NAJADA FRASHËRI: Being a Chef Made me Live Many Realities

By Rudina Hoxha

Full interview below:

When did you decide to become a chef and why?

Do you want to know the truth? I spend a lot of time alone with myself, it helps me to know how to listen. The kitchen is Inside me. I do this job because I cannot do any other.

Becoming a chef was easy because I learned quickly, I was passionate to the point of studying at every break from work to practice shortly after, a natural, noncalculated process.

How was your trip until you arrived in Venice, Italy?

I was lucky enough to know Nancy Brilly, a much-loved professional in Italy, to live with Alda FENDI and her Family as Personal Chef on an island where only private boats arrive, and international guests. I was the curator of the wedding of one of the oldest

Venetian families. Also, I took care of the Gala Dinners for the Swiss Foundations and other foundations that brought international artists to the Venice Biennale. Personalities like Mrs. Gisela Winkelhofer, with whom we worked for three months at a gala dinner, matching the color of the food, the tablecloth, and the selection of porcelain from the historic Meissen who had sent me the preview catalogs in German.

I cooked in a historic Venetian palace while George the designer of those ceramics, alongside with his staff washed and supervised those jewel dishes. I also cooked among Roman antiquities, such as the Baths of Caracalla, taken by the stylist Valentino, with 150 waiters, half of whom models arrived from Mi in Rome for the Event.

Then we founded with the lawyer, Electra Giovanna Livreri as Baille/President, the Bailliage Chaine Francigena, in Tuscany. How to explain... a New Club. I was 31 years old and also the highest existing representative. Joined the Chaine des Rotisseurs, the oldest convivial and cooking fraternity in the world, where professionals such as Paul Bocuse, and international industrialists who love conviviality, gather for the pure pleasure of feeling good.

They enthroned me in Reggia Venaria, the Savoy hunting reserve, in the Church of Sant’Uberto. We rented the whole palace just for us. It was an indelible memory.

Created a 3-day Calendar with my Bailliage Chaine des Rotisseurs - three days for Leonardo Da Vinci’s centenary in a UNESCO Heritage Medici Villa using the rotisserie designed by Leonardo.

Then I lived in other realities, I cooked as an amateur in tent cities, made an Italian cuisine show in Gjirokastra, worked at a Mexican stand at the Cavaticcio Park in Bologna to help friends, 1800 tacos made in 3 days. Inserted the vacuum as a maintenance and cooking technique, and the recipe of the Umbrian sausages of my uncle Gilberto in Albania. It was a journey full of stories and adventures for me and for those who stood by me.

Also, I organized vernissages in Matera 2019 (European Capital of Art and Culture), commissioned by Arte per le Marche. Getting to know artists like Gregor Hildebrandt or Ioan Sbarciu. And filling a car with rosemary taken in the Lucanian countryside, to the point of not breathing the rosemary air and making many equal long branches, with professors and engineers sitting like children playing together .. and while the rosemary was cleaned in a circle, stories were told..

What I loved most, I managed to do. With the responsibilities of an adult, but with the eyes of a child dreamer. With a lot of effort, and little luck. But I’m proud of myself because I’ve always followed my heart and proved to myself that you can be happy in life, thinking about others, without taking away. I believe that life is also a struggle, so better to do it for happiness, to build, to remember instead of fighting to survive I find it destructive.

I could die tomorrow, and I would have no regrets about anything.

How would you describe your general culinary philosophy?

I see the kitchen as something that goes beyond feeding us. A means to Communicate, and Feed the Soul. A menu in which each sauce is not just a flavor and colour, but a note that belongs to a symphony.

It is thanks to food that a newborn survives. We are animals, and when we are hungry, the child awakens within us and needs to be fed. If we eat well, we will feel calm and safe. If we eat traditional flavours, we will feel at home and protected. If we savor some small novelties, we would be solicited/ stimulated at the openings... There are no social classes at the table. But an animal that has to meet a need. Most other things are superfluous.

Feeding, being a cook is always an honor for me. Because I can feed the body of diners. It is a great responsibility, which goes far beyond the temperature controls of the refrigerators and sterile counters.

What are your special dishes? Can you name a few?

- I like Carbonara 4 Season, because I use fresh egg-based mimosa sauce and I also serve it in the summer. It remains lighter and more digestible, despite the dominant flavor. Or Tiramisu made with gorgonzola.

Have you ever tried it?

There is one thing that characterizes all of them, Simplicity. I don’t mix many ingredients. I spend a lot of time looking for the Right Raw Material, preferring Italian family-run companies which are Our Excellencies to Support.

Do you aim for a Michelin star? What does it mean for you?

I aim to see the smile of a child in the face of an adult. I am asking for a lot, I know. First of all, it comes the Feeling and the Freedom to express it with Sincerity. When I think of Michelin Star, I am ashamed. It seems too much for me. And I don’t think about it. I look at it as something for others. I have to Do in the best way for all those people who decide to give me their time and money.

But let’s not be hypocrites, who doesn’t like recognition?

How much inspiration has your mother been in your successes? Who do you attribute your success to?

My Mother taught me that working brings a sure result, and to fight for Anything that touches our Soul and to live our Passions freely. And not to judge. Her teachings and demonstrations, combined with her mistakes have made me the person I am. My Successes, which I prefer to call Results, I attribute 50% to nature.

How would you describe your life and work in Italy? What is the future of Najada?

My life is like a set of movies. I have seen many realities and types of people. I have worked with people who made history and others who were arrested. Few things scare me now. I fought for the weapons of freedom. Now I feel the need to give. Surely the kitchen is and will remain a cornerstone of my life because the Italians let me into their lives, opening their doors to me, showing their customs, traditions, memories of grandmothers ..., feelings for Sunday lunch … Everyone has given me so much, I’m very lucky from a human point of view! Now I think it’s time to give.

My future? A house by the sea, animals, barbecuing with close friends, privacy, time for writing, drawing and for whom I love.