details of the mise-en-place but we also dedicate attention to every personal detail.” She shares Nadia and Luciano’s passion for the company’s mission: “You have to breathe Italy, taste it and feel it; our goal is not just serving good food, it is to make you experience Italy for one evening. In 2017 we travelled all around the States providing celebrities with fine dining in New York and Los Angeles by participating at the Emmy’s and Oscar’s Gift Lounges”

Congratulations at being at “Celebrity Fight Night”; how does it make you feel to be part of such a prestigious evening? It’s a big honour to be part of this important week. The Bocelli Family is fighting for a good cause and we want to help them entertain their charity with a prestigious dinner in one of the world’s most historical locations – Villa Madama, in Rome.

What are the plans for the business? Our goal is to become a recognised Italian food & beverage scouter and the finest service provider that can reach any part of the globe and offer a little bit of Italy to the most exclusive palates. We want to be a well-known brand which is synonymous with quality and excellence and a customised partner along with being a seller of both time and emotion because food, especially Italian food, is a matter of emotions. In 2018 we will also be launching our new project SCRINIUM – which will house 16,000 traditional Italian recipes on a database. www.Ilpalatoitaliano.it

Chef Sinisgalli with Federica Bertani

Nadia & Luciano Bertani

IL PALATO ITALIANO

Tiziana Sinisgalli Sommelier at Il Palato Italiano

What inspired you to become a sommelier? The roots of my choice go back to when I was 10 years old and I first tasted the nectar that, in Italy, we call “mosto d’uva” (pure concentrated grape juice). My brother Filippo, and I were living in Missanello, a small village in Basilicata known in the area for the traditional “peperone crusco” – a red pepper braid dried out in the sun and hung on every family balcony. The pyramid shapes used to shimmer in the red and gold shades of sunset above our heads. The grape harvest in mid-September/early October was a big joy for me, I must have driven both my grandmothers, Filomena and Rosa crazy because stealing the most important tool for the grape farmers was the top challenge of my day after school. They took it in their stride which now I remember with such fond memories. I was afraid of the big bees that would buzz around the juicy fruit, but nothing could stop me from running through the vineyard with my grandfather’s shining silver scissors, it was magic and I felt like the fairy of the harvest empowered to thank nature for the blossom of the grapevine. Of course, the idea of becoming a Sommelier came later when I was older and an insatiable curiosity aroused my thirst of knowledge, but it was during those grape harvests that I began to appreciate the flavours of my land.

Can you give us an example of an excellent wine and dish combination? In my humble opinion some of my colleagues tend to forget the real meaning of “matching” and the wine should not be considered the only king of the table. We have a great power and responsibility as the choice of wine can enhance or completely destroy the flavours of a meal. For me, serving the best wine means a Sommelier must understand and respect the food created by the Chef and use this knowledge to create a perfect dining situation. Personally, I have a passion 34

for Barolo and when I am at home I usually pair it with a good 30 month aged Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse. Sheer heaven!

Is there a person you especially admire within the wine industry? Yes! Without any doubt, it’s the Piedmont enologist Giacomo Tachis. He was a master in the field, who unfortunately died last year in February at the age of 82. He was known as the prince of the wine experts and he brought Italian wine to the world. He was also celebrated as the creator of the Sassicaia labelling. A genius!

How do you choose your wines for Il Palato Italiano? How many wines do you taste per day? I don’t think that you need to taste an astronomical number of wines to be a good Sommelier. Of course knowing the product’s technical details is essential, but for me there is a lot more to it than just becoming the most sophisticated analyst. I believe an important part of my job is to learn from our producers which selections are a kind of ‘bill of trust’ between their craftsmanship and Il Palato Italiano’s mission. Quality for me is assured by the essential bond created by family values and this tight connection is the last line of defence between top-notch wine and mass produced wine.

If you could enjoy a bottle of wine with a famous person who would you choose? The last book I read from a musician friend’s library, was “La Cuisine de Monsieur Momo” by Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec, so, rather than choosing a contemporary expert, I would opt for some big names of the past who are also known for their pleasure in eating. For example, if Mozart and Rossini weren’t remembered for their oeuvres they would be known for their passion for gastronomy.

Filippo Sinisgalli Executive Chef of Il Palato Italiano

xecutive Chef Filippo Sinisgalli is the pillar of the Il Palato Italiano project. His passion for cooking began with the discipline of the Italian Navy, which was then enriched by an articulated and comprehensive training at Gualtiero Marchesi’s school.

When & what inspired you to become a chef? Like my sister Tiziana, my inspiration comes from my childhood. My grandfather was “il cuoco degli sposalizi (a wedding caterer) like Monsieur François Vatel the famous French Maitre d’hotel. The big difference was that my grandfather’s clients were local villages and neighbours instead of the nobility of Versailles. What they had in common was the ability to create an occasion that could last days, not just hours, that were attended and enjoyed by a huge number of people. I was fascinated by this which ignited a passion for food.

What key things have you learnt over the years that you use daily? When training new staff what are your methods as a mentor? My 12 years of military experience tattooed the words “rigour” and “precision” on both sides of my heart. I was a petty officer in the Italian Navy and this taught me that there is always a single person in charge at the top of the pyramid. Cooking is exactly the same; you can share the vision, the strategies, and the goals, but you have to remember that there is just one person who has the last word. Don’t get me wrong; if you forget your team, you are a lonely man, but as the sole decision maker you also accept the risk and responsibilities linked to your choices. In my everyday life at Il Palato Italiano I want my colleagues to feel part of it – I don’t choose my staff solely on the basis of their technical skills, I want to see a sparkle in their eyes, the sign we share the

Cuttlefish, potatoes and tomato

same values and the same joy in what we are going to cook together. My team comprises mostly people under 35 because whilst their palate has still room to be educated, their thirst for new things is incomparable.

Il Palato Italiano is a forward-thinking business, cooking inspiring dishes for the most glamourous individuals, how do you plan your menus and maintain fresh concepts? An important part of our work at Il Palato Italiano is to understand our client’s requests. People’s desires, memories, past or future experiences, tales, and emotions are the true building blocks of my menus.

My job is not just to be an inventor, it is to be a good listener. Client interviews are the real tools that allow my creativity to run free because they provide me with most important touch points of the journey of flavours that I have to arrange. The other essential thing to do is to carefully learn about the original products we are going to use. I sometimes think that “Designing a new recipe” can be too technical. A great Chef must know when to bow to Mother Nature and, for me, finding transcendent raw material ‘heroes’, is at the heart of what I create.

Do you have any memorable food experiences that impacted on you as a child or as a young chef? One of the most special moments in my life as a Chef was fifteen years ago, when a Neapolitan Chef gave me his personal yeast base – in English you basically know it as a starter but in Italian it has a fantastic wording which is “lievito madre”. The base is like a child, with the same needs; it has to eat properly and grow flavours and aromas that can last decades. Making bread is an emotional ritual at Il Palato Italiano because you need time (at least 24 hours)

patience (feed it every two days) and love (because it prefers a gentle touch while you cover it with a non-whitened soft wheat Italian flour). My pastry chefs and I have baptised my child’s heirs as Attila and Carletto, they are still very young but full of potential.

Who cooks at home? My daughters Angelica (8) and Greta (5). They are my virgin palates, their taste is still pure and they are good judges when I want honest feedback.

You are one of the board members on the EuroToques Italia board, tell us how this came about?

“Making bread is an emotional ritual at Il Palato Italiano because you need time, patience and love”

Yes, I’m proud to be part of this international organisation and to have the chance to elaborate more about it on my travels. At every single event that we do as Il Palato Italiano, we underline that we are part of this big family whose goal is to create a team of professionals and chefs and protect the European food and wine culture. www.ilpalatoitaliano.it

If you could cook a dish for a historic figure who would it be? Oriana Fallaci! She’s one of my favourite writers and her last novel “Un cappello pieno di ciliegie” (A Hat Full of Cherries) posthumously published in 2008, was rich in food details. I once dreamed we were in a garden together and close to my arm there was a big nest with just one egg inside. I would start from there and let her choose the rest of the ingredients.

How do you relax after a service? No doubts on that; the last briefing with my crew with a good cup of coffee (no sugar and a shot of water, of course).

Renato Missaglia The Master of Modern Portraits

enato Missaglia uses new technologies to manipulate the science of art, yet remains himself. With use of colours that are so congenial to him, which have acquired a more intense poetry and an all but musical significance. Forests, waterfalls, moss, rocks, iridescent stretches of liquid, dense plant moods, where the sun passes with penetrating rays: this is the life of mysteriousness of nature. Missaglia is the director of his own film: he captures those faces from Cortina to Monte-Carlo and has now done the same in Turin, hung in homes of the beautiful, where portraits compose a unique cross-section of contemporary society. The figures glimpsed in these works are obsessive and passionate, their eyes, especially, launch messages. Undoubtedly, the artist introduces a new dimension in his art; this cycle of works becomes a personal diary of creatures captured in their habitual poses, in the history

of a society on show not just in a display case, for worldly use or for vanity, but as in a story of commitment, in which the aim of the artifice is to make a dream come true. The dream is the one that Missaglia has always had in mind: to penetrate into the individual’s soul, regardless of whether they are male or female, and to discover the palpitations, the vibrations and the sentiments that may sway there. Missaglia’s mission is to succeed in presenting a series of figures in which one can recognise oneself and with whom we can identify. The activities of Fondazione Domenico Bartolucci, dedicated to the Centenary of the Birth of Maestro Cardinal Bartolucci and the launch of the Opera “Brunellesco”, go on with great success. After the extraordinary and exclusive concert of Uto Ughi with Filarmonici di Roma in the New Wing of the Vatican Museums, in which Cardinals Tarcisio Bertone, Giuseppe Versaldi, Dominique Mamberti, Franc Rodé, 39

Walter Brandmuller, Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Bishops Arthur Roche, Giuseppe Sciacca, Fabio Fabene, Paolo De Nicolò, Franco Croci, Oscar Rizzato, many members of the Curia, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism Mrs. Dorina Bianchi, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Defence Mr. Domenico Rossi, the Vice Mayor of Florence Mrs. Cristina Giachi and many members of the Parliament and of the Senate were present, now it is again the turn of Florence. Next July 3 in the Cloister of Ognissanti, on initiative of the Rotary Club Amerigo Vespucci of Florence, and during an exclusive event, the portraits of Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci realized by the artist Renato Missaglia will be presented, in which the Secretary General of the Fondazione Mr. Alessandro Biciocchi will be present. The new portraits of Cardinal Bartolucci realized by Missaglia follow the will of the Fondazione to dedicate important cultural and artistic events to the illustrious musician. Portraits are a relevant part of Renato Missaglia’s art. He depicted Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, great historical people as Grace Kelly, some people from among the most important and famous ones in Italy and worldwide as President Obama, Sergio Marchionne,

Carlo Rubbia, Letizia Moratti, Emma Marcegaglia, Steve Jobs, Jane Fonda, Indira and Sonja Gandhi, Hillary Clinton. His works are characterized by strong colors and a contemporary – pop style, which identify the work of the artist from Brescia, famous in all the world. Renato Missaglia, in his two portraits, lets the image of Cardinal Bartolucci emerge among very strong colors, so typical for him, and shows an intense and deep point of view of Cardinal Bartolucci as a man and as a musician. The illustrious musician from Mugello, Director Emeritus of the Sistine Chapel Choir and member of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, composed the still unreleased Opera “Brunellesco” dedicated to the great Florentine architect, which will be product as a world premiere at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in December 2018, on the occasion of the Six Hundred Years of the famous contest for the building of the Dome in Santa Maria del Fiore. So it is always closer the collaboration between Rome and Florence, among Fondazione Domenico Bartolucci and public and private Institutions, which are working together for the best realization of the many projects and events in the name of music, culture and art. Richard White 41

ART & CULTURE

Antonio Mazzetti Art is not a religious crime

rtists work in a rush with the need to pass objective realities through the prism of a personal interpretation. This requires a reading of facts and events together with a combination of perceptive, emotional, rational and ideological information. The work of Antonio Mazzetti includes all these elements: he assimilates a large number of references linked to actuality while drawing from history the basis of a language that unites Neo-Classicism with the contemporary through a series of links in time and space. The foundation of Antonio Mazzetti’s culture is his passion for architecture, whether contemporary or ancient. The vestiges of ancient cities fascinate him as much as contemporary constructions and have provided him with an inexhaustible source of inspiration during his journeys around the world since the 1970s. For more than thirty years he has crisscrossed the globe in search of the raw ingredients of his work. Urban landscapes, archaeological sites, unusual architectural features…he returns from each trip with images that fuel his research and build up his stock of data, which he uses to define his style and manipulate and metamorphose signs. He absorbs the visual elements of these images, which he considers indispensable to creating his “recompositions” and that provide him with references relating to beauty, emotional attachment and obvious significance.

These objects, sculptures and architectural details that accumulate in our memory as testimony of our attachment to a visible truth become the sundry elements of the artist’s virtual compositions. Actuality is a major stimulus for his creation and when it entails physical attack on the vestiges of the most ancient civilizations in our history, Mazzetti becomes emotional and resentful, a turbulence that is reflected in his artwork. An enthusiast of archaeology, and an active witness to a past that fuels the collective imagination and acts as the yeast to his inspiration, Antonio Mazzetti is incapable of remaining impassive before the attacks made by jihadists on the heritage of humanity. Statements in the recent past announced the destruction of the remains of Nimrud and the sacking of priceless pre-Islamic sculptures in the north of Iraq. The violence unleashed on the vestiges of the Assyrian civilization, Nimrud, sculptures in the museum in Mossul, Niniveh, the Parthian city of Hatra and other ancient sites embody a fury but also the cold, premeditated intention of destroying the traces of ancestral cultures, our roots, and erasing their knowledge and memory. As occurred in 2001 in Afghanistan, when the Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed, the purpose of the violence is to annihilate the past. It is this hateful force of destruction that artists try to combat by creating new traces of the grandeur of the past, by building layers of a culture that wishes to be the foundation of the future. Obscurantism 43

threatens our ideals and must be checked. Antonio Mazzetti states clearly that “Art is not a religious crime”, and this proclamation is the instigator of the works in this exhibition. They are a cry from the heart and an expression of indignation. They take their stance against the terror sown by a pseudo-religious ideology desperate for power, which causes death all around and causes incommensurable human traumas. Boom reflects the moment of an explosion and phonetically reproduces the impact of an act of violence whose intention is to cause tragedy and ruin.

“Mr.Mazzetti is one of the artists that commit to the Il Palato Italiano mission and dedicate his genius to their goal to bring Italy around the world” Federica Bertani VP of Il Palato Italiano The purpose of the work is to raise awareness and provoke resistance. The injunction is clearer in Nettuno cacci lo spirito della guerra, a work in which Neptune, the god of the sea, rises with trident in hand to threaten the forces of destruction: the savagery of an enemy determined to weaken our certainties, and to increase our fears and incapacity to confront the realities by which we are faced is symbolized by a threatening animal. In Viaggio in Occidente, Mazzetti employs the triumphant personification of femininity, Hera, the goddess of marriage and fertility in Greek mythology. She is the ideal of beauty imbued with a dominant character. Facing this powerful symbol, Mazzetti has included the silhouette of a barque, alluding to the dramas experienced by those who set out on these frail craft to cross the sea to Europe, the land of hope and salvation. The work also includes a reference to an uncertain future. In the works called the Archaeology of the Future, Mazzetti treats current tragedies through the victims of terrorist attacks: fire and blood hide the vestiges of the past. He also wishes to emphasize the responsibility we all have to build a future that we will leave to future generations. Will we able to overcome the forces that set out to destroy our belief in our identity and freedom, and transmit the positive values of our culture? “I deliberately used dramatic images”, says Mazzetti, “because I think it important to remember tragic moments, without pointless rhetoric and without the veils that hide the reality of what really happened. The point is so that we remember that our freedom and identity are not goods that have been acquired and that there are so many whose intention it is to strip us of them, as fanatics of all kinds wish to do”. The works of Antonio Mazzetti attempt to perpetuate hope, for which they draw on nostalgia for the ancient world and the towers and skyscrapers of 44

ART & CULTURE

the hypermodern cities. His images telescope whole eras, constructing a contemporary urban mythology. His modus operandi is stratification and its message is striking. In this exhibition, he cites street art as a technique. He has adopted the style of a graphics designer in a virtual urban landscape, using the famous brick wall at Nimrud, the site on the banks of the Tigris, as a support for his wall frescoes. He thus reconstitutes a mythical city, symbolizing a civilization that lay at the origin of our culture, and transposes into a contemporary register the idea of a founding city that bears the stigmata of the contemporary world. The power of street art as a symbol seems evident as it is an art of the people, a form of free expression and declaration of social and artistic aspirations. It stands for a capacity to free ourselves of dogma and ideals of violence in a message whose immediacy is striking. It is in this pronouncement of pacifism that the new use Mazzetti makes of the ancient images constitutes an ideological support to his exhibition. The method he uses is very topical. Since 2000 he has “manipulated” his own photographs using a technique of digital photocollage in which the works are treated by assembling motifs, forms and compositions from original shots. The latter are used as a structuring element, a support or a palette for the development of the final image. The photograph becomes one of the materials that Mazzetti manipulates to create his masterful, suggestive compositions. This technique, related to collage through the juxtaposition of contradictory elements, is similar to the whacky “photomontages” made by the Dadaists who protested social issues. Photography became a central component of artistic works, a material. The photomonteur “constructed a new photographic unit with the help of given, selected photographs”, said

Moholy-Nagy. For him and Raoul Hausmann, as well as many others, photomontage renders visible what cannot be represented. The Surrealists, like Max Ernst, considered the technique a “masterly irruption into the irrational”. For Mazzetti, combining photography and the reinterpretation of planes and colours using a digital technique – and sometimes a brush – becomes almost pictorial, and gives additional depth to his compositions. The visual impact is strengthened with an ideological involvement that is both critical and appeals to reason: the style is completely personal. Antonio Mazzetti works in the Italian tradition of Neo-Classicism, mixing into his set of themes a reminder of the grandeur of past civilizations and a contemporaneousness symbolized by modern architecture in international cities. In the majesty of certain ancient figures and the dizzying perspectives that often give the sensation of an upward thrust, his works suggest a feeling of strength and power. This power emphasizes the extent to which he works on the architectural and sculptural aspects in his images that together form a contemporary repertoire shot through with a timeless quality. The photograph becomes the support for an intervention that exalts the subject within the free interpretation it is given. These compositions of colourful graphical work, a virtual world and reality in a universe that is both Pop and Classical fall within the evolution of the technique of collage: having asserted itself last century, today collage is finding new forms of expression through the application of new technologies. Pop culture embraces street art and a variety of new tendencies, which Antonio Mazzetti employs with talent and lucidity. By Dominique Stella

ART

ART & SCULPTURE H Edition showcases five top international artists to watch out for in 2017

Fernando Botero Fernando Botero Angulo was born 19 April 1932 a Columbian figurative artist and sculptor. His signature style, also known as “Boterismo”, depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume which can represent political criticism or humour, depending on the piece. He is considered the most recognized and quoted living artist from Latin America and his art can be found in highly visible places around the world, such as Park Avenue in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Self-titled “the most Colombian of Colombian artists” he came to national prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1958. Working most of the year in Paris, he has achieved international recognition for his paintings, drawings and sculpture, with exhibitions across the world. His art is collected by many major international museums, corporations, and private collectors. In 2012, he received the International Sculpture Centre’s Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.

Jeffrey Koons Jeffrey Koonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is an American artist known for his kitsch-like works, which ironically illustrate the American way of life and their tendency to consumerism He is also considered an icon of the neo-pop style and recognized among the richest artists in the world. During his career, Koonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s has expressed himself through the use of a wide range of techniques, such as sculpture, painting, installations and photography, and the use of various materials including pigments, plastic, inflatable, marble, Metals and porcelain. Jeff is generally referred to as the heir of Andy Warhol and pop artist continuer.

Maurizio Cattelan Maurizio Cattelan began his career in Forlì in the 1980s, working with some local artists. His exhibition debut was in 1991 at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, where it featured a stadium, a long soccer table with two sides of two players, in which

the whites were the reserves of Escena and the blacks of Senegalese workers who worked in Veneto. His works combine sculpture with performance, but often include “happening” events, provocative actions, theatrical pieces, He lives and works between Milan and New York.

Romero Britto Romero Britto is a Brazilian neo-pop artist, painter, sculptor and serigraph. His works feature elements of cubism, pop art and graffiti. Established in Miami, Britto worked on the road to Coconut Grove, becoming famous in the community. He has made portraits of Roger Federer, Dustin Hoffman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jordan, Gloria Estefan, AndrĂŠ Agassi, Eileen Guggenheim and many other characters in the business, politics and show. Britto has established himself on the international art scene. In 1989, he received from Absolut Vodka the task of drawing the bottle label for an advertising campaign. Immediately after the campaign for Absolut, Brittoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bizarre cartoon style was demanded by large corporations to create large murals, sculptures and product logos around the world. He recently received commissions from companies such as Disney and Evian.

Zeng Fanzhi Zeng Fanzhi is a contemporary Chinese artist based in Beijing. From the earliest stages of his career, Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings have been marked by their emotional directness, the artist’s intuitive psychological sense, and his carefully calibrated expressionistic technique. Moving to Beijing in the early 1990s, Zeng’s art displayed an immediate shift, responding to his immersion in a more superficial environment, his seminal ‘Mask’ series displaying the tensions between the artist’s dominant existential concerns and an ironic treatment of the pomposity and posturing inherent to his new contemporary urban life.

ANDY WARHOL VIP SOCIETY

POP ART IS COMING TO COSTA SMERALDA A big exhibition shows us the genius of this American artist

n event that shouldn’t be missed in the sum-

A “Vip Society” nourished by a delimited and un-

mer of 2017.

necessary worldliness which has been venting sin-

From the iconographic silk-screen printing of Ma-

ce the 70s in “etilist” places such as Studio 54 of

rilyn Monroe to Mick Jagger’s portrait, from the fa-

New York, the club of the moment frequented by

mous Campbell’s to Giorgio Armani’s portrait, from

cinema celebrities, artists, protagonists of the music

the series of portraits of drag queens Ladies and

world, fashion businessmen, many of which be-

Gentlemen to Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, to

came inspirational subjects for the portraits of the

the polaroids of celebrities such as Ron Wood, Sil-

famous and, at the same time, shy Andy Warhol.

vester Stallone, Grace Jones and the sought after

The exhibition can be visited every day from 6:30

self portraits.

p.m to 11:30 p.m.

The Conference Center of Porto Cervo will host

A catalog has been made for this prestigious art

this grand event dedicated to International art until

event and it’s also being sold at the ticket booth of

September the 17th. The protagonists will be the

Conference Center.

works of Andy Warhol, the absolute genius of the Pop Art movement. Organized by Fondazione Mazzoleni, the institution that promotes prestigious cultural events, and by Galleria E.F Arte di Milano established by Eugenio Falcioni, the exhibition Andy Warhol Vip Society will present an exhibit of approximately 200 works chosen with the purpose of making a concrete part of Andy Warhol’s life stand out. Entirely enclosed in his artworks and portraits are a realistic story of a status-symbol composed of friendships, knowledge and a much more.

Andy Warhol Porto Cervo

Mick Jagger, 1975, serigraphy, cm 110.5 x 73.7

The Genius of Andy Warhol Painter, sculptor, director, cinema producer, executive director of photography, actor, screenwriter and American editor. Warhol is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and main figure of the Pop Art movement.

Photo by Pierre Houles - Andy with Minox 1/9 - 1982

Marilyn, 1970, serigraphy, 55 x 56 cm - Marilyn This is not by me, 1970 c.a., serigraphy, 84.5 x 84.5 cm Marilyn This is not by me, 1970 c.a., serigraphy, 84.5 x 84.5 cm - Marilyn, 1967, serigraphy, 91.4 x 91.4 cm

op Art is an art movement which spread in the second half of

Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928 by an immigrant Czech

the 20th century; its name comes from the English word Popu-

family. He studied in an art school in his native city to become a

lar art. Precisely, it was born in Great Britain at the end of the 50s

designer. After finishing his studies, he moved to New York which

and it spread very soon in the USA.

would later on become his precious partner. The 50s are the de-

This art form gives importance to objects, cinema icons and the

cade in which the movement was founded in the USA. Warhol

consumer societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s language, by removing the tradition and by in-

became an important and sought after designer. In these years, he

troducing the elements of the cultural popular imaginary, like news

drew theatrical scenic design and illustrated books of important

and advertisements.

writers and poets.

Warhol In Drag, 1981, polaroid

Ladies and Gentlemen, 1975, serigraphy, 110.5 x 73.7 cm

n 1957, Andy Warhol Enterprises was founded, a company for the commercial business of his artwork, based on a repetition of pictures, extensi-

vely spread in mass medias, which reproduced objects of industrial usage. The 60s are fundamental for his artistic production, which had as the main point the consumer society and which he felt part of. A very important basic of his art were the advertisements. He himself defines his products as Pop, meaning Popular. The dearest pictures to him are Campbell’s Soup, Kellog’s, Coca Cola’s bottles, the picture of Hollywood icons, news pictures (incidents and suicides) and the ones of cartoons (Mickey Mouse, Superman..). Grace Jones, 1984, polaroid

Fish, 1983, serigraphy on canvas, 89 x 89 cm

Studio 54, 1978, serigraphy, 64,5 x 97 cm

e was criticized for his eccentricity and for his support to the American consumerism.

Regardless of that, his production had big success which brought him to expose all over the world: Osaka, London, Chicago, Paris and New York. His artworks and his publication kept going in the 70s and the 80s until his last work, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The last supperâ&#x20AC;?, which has been exposed in Milan. He died in 1987 in New York. He was the first one to discover in a daily object Andy Warhol Vip Society Exhibition, Porto Cervo 2017

communicative power and see art in them, without any interference of the artist if not a decontextualization. He is well-known for his emotionless language and his personal style. His past as commercial designer prepared him for this optical sensitivity of the picture. His art product became a commercial product, proposed to society as artwork. The mechanical production, with silk-screen printing technique, allows the production of serial works destined to the big public. Warhol was capable to realize and anticipate the changes of

Eugenio Falcioni & Mario Mazzoleni Organizers of the great public exhibition

contemporary society.

Prince Rainier III of MonAco

The Builder Prince

ccounts of Prince Rainier III of Monaco’s life are frequently dominated by stories of his marriage to Grace Kelly and the tangled love lives of their three children, all of which are coloured by references to the glamorous Mediterranean paradise over which he ruled. However, whilst all of these are inevitably a huge part of his story, the focus on them tends to overlook the fact that he has was a determined and astute politician and businessman who rescued Monaco’s post-war economy. He also freed the Principality from financial dependence upon its famous casino by establishing new industries, changed the face of Monaco itself with numerous building and land reclamation projects, confirmed its status as one of the world’s most sought after tourist destinations and, perhaps most importantly, secured both Monaco’s independence and its throne for future generations of his family. Born in 1923, he was a member of the Grimaldi family, a direct descendant of François Grimaldi, known as François the Cunning, who in 1297, gained ownership of Monaco by disguising himself as a monk to persuade the guards of the Monaco fortress to grant him shelter, then slitting their throats and seizing control of the castle. With only one or two interruptions the Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco ever since. Rainier’s claim to the throne was almost marred by illegitimacy – his mother Charlotte was conceived as a result of a relationship between his Grandfather, Prince Louis, and a laundrywoman’s daughter. Initially the Grimaldi family would have nothing to do with Charlotte, but when it became obvious that there would be no male heir to the throne, she was swiftly legitimised and married to a French aristocrat, who took the Grimaldi name. Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi was born three years later.

“Rainier’s life was dedicated to his beloved Principality and to ensuring its future security and prosperity.”

His early schooldays were unhappy. His parents had divorced not long after he was born and under the terms of the divorce his father retained control of his son’s education. He insisted, against the wishes of Prince Louis, that Rainier be sent to an English Prep school – Summerfields. Here he was teased and called ‘Fat Boy Monaco’. He was then sent onto Stowe, where he was so unhappy that, in an early indication of the determination he would show in later life, he ran away. His father and Grandfather continued to fight over where he should be educated and eventually the British High Court decreed that Prince Louis should have custody. After this he was sent to the exclusive, and rather more relaxed, Le Rosey school in Switzerland, and then went onto Montpellier University, graduating in 1943. 59

During the second world war, ruling over an occupied Monaco, Prince Louis supported the Vichy regime. However, Rainier, who remained in Montpellier, disagreed with his Grandfather and sympathised with the Free French joining the French army in 1944. He would later receive a Croix de Guerre for bravery under enemy fire. When he inherited his throne in 1949, the postwar Monaco over which he ruled was, in many ways, a shadow of its formerly prosperous self. Reportedly, Rainier was faced with a treasury that was largely empty. In that year the casino, several hotels and many tourist attractions registered losses. Further, in the early 1950s, the bank which held some 55% of Monaco’s reserves, and a large chunk of Rainier’s personal fortune went bankrupt. Additionally, the Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, had gained a majority shareholding in the company which owned Monaco’s casino. All of this meant that the young Rainier was faced with the task of both restoring his Principality’s fortunes and regaining control of one of its greatest assets.

“If there is a world 700 years from now, I am confident the Grimaldi’s will still be here” A shrewd businessman, Rainier decided to promote Monaco as not just a tax haven, but also as a centre for banking, real estate development and light industry such as cosmetics, plastics and jewellery – in direct opposition to the advice of the increasingly influential Onassis, who wanted to develop Monaco solely as a haven for the super-rich. His marriage to Hollywood actress Grace Kelly in 1956 immediately restored some glitter to the throne and put Monaco firmly on the map as a tourist destination. Known as the Builder Prince, he established ambitious plans for new buildings and developments. Eventually, with a steady stream of rich foreigners eager to become resident in Monaco to escape taxes, and money flowing into the Principality as a result of American tourism, he soon had the financial means for the construction work he planned. However, whilst a financial boon for Monaco, its tax haven status did not go down too well with its nearest neighbour – France. President de Gaulle was unhappy that some 7,000 French citizens were using their Monaco residency to avoid paying French income and inheritance taxes. As a result, in 1962, French customs officers blocked the main routes into and out of Monaco. Rainier was forced into agreeing that French citizens would not be able to claim tax privileges in the Principality. However, although he may have conceded some ground on the taxation 60

of French residents, Rainier also negotiated a deal that has ensured Monaco’s prosperity ever since: the ‘compte de partage’, an arrangement whereby Paris reimburses Monaco for a substantial proportion of VAT paid by Monégasque companies in France. As a result of this, VAT receipts provide a large proportion of the Principality’s revenue to this day. Inevitably, Rainier had to finally take care of the problem of Onassis. Whilst Monaco had benefited from Onassis’ investment in the 1950s, by the 1960s Rainier would not tolerate his ever growing interference in and control of the casino. He dealt with this problem, in a fashion that his cunning ancestor would doubtless have approved of, by the very simple, if slightly high-handed, expedient of issuing 600,000 new State-owned shares in the company that owned the casino. This reduced Onassis’ shareholding to under 33% and restored control of the casino to the State. Onassis challenged the share creation, describing it as ‘unconstitutional’, in the Supreme Court of Monaco, but the Court found against him. Onassis subsequently sold his remaining shares to the State of Monaco and left for Monaco for good. Rainier’s life was dedicated to his beloved Principality and to ensuring its future security and prosperity. Not only did Monaco’s wealth increase under his rule, but its landmass did too – land reclamation has increased the size of the State by 20%. He also took steps to secure the Principality’s future independence when it became a member of the United Nations in 1993. Further, in 2002, he ensured his family’s continued inheritance of the State, when the law was changed to allow succession through the female line in the event that a male heir remains childless. His passion for Monaco and his confidence in his family’s survival there were reflected in his words on celebrating 700 years of Grimaldi rule of Monaco in 1997, he said: “if there is a world 700 years from now, I am confident the Grimaldi’s will still be here.” Rainier died in 2005 and, unlike when he acceded to the throne, his son inherited a rich, stable State, which looks set to continue as a jewel in the Mediterranean’s crown. The Builder Prince truly created something remarkable.

Top Marques Monaco 2017 What a magnificent event this year’s Top Marques Monaco was. Over 45,000 visitors attended smashing all records throughout its 14 year history. HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco was also in attendance. As official media partners here are some of the highlights. “Each year Top Marques Monaco brings an incredible show of technology, innovation and the very best in luxury products, and in my mind, our greatest Top Marques to date. The atmosphere in the Grimaldi Forum and around Monaco throughout Top Marques was electric and the number of visitors was superb over the four days,” said Manoj Bairstow, MD of Top Marques Monaco.

• Seven world premieres in the Ravel Supercar Hall • More than 1,200 test drives carried out on the F1 circuit • Unprecedented number of sales reported in Luxury Lane and Watch Pavilion • 25 % more advanced ticket sales made this year in comparison to the 2016 edition • 50 % more premium tickets including lunch in the VIP SUPERCAR restaurant sold • More than 5,000 glasses of bubbles served in the Champagne Bar and VIP Lounge SAVE THE DATE: 15th Edition of Top Marques Monaco will take place at the Grimaldi Forum from April 19th to 22nd April 2018. © Olivia Marocco Photography

Manoj Bairstow, H.S.H Prince Albert II of Monaco, Steven Saltzman, Mederic del Monaco

Monaco

A N

I N S I D E R ’ S

G U I D E

Where to eat Le Louis XV–Alain Ducasse, Hôtel de Paris In Monte-Carlo, Le Louis XV-Alain Ducasse is dedicated to exquisite taste and fantasy. Since it opened in the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo 25 years ago, authenticity and an elegant cuisine have been subtly combined in a unique setting. The philosophy of Chef Alain Ducasse consists of reinterpreting what’s essential, for food that is simple and easy to understand for everyone, with a subtle balance of tradition, change and modernity. Outstanding menus and an excellent wine list guarantee rare moments that few diners ever forget. Hotel de Paris Monte-Carlo, Place du Casino, 98000 Monaco +377 98 06 88 64

Le Vistamar, Hotel Hermitage

Beefbar Monaco

Amidst a decor designed by Pierre Yves Rochon, Le Vistamar plays host to an original concept orchestrated by Chef Joël Garault. Good gourmet seafood, pure and simple, and the set lunch menus ensure a delightful dining experience. The beautiful terrace offers a magnificent view of the port of Monaco and the famous rock.

This luxurious restaurant is located on the Port Fontvieille, very close to the rose gardens and Chapiteau of Fontvieille and offers a stunning panoramic sea view. The Beefbar Menu consists of a range of very high-quality products, with a large choice of the best cuts of meat selected from around the world. From Black Angus beef from the United to states, to Japanese Kobe beef, the meat is ranked by origin, tenderness and cut. The “Raw-Bar” offers dishes prepared under the clients’ gaze including tartars, carpaccios, tiraditos and ceviches.

Square Beaumarchais, 98000 Monaco, France +377 98 06 40 00

Yoshi, Hotel Metropole The first Joël Robuchon Japanese restaurant in the world, offers healthy, modern cuisine orchestrated by the Japanese chef Takéo Yamazaki, under the guidance of Joël Robuchon and Christophe Cussac. A warm and slick décor gracefully combines the Japanese influences and the elegance of the Hotel. The restaurant has a sushi bar which opens into a Japanese-inspired garden. 4 Avenue de la Madone, 98000 Monaco, France +377 93 15 15 15 66

42 Quai Jean-Charles Rey, 98000 Monaco +377 97 77 09 29

Joël Robuchon Monte-Carlo, Hotel Metropole The hotel’s main restaurant, offers a sophisticated cuisine with Mediterranean flavors, executed by Head Chef Christophe Cussac. The open kitchen, a distinctive trademark of Joël Robuchon’s philosophy: to share his passion and pleasure of food with his guests who can enjoy a direct contact with the Chef while he’s cooking. 4 Avenue de la Madone, 98000 Monaco, France +377 93 15 15 15

Hotel Hermitage, Monaco

Where to stay HĂ´tel Hermitage Monte-Carlo Overlooking the Mediterranean, the HĂ´tel Hermitage epitomizes a certain carefree elegance at the highest level. Built in the early 1900s, this historic luxury hotel offers an intimate and relaxed ambiance, a haven of peace in the heart of Monte-Carlo. Square Beaumarchais, 98000 Monaco, France +377 98 06 40 00

Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort Visit the Monte-Carlo Bay, a luxury resort hotel in the heart of Monaco on the Mediterranean coast. In a relaxed yet sophisticated ambiance, a new style hotel, with lightness, pleasure and fun, in a whole new experience of a legendary destination. 40 Av. Princesse Grace, 98000 Monte Carlo, Monaco +377 98 06 01 80

Fairmont Monte-Carlo Experience the premier Monte Carlo resort, the Fairmont Monte-Carlo (pictured below). With stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea and gracious service, no detail is overlooked. Featuring 602 guestrooms and suites, providing lavish touches that will make your vacation or business trip relaxing and memorable. Avenue des 98000, 12 Avenue des SpĂŠlugues, 98000 Monaco +377 93 50 65 00

Fairmont Monte-Carlo

What to do

Grand Casino, Monaco

The Prince’s Palace: The Changing of the Guards is an official ceremony which takes place outside the Prince’s Palace at 11.55 sharp every day. 98015, Monaco The world famous Oceanographic Museum is one of the best aquariums on the planet. Inaugurated in 1910 by its founder His Serene Highness Prince Albert I who was passionate about marine wildlife, the museum is dedicated to marine science and houses the largest coral reef in the world. Av. St-Martin, MC 98000 Monaco The Casino: Try your luck at the gaming tables of the world famous casino, which is open every day from 2pm. The Casino operates a strict dress policy. For more information go to www.casionmontecarlo.com Casino de Monte-Carlo, Place du Casino 98000 Monaco

The Golden Triangle: At the heart of Monte-Carlo’s shopping district, with a vast number of designer boutiques such as Prada, Celine, Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent, to name just a few.

the Monaco Heliport, avenue des Ligures. Choose between Héli Air Monaco, Tel: + 377 92 050 050, or Monacair, Tel: + 377 97 97 39 00.

The Japanese Gardens: This garden is well worth a visit that is nearer still to the Grimaldi Forum and Top Marques Monaco. Designed by landscape architect Yasuo Beppu, the gardens are an authentic work of art, uniting stones, water and plants in beautiful harmony.

The Exotic Garden: This park was inaugurated in 1933, and contains a huge number of species of cactus from Africa and South America, including aloe plants from Cape Town and giant agaves from Aztec regions. 62 Boulevard du Jardin Exotique, Monaco

Av. Princesse Grace, 98000 Monaco The Monte-Carlo Country Club: The luxurious club is home to the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tennis competition which is held during Top Marques Monaco. 155 Av Princesse Grace, 06190 A Helicopter Ride Over Monaco: Discover the Principality from the air in an unforgettable helicopter trip with one of the local helicopter companies based at

Swim at Larvotto Plage, where the water is clear blue and the jelly fish are kept at bay by a large net Larvotto, 98000 Monaco Indulge in a day at the spa: Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo is both a hub of hightech and a place of pure serenity. www.thermesmarinsmontecarlo.com 2 Avenue de Monte-Carlo, 98000 Monaco

LUXURY MOTORS

A new Dawn for

Rolls-Royce

Gareth Herincx is blown away by the world’s most beautiful convertible

riving the new Rolls-Royce Dawn is a remarkable experience. Yes, it’s the ultimate in luxury open-top motoring, but it also makes you and your passengers feel very special. After a week savouring the delights of the Dawn from behind the wheel, I can confirm that other road users and pedestrians marvel at this dream machine like no other. Unlike some expensive cars I could name, it seems the response to a Rolls-Royce is still more about wonderment than envy – a testament to how the marque has preserved its mystique. The Dawn is as much a work of art as a mode of transport. CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes summed it up perfectly at the launch. “Quite simply, it is the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever built,” he said. Beautiful from every angle, there’s the steep rake of the windscreen and an elegant profile, while the rear of the car tapers off in a manner that echoes the boat-tail designs of classic RollsRoyce drophead coupés and the elegant motor launches of the early 20th Century that inspired them. The car takes its inspiration from the Silver Dawn – a famous and rare Rolls-Royce name that was only ever applied to 28 very special dropheads between 1950 and 1954. Apart from its beauty, the first thing that strikes you about the Dawn is its sheer scale, because it measures 5.3 metres long and 1.9 metres wide. Open the epic rear-hinged doors and you’re greeted with an exquisite cabin bathed in wood panelling, sumptuous leather, deep pile lambswool carpets and retro touches such as shiny organ-pull air vent controls. Dominated by a huge, slim-rimmed steering wheel, there are a few dials ahead of the driver including a speedometer and a “Power Reserve”, presumably because a rev counter is too vulgar for a Rolls.

Rolls-Royce hopes the Dawn will “attract a broader, younger and more socially-aware audience around the world”

There’s plenty of tech and connectivity, accessed via an impressive 10.25-inch infotainment screen in the centre console. Naturally, there’s a separate touch pad and rotary controller to access the system to “avoid unsightly fingerprints” on the screen itself. And if you’d prefer not to see it at all, you can close a wooden panel over the screen. Among the other driver aids available is Satellite Aided Transmission, which uses GPS data to allow the car to see beyond what the driver sees, anticipating the next gear change based on location and driving style. Flick the thin wand on the steering column from Park to Drive and the Dawn will ease away silently, and before you know it, you’re wafting along, with just an enormous bonnet and a far-off Spirit of Ecstasy ahead of you.

Once you get used to its size, the Dawn is actually easy to drive, and though there are times when you can’t resist dipping into all that performance, the temptation is to simply cruise along in a cocoon of whisper-quiet opulence. Powered by the same twin-turbo 6.6-litre V12 as the Ghost, it can reach 62mph from standstill in 4.9 seconds and it has an electronically-limited top speed of 155mph. Those stunning figures are nothing short of miraculous when you consider the Dawn tips the scales at about 2.5 tonnes. Skippering a Dawn – because that’s what it feels like – is effortless, while overtaking requires a simple blip of the throttle. You’re vaguely aware that something mighty is going on under the bonnet, but ultimately it is serenity personified.

You’d be advised to adjust your driving style in certain areas. For instance, you soon learn that this is a lot of car to bring to a halt from speed, so anticipating roundabouts and junctions is to be advised, otherwise it’s a case of heaving on those hard-working brakes. Also, the steering is light, and while it’s as close to a magic carpet ride as you can get, take a corner too quickly and you will experience body roll, all be it well controlled. Obviously, particular attention has been paid to the roof, which operates in almost total silence in 22 seconds at speeds of up to 31mph (50km/h). Roof up and you could be in a Wraith, such is the noise suppression. Drop the top and things can get a little cool and breezy, but we’ll blame the British weather for that. Swap the south coast of England for the south of France and it would be a whole different experience. On a practical level, the Dawn is a genuine four-seater. Tall people can sit in the front and rear of the car, and naturally, it’s the height of comfort. Boot space is frankly modest for such a long car thanks to the hood mechanism, There’s plenty of space for a weekend away, but you might need to use some of the rear-seat area for anything longer. Now we come to the delicate matter of money. A

“basic” Dawn costs around £264,000 (€300,000), though the car I drove had optional extras which bumped the price up to £276,250 (€315,000). In other words, here is a car that’s worth more than many of the houses it passes. Rolls-Royce hopes the Dawn will “attract a broader, younger and more socially-aware audience around the world” and I don’t doubt that for one minute – if I had the means, I’d find it hard to resist. Ultimately, the Rolls-Royce Dawn is an intoxicating mix of the old and the new, perhaps exemplified by the Spirit of Ecstasy itself. It’s hidden in the bonnet, but magically emerges on start-up. Illuminated during nightdriving, it then retreats from whence it came after the Dawn is powered down – or someone tries to grab it. Technical specification Engine V12, 6592cc, turbocharged, petrol Power: 563bhp (570PS) Top speed 155mph (250km/h) 0-62mph (0-100km/h): 4.9sec Gearbox: 8-speed automatic Kerb weight 2560kg Economy 19.9mpg or 14.2 litres/100km (combined) CO2/tax band 330g/km

Keep it Private London loves its private-members clubs, which have been around since the late 17th century. While the old clubs have carried on, new, smart, interesting spots are opening up. Here’s some of our favourites.

Alberts This sophisticated dinner and dancing venue has been welcomed to Old Brompton Road with open arms by the elite Chelsea set. The venue starts as a whisky and Martini bar in the early evening, which then turns into a restaurant later on. As dusk falls, the space transforms into a dance venue which founding partner Carlo Carello claims is, ‘more party than Soho House and more relaxed than Annabel’s’. There is even a Rolls-Royce on hand for those wanting to travel home in style!

Annabel’s Founded in 1963 by Mark Birley, Annabel’s has a global reputation that has been established over the past five decades. The venue offers superb service, enviable ambiance, first class cuisine and entertainment in London’s exclusive Mayfair district. The beautiful dining room has been attracting the crème de la crème of London’s socialite scene since its inception, boasting exquisite dinner dishes, a Moorish ceiling and a unique starlit dance floor.

Shoreditch House Part of the famous Soho House group, Shoreditch House is arguably the most sought after private members’ club in London. Offering several floors of immaculate interiors, a spa, gymnasium and a heated rooftop pool, there’s no surprise the house waiting list is rapidly building. The effortlessly cool venue is populated by young creatives, East London locals and occasionally the odd famous face. Fresh fruit, pick ‘n’ mix and citrus water are free for all, while those looking for something more substantial can stop by the Italian restaurant for a bellissima feast.

The Groucho Club Established by a group of writers, publishers and agents and funded by an assortment of friends, this private members club could be the most eccentric in the capital. Whispers that the club offered a hint of debauchery within its hallowed halls in the Nineties, the club has gained a reputation for attracting a collection of creative, eccentric, misbehaved members.

The Devonshire Club It’s half work, half play at this London members club. Set over two floors, the venue combines comfortable lounge areas with three luxurious bars. The intimate terrace is the ideal destination to spend a long summer evening and the 68 beautifully decorated rooms make it that much harder to leave.

Vacanze

Carlo Germini Villaggio Ploner

Villaggio Ploner Via Alemagna,1 – località Carbonin 39034 Dobbiaco (BZ) - Italia Tel: +39 (0)474 977111 Email: condominioploner@yahoo.it www.villaggioploner.it Amministratore Carlo Germini Via Bach, 6 06132 San Sisto (PG) – Italia Tel: +39 (0)755 292240 Email: info@germiniamministrazioni.it www.germiniamministrazioni.it

Carbonin è una piccola località situata lungo la Val di Landro a metà strada tra Cortina e Dobbiaco, ai piedi del Monte Cristallo e della Croda Rossa, in prossimità delle Tre Cime di Lavaredo e del lago di Misurina. Le Dolomiti, rocce vive che cambiano colore al variare della luce del giorno e delle stagioni! Una meravigliosa sinfonia cromatica che inizia al mattino, quando il primo sole lambisce le guglie mentre la valle è ancora in ombra e continua sino alla sera, quando gli ultimi bagliori del tramonto infiammano le vette al di sopra delle valli già oscurate. E’ appunto all’alba ed al tramonto che l’incantesimo si manifesta nel modo più straordinario; una tavolozza di colori che mutano in pochi minuti, impossibile da descrivere e che le genti ladine chiamano “enrosadira”. In questo meraviglioso angolo di mondo, situato nell’area naturale protetta delle Tre Cime di Lavaredo, il Villaggio Turistico Ploner offre sistemazioni indipendenti, piscina coperta con idromassaggio, sauna e bagno turco, parcheggio privato e connessione internet via cavo gratuiti. Come ospiti del Ploner potrete rilassarvi nella sauna, usufruire della piccola palestra, del giardino con parco giochi per bambini e gustare i piatti tradizionali della regione presso il ristorante in loco. Il Condominio in multiproprietà Ploner è costituito da 147 unità abitative monolocali che dispongono di un blocco cucina con lavello, frigorifero e piastre elettriche, divani letto e letti a castello, bagno con doccia, telefono e TV color. In proporzione alle quote di proprietà, ciascun proprietario è titolare del diritto di godere in modo diretto ed esclusivo del proprio alloggio da un minimo di tre decadi ad un massimo di tutto l’anno. La Germini Amministrazioni, con sede in Perugia, quale amministratrice della multiproprietà, ha ricevuto mandato da parte di singoli condomini di gestire le rispettive proprietà sia per l’affitto che per la vendita (informazioni 0474/977111 or www.villaggioploner.it). 78

Carbonin is a small resort located along the Landro Valley halfway between Cortina and Dobbiaco, at the foot of Monte Cristallo and the Croda Rossa, near the Three Peaks of Lavaredo and the Lake of Misurina. The name of the town derives from Prince Carbonin, son of the sovereign who reigned throughout the Dolomites many years ago.The Dolomites are living breathing rocks that change colour throughout the seasons expelling a wonderful chromatic symphony that begins in the morning when the dawn breaks through the valley until sunset where the last glimmer of light touches the peaks. It is a palette of colours that change momentarily and is described as â&#x20AC;&#x153;enrosadiraâ&#x20AC;? which is due to the different positions of the sun during the year and to the conditions of the atmosphere. The Three Peaks of Lavaredo is protected and the Ploner

Tourist Village offers accommodation which has 147 housing units and studios that feature a kitchenette with sink, fridge and freezer, electric plates, sofa beds and bunk beds, bathroom with shower, telephone and TV. There is a multitude of things for the family such as an indoor pool with jacuzzi, sauna and Turkish bath, free private parking and wi-fi and also a small gym. There is a garden and playground for the younger children and also restaurants that offer traditional dishes of the region. Properties are for sale and rent (info +39 0474 977111 or www.villaggioploner.it). Please contact: Amministratore Carlo Germini, based in Perugia for more information. Tel: + 39 (0)755 292240 Email: info@germiniamministrazioni.it

photographe Iris Velghe

Cuvée Rosé. Inimitable.

www.hfusionmediagroup.com

Sapori

“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.” By Chef Stefano Baiocco – Villa Feltrinelli

Cesar Chavez

Eleven Years of S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino Dany Stauffacher is the Founder of one of Europe’s leading food and wine festivals, S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino. Marco Gagliati, our European correspondent, discusses his life-changing idea whilst dining with friends.

leven years ago Dany Stauffacher was sitting in a restaurant with four great friends (some of them were high-level chefs) when, in spite of the camaraderie and the great quality of the food, an idea was spoken about, that idea was S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino. It was a lightning moment, an idea that radically changed the concept of wine and food festivals in Switzerland and Europe. At that time, food and wine were not as mainstream as they are today, but you could perceive the importance of what this would bring to the canton from a tourist point of view, so, why not connect in line with the tourism sector? The festival was born and in over ten years has brought many guests to Ticino (Ticino is a beautiful part of Switzerland surrounded by large lakes and mountains, unspoiled vegetation, towns and villages to visit) plus increase visibility and credibility to more than 200 Michelin stars. Yes, that’s right, over 200 Michelin stars and almost 2000 Gault&Millau points collectively in during the last decade, some of the best chefs in the world are

hosted by the Canton’s high-quality structures which, despite its small amount of inhabitants: around 350,000 last count, is considered a little piece of heaven. its biodiversity and its rich culinary heritage. This is usually a result of what would be achieved in major metropolises such as New York or Milan, but with a different appeal, made up with passion and love for the territory and cuisine a marvellous expression of gastronomy makes its way into Ticino. Since 2007, thanks to its passion and ardor, the festival has managed to create a real worldwide sounding board for all the people involved in the event. Many world class chefs have passed through such as the likes of Massimo Bottura (best Italian chef in the world constantly in the top position of the ‘World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ and many others), Franck Giovanni (Swiss, 3 Michelin stars, on his first assignment outside his restaurant since the lamented death of Benoît Violier), Andreas Caminada (named the Swiss cuisine rock star), Annie Feolde (the lady of Italian cuisine), Rasmus Kofoed (the only 3 Michelin star chef of North

Dish by Pascal Barbot

Heiko Nieder

Rasmus Kofoed

Dish by Pascal Barbot

Andreas Caminada with Dany Stauffacher

Europe), Anand Gaggan (several times winner of the ‘World’s 50 best restaurant in Asia’ also in 2017) and other names that have had their moment on television such as Antonino Cannavacciuolo. Year one featured Serge Vieira, Robert Speth, Karl Baumgartner, Roland Trettl and Marcus G. Linder, who immediately increased awareness to high-quality cuisine showing how crucial in sustaining and enhancing a territory is. Year two, the organisation was determined to involve some of the biggest Italian chefs in order to open up the doors to trends, cultures, and flavours of one of the best and most varied cuisines of the world. The knowledge and the enthusiasm of these characters allowed the festival to really showcase why they were the best of the best chefs such as Valentino Mercattillii, Gennaro Esposito, Giancarlo Morelli, Gerhard Wieser, Filippo Chiappini Dattilo, Antonino Cannavacciuolo, Silvia Regi Baracchi and Norbert Niederkofler. A further momentous time came in 2009 when the festival changed its name to S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino. A successful marriage: the most well-known and historic mineral water brand bound its name to the event, allowing it to gain a global visibility. The Year 2009 was dedicated to the imagination and mastery of the Italian chefs, followed by the research and precision of “Swiss Chefs of the Year”. Dominique Gauthier, Robert Speth, Tanja Grandits, André Jaeger and Martin Dalsass presented a mix of flavours that could delight even the most sophisticated palate. 84

S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino means “love”. Love for a territory, love for the cuisine and the wine, so we dedicated 2010 to the celebration of cuisine and women chefs! Ana Roš with her grand personality (since winner of ‘50 best’ in the world 2017) Montse Estruch, Anna Sgroi, Luisa Valazza, Sala Ruch-Fukuoka and Anna Matscher and Tanja Grandits had a series of sociall appointments where their cooking created different emotions every evening. Italian, German, Spanish and Slovenian tastes met with the Swiss ones: a real triumph for the cooks, especially for the diners! So the story continued: in 2013 Berlin asked them to create a festival together at European level welcoming the German best chefs to Ticino. The evenings were certainly animated where Christian Lohse, Michael Kempf, Philipp Jay Meisel, Hendrik Otto, Matthias Diether, Sonja Frühsammer and Marco Müller presented their dishes. The 2015 edition presented something never before seen on the Swiss tables: The World’s Top eight chefs from the top 51 restaurants in the world travelled to Ticino to offer guests’ some unforgettable moments of gastronomic. Famous names, well-known all over the world, each had something in common with S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino the passion for the food and wine and the pursuit of quality and excellence: Mauro Colagreco, Massimo Bottura, Andreas Caminada, Davide Scabin, Diego Munoz, Anand Gaggan, Sven Eleverfeld and

Rasmus Kofoed were the 8 champions of S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino 2015. And here we are… at another year, a decade had passed do 2016 we pushed the boat out and managed to bring in just one festival chefs collectively with 60 Michelin stars. A highpoint in history of worldwide food and wine festivals. Eleven years have passed, but all the points of excellence are still there an event is not a simple process it takes time, dedication, precision to have leaders in the food industry present requires patience and care. We have managed that here at S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino. Every chef who came to Ticino has always came back with a smile and the awareness to know how much interest they received when here via press, guests and tourists. How it has enhanced their careers and how they still believe in all the values of the modern day high-cuisine. From raw materials, to excellence across to the impeccable service on to new cuisine trends ending in a fresh ethical approach. You name it, we have tried to incorporate each element. The great part is each evening has always ended with the classic spaghetti dinner of the chefs and the organisation to cement the relationship that each night has created. Despite this, Dany Stauffacher, the deus ex-machina of the festival, is always studying new solutions to maintain the highest quality of the festival.

After this introduction, what would you like to add? “It was a pleasure and at the same time a tremendous job to succeed. I am sure this may be the right way to thrill and reach a large number of customers, foodlovers or simply cooking enthusiasts.”

What is the secret of the festival’s success in your opinion? “I believe that to have successful partnerships is the keystone while keeping your feet on the ground and never abandoning simplicity and pragmatism. If I have to point to a comment made by the great chefs who cooked during our festival that makes me particularly proud, I can think of Franck Giovannini’s one, hosted in Lugano just a few weeks ago: after an amazing culinary event with wonderful dishes and perfect timing he shared an embrace with me at the end of the service we embraced thanking me for the best welcome ever received. I got goosebumps. “And that’s how, year after year, this festival has been able to present to the public the excellence of an area rich in natural beauty and gastronomic food, breathtaking landscapes and quality restaurants, great local wines and valued professionals. “Ticino’s culture and hospitality found a new way of introducing themselves, thanks to the pioneering vision of S. Pellegrino Sapori Ticino. But there’s more. For 2018, the idea is to further internationalise and amaze media, partners, and customers again.”

Dish by Pino Cuttaia

Château Cos d’Estournel Dimitri Augenblick, Director of Château Cos d’Estournel in Bordeaux, shares his passion for the estate that has been producing wines since 1811.

Michel Reybier

Château Cos d’ Estournel has a legendary story behind, tell us how it came about? Our story began in 1811 with the passion of one man, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel. He decided to show his wines to the world and left Bordeaux for Asia. He travelled for over 20 years taking different cultures with him, nurturing stories and returned to Bordeaux an invigorated spirit. You will see when you visit that he even built the Chateau in a Pagoda shape.

In your opinion what makes French wines so strong? I am sorry to say but I believe French wines are the best, they give so much pleasure, such class and the years of wine producing in France shows that. I also love new world wines also

How important is the history of a company for its future? When Michel Reybier bought Cos d’Estournel in 2000, he followed the motto: ‘Semper Fidelis’ which means ‘Always Faithful’. The brand is always faithful to the founder and its past but also faithful to those who drink it. Our clients are like family and it is an affair we wish to continue for decades and decades.

People comment that your soil produces magnificent wines, this must be a huge responsibility, tell us more? The largest responsibility is to make the best wine we can each and every year. Our earth is like a mother that gives birth to her child.

Simplicity and luxury are difficult to find in unison, how do you determine luxury in this day and age? Simplicity is the most difficult thing to have, anything beautiful and simplistic has a background that flows and we hope that the love we add allows this simplicity to come us via our wines when a bottle is opened.

Dimitri Augenblick

Frank Giovannini

At the helm of the three-starred restaurant Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, one of the best restaurants in the world

ranck Giovannini is Swiss and with being Swiss comes a personality of passion, precision and on point. He constantly strives to prove his ability to everyone. A tireless perfectionist, he gives the best of himself every single day in order to progress still further. Franck Giovannini’s career started at the Auberge de la Couronne where he was apprentice to Claude Joseph. Later, he went on to perfect his art with some of the great names in cuisine such as Grey Kunz in New York, Fredy Girardet, Philippe Rochat, Benôit Violier and others. He worked as a sous-chef from 2000, to the

famous Philippe Rochat at the Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, then became Chef when Rochat passed on the torch to Benoît Violier in 2012. After sharing 20 years of friendship and work in Crissier with Benoît Violier, he took over from him in the kitchen after Benoît passed away in 2016, continuing the work accomplished by his predecessors. We spent the evening with Franck at the recent S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino event held in Switzerland he shared with us a few of his thoughts before service commenced

Cerises en coussinets

What has been the most exciting part of your career? “I have seen, done and worked very much. But I must say that, looking back, the most exciting moment of my career was participating at Bocuse d’Or. I was a finalist for Switzerland for two years running and in 2007, at the World Finals, I achieved a bronze. This is the without doubt the competition for excellence, and being involved made me think that I had entered the history of gastronomy. A moment I will never forget. “ Coquillage cours de cuisine

When did you understand you want to become a cook? “There was no precise time, I’ve always known as a child I would be cooking. As a boy, at some point, I was almost sure I wanted to be a baker. There was no doubt that I would embark on a trade that had to do with food. My first job, at the Auberge de la Couronne in Morges which opened the way to the profession. It’s here that I learned that the fundamental dowry to go on in this trade is passion. “

Switzerland is the country in the world with most concentration of Michelin stars: why do you think that is?

Bar-citron

“Perhaps because the quality of life in a country like Switzerland is very widespread and people are also able to indulge in high gastronomy experiences. But above all, I would say, because we are a nation that has and has had many cultural influences, also in the gastronomic food. This mix has created a kitchen full of ideas and personalities. “

Three words to define your kitchen. “Respectful, tasty and delicate. When I say respectful, I mean above all the product. Starting from the base of a quality ingredient, you do not have to change the original flavour. Then, for sure, mine is a cuisine that tastes, where the individual elements feel and go together, to compose an overall flavour that exalts the individual. Lastly, it is delicate: the excesses do not belong to me, I prefer a certain balance in the flavours so that my recipe is harmonious and never excessive. “

You worked closely with Benoît Violier can you share some words about that? “The 22-year collaboration I had with Benoît makes me a very lucky and blessed person, he was magnificent. By Carlotta Girola

Morilles

INTERVIEW

Gaggan Gaggan Anand was named number 1 best restaurant in Asia in the list of The Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 50 Best Restaurants, placing them 7th overall worldwide.

ÂŠ Remy Steinegger/Sapori Ticino

his is the third time at aged just 39 that chef Gaggan Anand has it all. His restaurant Gaggan, in a tiny street near Ploenchit Road in the Bangkok Financial District has been crowned the world’s Number 1 in Asia by ‘The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’. The annual event is sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna. He has also been recently been awarded Best Restaurant in Asia at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in Melbourne, which positions him at Number 7 in the prestigious ranking. When he opened 7 years ago, he could not imagine that his “Indian progressive cuisine”, as he calls it, would have marked a true change in both the Indian and Asian food scene. “I just wanted to express myself through food and I did it” says the chef, a Kalkata native, who, in his previous career, cooked for former US President Bill Clinton and Indian President Abdul Kalam Azad. Gaggan is quite a character and any definition that comes to mind does not fit him. He’s a traveller and omnivore when it comes to taste and ideas. “There are people even today that don’t understand what I do but many are inspired, including some restaurants in India. I changed the game”, says the chef, who left India for Bangkok “my new home” in 2007 and is now a celebrity back in his own country: GQ Man of the Year in 2015 and recently on the red carpet of Hello of Fame Awards 2017 by Hello magazine, in a glamorous Bollywood-style night in Mumbai. Gaggan’s personal revelation was Ferran Adria’s molecular cuisine at El Bulli. Before opening his restaurant in 2010, he spent a few months training at Adria’s ‘El BulliLab’ in Catalunya. Back in Bangkok, inspired by this life-changing experience, he decided to bring that radical approach and technique to Indian cuisine and “liberate it” as he likes to say. From that moment many things happened.

Quail

Sushi

You’ve been described as “the chef who reinvented Indian food” and you’ve said in the past that you wanted to change people’s perception of Indian food. What do you think this perception was? How did you go about changing it? Indian cuisine is one of the oldest in Asia, but somehow there are not so many restaurants from India in the top list. I changed that with my personal approach and new techniques used in recipes that haven’t been touched for centuries. What does progressive means? Moving forward, advancing, developing gradually or in stages, that’s what we do, rethink Indian food. Proceeding step by step. It’s a liberation of food, giving a country the freedom of food. It’s not just curry. One of my signature dishes, Yogurt Explosion, is innovative in the presentation but deeply Indian in its own way. My taste comes from India, techniques comes from everywhere and the “fun ingredient” comes from my mind! Like in my latest menu, made up of only emoji’s, with no descriptions. Customers need to trust the chef. We play with them and in the end we reveal the dishes. It’s a one bite experience menu, no main courses.

Bon Bon

Top: Patori Bottom: Butterfly

You’ve created some incredible dishes. Where do you get your inspiration? From everywhere. Every 2 months I go back to India and Kalkata. This inspires me. I need to taste. So I go there and try different things then I recreate them. Also street food inspires me. Like in my Paturi dish, a sea bass fish marinated in Bengali mustard and wrapped in cider leaf. Mustard has its mellow and strong flavour mixed with succulent juices of the fish. It’s one of the delicacies of our menu, as we burn the cider leaf just before bringing to the table. The guest has to unwrap the dish on its own. The inspiration has come from one of the Bengali dishes from Kolkata. I love travelling. Sometimes you need to disconnect by going elsewhere to reconnect with yourself and your way of cooking.

Now that you have these accolades, you must feel that there is a certain amount of pressure, or level of expectation, from your customers. Does this bother you? No. I don’t work to please customers like many other restaurants. Here I have the freedom to do what I want. Taste is more important than design in a dish. In my latest menu I play with different suggestions from all my travels, things that I liked most. It’s like a journey for me and those who come to eat at Gaggan. Less than one year ago I opened a Lab next to the restaurant where I work on the dishes with my team.

You once said you want to close in 2020, at the peak of success. What do you think you’ll do next? My mum once told me: you climbed up Mount Everest now you have to go down to climb a second mountain, you can’t just jump from one to another. When I have finished at Gaggan, I want to do something completely different. Another challenge with my friend and buddy chef Takeshi Goh Fukuyama of La Maison de la Nature Goh in Fukuoka. After 10 years of Gaggan I will open a 12 seats restaurant in Fukuoka with him and I’ll move there. Goh was the first chef I met from Japan who was so open. He’s like a brother to me, we are the same age, we were born only 3 days apart. We started to collaborate a few years ago and I go to visit him every 6 months. We call it Gohgan food, and it’s a new concept: Japan and India together. Can you imagine?

Gaggan what a master and what a pleasure, thank you again for your marvellous words! By Alessandra Gesuelli

Guida 2017/18 EURO-TOQUES ITALIA www.eurotoquesit.com www.italiaatavola.net

Euro-Toques Association Guide Italy is a guide showcasing the heroes of Italian cuisine. With over 240 of the greatest chefs as members our objective is to endorse each one through their personal experiences and dishes.

Enrico Derflingher President of Euro Toques

He became Chef to the British Royal Family at the tender age of 27. 1991 – He was appointed as Head Chef at the White House, cooking for George W. Bush Senior. 2014 – He was nominated by Giorgio Napolitano the Italian President as ‘Ambassador of Italian cuisine for the world’. 2015 – He was elected as the President of Euro-Toques International.

Gualtiero Marchesi

Founder & Honorary President

Gualtiero is the Founder & Honorary President of Euro Toques. He is the master of Italian cuisine, the first ever Italian to receive three Michelin stars. There is no chef who has not learned from him directly or indirectly.

FINE DINING

Out of Town Danielle Betts checks out some of the best Chefs and Restaurants to be found outside of the city of London this year.

Niall Keating – Whatley Manor Whatley Manor, the charming 23-bedroom country manor house and spa set in the idyllic Cotswolds, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, appointed Niall Keating as Executive Chef in December 2016. He has launched his own modern British menus in The Dining Room, where he has also drawn inspiration from many different cusines, including Korean, Japanese and classic French. Additionally, Niall has initiated the re-styling of the hotel’s informal restaurant (formerly Le Mazot), launching it as Grey’s Brasserie with new menus, in conjunction with his Sous Chef George Dingle. Whatley Manor Hotel and Spa Easton Grey, Malmesbury Wiltshire SN16 0RB Tel: +44 (0)1666 822 888 www.whatleymanor.com

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Mark Birchall – Moor Hall Mark Birchall heads up Moor Hall, in Aughton, near the ancient market town of Ormskirk, in West Lancashire. The impressive Grade II* listed gentry house has been transformed into a contemporary restaurant with seven luxury rooms after a sensitive restoration

and rebuild project. The magnificent main building, with its Tudor origins, was acquired in 2015 by Andy and Tracey Bell. Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms Prescot Road, Aughton Ormskirk L39 6RT Tel: +44 (0)1695 572511 www.moorhall.com

Adam Reid – The French Chef-patron Adam Reid officially launched Adam Reid at The French which is situated at The Midland Hotel in Manchester. His menus display his creative culinary talents. The restaurant has had a refurbishment that now includes a Chef’s Counter that will further express Adam’s philosophy of engaging the kitchen with the dining room. Adam joined The French as Head Chef in 2013 when Simon Rogan took on the management contract and re-positioned the restaurant. The Midland Hotel Peter Street Manchester M60 2DS Tel: +44 (0)161 235 4780 www.the-french.co.uk

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Global News By Roberto Pucciano CEO of Anchorage Group Global

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France

Saudi arabia

France began the summer with a momentous presidential election which saw Emmanuel Macron, a former banker and political novice, defeat far right candidate Marine Le Pen. It was seen as an election which saved the European Union from turmoil and one which could revive the Franco-German partnership that is the heart of the union. In June, the new president’s fledgling party La République en Marche (LREM), won a convincing victory in National Assembly elections which cemented his ability to push through his centrist, pro-EU agenda. A series of public spats and gaffes have since tarnished the new presidency, with concern growing that President Macron is both overconfident and inexperienced. After his first 100 days in office the new president is now more unpopular than his immediate predecessors, which bodes ill for his plans to force through new limitations on workers’ rights and lighten labour market regulations. This quarter, the French economy, the second-largest in the euro zone, grew a sluggish 0.5 percent. It was below the euro zone average of 0.6 percent, but matters were helped by stronger than expected exports. This offset a slowdown in growth in business investment from 1.4 percent to 0.5, with French exports leaping to 3.1 percent up from 0.7 percent in the first quarter. The success or failure of President Macron’s economic reforms is expected to signal whether or not France gradually escapes two decades of sluggish economic growth and growing national debt.

Political uncertainty continued to dog the ruling House of Saud after a palace coup by 32-year-old Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman saw him replace his uncle, the then-crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, as the heir to the Saudi throne. Mohammed bin Salman is the favourite son of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who at 81 is not expected to have a long reign. The power grab has further destabilised relations between different branches of the Saudi royal family, which was recently revealed to have kidnapped a number of dissident royals from European countries and forcibly returned them to Saudi Arabia. Whoever becomes the next king will face a number of serious issues, including a growing rivalry with an emboldened Iran, depressed oil prices and stalled economic reforms, a costly war in Yemen and a diplomatic crisis with neighbouring Qatar over the tiny country’s foreign policy. Many of these issues are seen as the result of Mohammed bin Salman’s aggressive foreign policy, leading critics to question the new heir-apparent’s fitness for the throne. Corruption was thought to have increased last year according to international NGO Transparency International, with Saudi Arabia’s 2015 score of 52/100 dropping to 46/100. The Kingdom remains stuck in the middle of the Transparency Index, the global index on corruption. Meanwhile the Saudi economy remained in the doldrums during the second quarter of the year, due to Saudi Arabia’s compliance with OPEC’s oil cut deal. Economic growth was 1.4 percent in 2016, sharply down from earlier years.

Venezuela

Kenya

Political violence on Venezuela’s streets claimed over 100 lives this summer as the socialist regime of President Nicolás Maduros struggled with triple digit inflation, an inability to import basic goods and rising hunger among the country’s poor. Newspapers in neighbouring countries reported a spike in Venezuelans crossing the border in search of food, including several members of the armed forces. The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was accused of seeking to turn the country into a de facto one-party state after the government won a summer referendum to elect a powerful National Constituent Assembly (NCA). Opposition parties called for the vote to be boycotted. The NCA is widely seen as a step towards one party rule as it overturns the country’s 1999 constitution and bypasses the opposition controlled National Assembly. Meanwhile plunging oil prices and widespread corruption mean Venezuela’s inflation and murder rates continued to be among the world’s highest, with death tolls comparable to a war zone. It ranks 166th on the global 2016 Transparency Index out of 176 countries examined by Transparency International, scoring a merger 17/100. It was suspended in December from the regional trading bloc Mercosur for violating the economic group’s democratic principles. The IMF says that the country’s real economy has shrunk by 25 percent over the past five years with GDP per capita falling 22 percent in the decade between 2007 and 2017.

Kenya’s disputed presidential election has fuelled protests and violence in its aftermath, which saw the government of the recently re-elected President Uhuru Kenyatta threatening to shut down two human rights organizations – the Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and the African Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) – which questioned the results. Although independent and foreign observers declared the result free and fair, President Kenyatta’s opponent, Raila Odinga, has refused to accept the results and is using the legal process to challenge them. Two dozen people have been killed since the election as Kenyan security forces responded violently to his call to supporters to take to the streets. Meanwhile in the country’s north-east Somalian extremist group al-Shabab launched an attack which killed five policemen, part of a string of such killings the group has been carrying out since May. Kenya sent troops into neighbouring Somalia to fight the group in 2011, which has responded by launching over 100 attacks inside Kenya. Despite ranking 145th out of 176 when profiled for corruption in 2016, Kenya achieved a 5.8 percent rate of growth that year. Since then concerns have grown over the economy’s dwindling performance, as a severe drought damaged the agriculture sector. Economic growth in the first quarter of 2017 fell to 4.7 percent, whilst the second quarter saw it hobbled by fears of violence over the fiercely contested election and a deceleration in private sector credit and electricity supply growth. 103

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www.alilamadeinitaly.com

PhiliPPineS

uKraine

The Philippines had an unwelcome appearance in global headlines this summer after Marawi City, the provincial capital of Lanao del Sur province on the southern island of Mindanao, briefly fell to a coalition of Islamic Stateaffiliated militants. Although the Philippines as a whole are 90 percent Christian, Mindanao itself has strong geographic and historical ties to contiguous regions of Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia and the island’s Moro Muslim population has long had uneasy ties with Manila, with various modern insurgencies dating back to the 1960s. The fighting in Marawi led President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law on the island, and muse about extending it to the rest of the Philippines. This was a controversial move by the strongman president, as many older Filipinos associate martial law with the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos (1965-1986). The former dictator was laid to rest last year with military honours after President Duterte, who is a longtime ally of the Marcos family, gave his permission. The Philippines scored 35/100 on corruption according to Transparency International’s calculations for 2016, making it 101th out of 176th in the global corruption perceptions rankings. But for 2017, Philippines’ economy is expected to advance between 6.5 to 7.5 percent, almost twice its long-term growth rate. That makes it the world’s 10th fastest growing economy in the world in 2017, despite a renewed communist insurgency and President Duterte’s own violent antidrug policies, which have killed thousands.

Recently accused in the New York Times of being the country that allowed North Korea to gain access to crucial missile technology for the two intercontinental ballistic missiles the rogue state tested in July, Ukraine has struggled to escape its own frozen conflict with neighbouring Russia. The country’s east has become another centre of illicit activities in Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Moscow continues to transfer hi-tech weaponry, including new anti-tank rocket-propelled grenades, to pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists there who are still fighting Kiev. More than two years after the Minsk II cease-fire went into effect Ukraine has rebuilt its military into the second largest force in Europe, and continues to exchange long range fire with the rebels. But critics say that corruption is undermining Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, which is focused on weapons for export rather than seeing to the country’s own domestic military needs. The country failed to launch its first independent anticorruption court in July to try high level offenders in time for an IMF deadline to be met. Transparency International ranks Ukraine as 131st out of 176 countries in its global corruption perception table for 2016, and it scored a shabby 29/100, a dire performance that was actually a slight improvement over previous years. Building on the good economic news, economic growth of 2 percent in 2016 was expected to rise to 2.8 percent this year, and go on to top 3 percent in 2018.

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The Science of Sleep

homas Edison thought it was a waste of time and survived on just three hours a night, Margaret Thatcher famously got by on just four hours, Barack Obama just six, whereas Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, swears by a full eight hours a night. Sleep. No matter who we are, where we’re from or what we do for a living is something we all have in common

Risky business In some ways it seems to be one of the most natural and normal things we do, and yet, for our earliest ancestors, sleep – effectively becoming unconscious and physically vulnerable for a period of time – could be incredibly risky. Therefore, the fact that we sleep, despite the fact that it potentially opens us up to physical risk, suggests that there must be some evolutionary advantage to it.

Why do we sleep? There is no doubt that we need it. Lack of sleep has been linked to obesity, diabetes, depression and even lower life expectancy. Our need for sleep is never more clearly shown than by how we feel when we don’t get enough of it – we are groggy, irritable and forgetful and as our attention spans shortens, we struggle with concentration. Scientists remain unsure as to exactly why we sleep and what happens when we sleep, but agree that sleep is essential to maintaining brain development and helping to ensure normative levels of cognitive skills such as speech, memory, and innovative and flexible thinking. Research suggests that when we sleep we enable our bodies and brains to recover and to learn from the day we have experienced. During the day, as a result of new experiences, our brain cells build new connections, sleep enables the brain to strengthen the important connections and ‘prune’ the less vital ones. It has also recently been suggested that sleep allows the brain to be cleared of waste – US research on mice shows sleep being used to flush waste chemicals out of the brain.

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How much sleep do we need? For many years we have been told that eight hours sleep a night is essential for good health. Yet, as the examples at the beginning of this article suggest, many successful people survive on much less. Sleep patterns have certainly changed over the years. Thanks to selfprofessed light sleeper Thomas Edison, increased lighting in the evening means that we all now go to bed on average two hours later than our parents would have and our increasingly stressful lives and things like shift working patterns also seem to mean that we are existing on less and less sleep. This has led to new thinking about sleep, with researchers pointing out that, as dangerous as not getting enough sleep is, we may actually need less sleep than we think. Shawn Youngstedt, a professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University suggests that eight hours or more sleep a night “has consistently been shown to be hazardous” and believes that, in fact, seven hours a night is much healthier aim. This thinking is echoed by psychologists such as Thomas Wehr, who found that until the early twentieth century, people tended to sleep for an average of four hours, before being wakeful for a while and then falling asleep another four hours ‘second sleep’ and then waking for the day. He suggests that, although we consider an eight hour sleep ‘normal’, the human body actually has a natural preference for ‘segmented sleep’ and that the space in between these two sleeps enabled people to reflect and helped regulate stress naturally.

What dreams may come? What remains in no doubt is that we need our sleep to survive and when it goes wrong our health, as well as our personal and working lives, can suffer. Scientific research is only just beginning to understand this amazing process of daily renewal meaning that, for now, the complexities of this most basic of human functions remain a mystery just waiting to be solved.

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Immortality the new frontier

t’s no secret that a global biotech industry is seeing an exponential increase in funding for longevity and anti-ageing research. After all, Calico (a Google-backed life-extension company that launched in 2014) received a whopping $1.5 billion for an all-new research center where researchers will partner with big pharma companies like AbbVie to create and market new drugs for diseases such as cancer and alzheimers. Americans seem to hold a stigma against their healthcare system, particularly because most drugs that treat diseases and cancer come with a hefty price tag. You might be wondering, why would the biotech and pharmaceutical industries want to invest so much in finding such cures? There’s good reasons why there’s big bucks in biotech. For the first time in human history, we have access to advanced technologies that are rapidly evolving to allow radical new ways to treat patients and the results are a society that is quickly evolving into a future that looks like something straight out of a science-fiction film. Now, let’s put this into perspective, we’ve never thought of ageing and death as a treatable disease before. By being able to treat ageing and death, that makes every living human being on the planet a prospective patient. So, while curing diseases and cancer might not seem like a profitable move for the pharmaceutical industry, being able to treat ageing and death will create a new drugs and treatments that all of us might be interested in. This also will allow for better marketing since most of the drug commercials and ads we see today only appeal to small percentages of our population who suffer from whichever disease that specific drug might treat. Zoltan Istvan, founder of The Transhumanist Party and a 2016 Presidential candidate, believes that the next generation of billionaires is likely to come from the biotech industry and I agree with him.

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The future of healthcare will look much differently than today. In the next 10-15 years, we’ll be 3D printing organs made from our own stem cells and replacing them. Men will have birth control in a form of an injectable gel that blocks sperm for up to 6 months. MicroChips is creating tiny implants that can deliver drugs over the course of decades and one form of that will be a birth control chip that women can have for up to 16 years and control drug delivery via remote control. Doctors at the University of Maryland are beginning trials on suspended animation, being able to keep patients in a state of limbo between life and death so they can have more time to treat patients in urgent situations. Next year, Dr. Sergio Canavero will attempt the world’s first human head transplant on Valery Spiridonov, a 30 year old Russian man who suffers from a debilitating muscular disease. Today, the

blind are beginning to see with bionic eyes, the deaf are receiving cochlear implants to hear for the first time, and a paralysed man kicked off the 2014 World Cup in Brazil thanks to a robotic exoskeleton suit. This is all just the beginning. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all will be defeating ageing and death but that’s not stopping Google Ventures’ Bill Maris. “If you ask me today, is it possible to live to be 500? The answer is yes,” he said in an article on Bloomberg Business. Bill has $425 million to invest this year and he has the freedom to invest it however he wants. Guess what companies he’s looking for? He’s looking for companies that will slow ageing, reverse disease, and extend life. Google is at the forefront of innovation from Calico’s new research center to Google X ’s project to create a pill that can insert nanoparticles into our bloodstream to detect disease and cancer mutations. There are many experts who believe that we’re on the brink of a future when humans can live to be 500, 1,000, or even immortal, and the answer to longevity might be found from our own molecular biology. Renowned gerontologist and co-founder of the California-based Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Research Foundation Aubrey de Grey recently said “The first person to live to 1,000 may well be alive today.” Aubrey de Grey and The SENS project are working on finding innovative ways to prevent and cure ageing with a detailed plan to repair all types of molecular and cellular damage that happen to us over time. Whether you are skeptical or not, one thing is for certain, our future will look much differently than today. The question is, how far will we go to live forever and should we live forever? With the possibility of

humans living to be thousands of years old starting now, perhaps it’s time that we all channel our inner futurist by planning and preparing for potential future scenarios that might impact our own lives as well as the rest of the world. I’m not sure if I’d want to live forever, but I’d like to have the choice.

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