ALESSANDRO BORGHESE THE LUXURY OF SIMPLICITY

D BY SUSANNA CASUBOLO

Alessandro Borghese was born in San Francisco in 1976 and became one of the most famous chefs in Italy, renewing the concept of culture and professionalism in the catering sector. He is the undisputed protagonist of the success of Italian cuisine on television, a pioneer of culinary entertainment, he manages to bring an increasingly varied audience closer to the art of cooking with his genuine enthusiasm and his captivating sympathy. He defines himself as a cook of the people, looking at him it seems to have always known him, he manages to get there to the heart of people with a simple smile and a disruptive self-irony, moves in front of the cameras with naturalness, is called the chef “Rock & Social”, has been awarded several times for his cuisine, linked to quality, where tradition and innovation become method, style, art and taste.

He was one of the three judges of the Italian edition of Junior MasterChef, and leads the TV shows: Alessandro Borghese - 4 Restaurants, Alessandro Borghese Kitchen Sound, Cuochi d’Italia and Piatto Ricco.

His cooking programs of which he is also the author, are broadcast in Italy and abroad.

To call him just a chef is an understatement, he is a skilled communicator and a wellrounded entrepreneur who uses his image of him as a business card of authenticity and success.

In 2010 he founded AB Normal srl –Eatertainment ompany that deals with food consulting and advertising, focusing on creative excellence, communication and development of the TV format. In the world of catering, the company is present with the Alessandro Borghese brand - the luxury of simplicity that is also the name of the chef’s Milanese restaurant, and also deals with catering and banqueting for events public and private.

In addition to writing for trade magazines and travel, he also publishes the book “Cacio & Pepe” for Solferino publisher, in collaboration with the journalist Angela Frenda, where he collects his story between private tales and unique recipes.

Chef, entrepreneur, writer, television host, he is also a tender husband and father enthusiastic talking about his wife Wilma and daughters Arizona and Alexandra , with eyes dreamy and loving.

We met him to get to know him better and to let him tell us something of himself and his latest business projects.

Let’s start with your book: Cacio & Pepe, was it difficult to write about you? How were you as a child and what do you still carry inside and defend that child who made the entrepreneur you are today great?

I was five when, every Sunday morning, I woke up with the scent of ragù at home. I got up very early and went to the kitchen to watch my father’s hands move in absolute safety between the stoves, plates and knives. Those moments have the unforgettable flavor of the meat sauce that floods the slice of bread for Sunday breakfast. They are atmospheres marked by warmth and an unforgettable emotion. My father’s smile in describing a recipe to me, his advice as a special gift, have developed today my being a chef and the desire to redo that dish with the same emotion as the first time. And there was always music: from the radio to my Walkman, with which I listened to my first playlists created on the cassette tape.

After graduation, I embarked on cruise ships where I had my apprenticeship for three years, between stoves and dishes to wash. The alarm clock rang at 5.30 in the morning and from the beginning I understood that the orders of the head chef had to be performed without overstretching. I got a lot of frying pans on my head for a mistake! Only today do I realize how justified he was the discipline demanded.

The ship has been my home and school on the go. A world made up of many stories. Evenings in love, wrong recipes, delicious successes, unexpected encounters, incredible places, sincere smiles and stories between friends. Of looks with which to share beer and music. At nights lying in bed with his hands behind his neck, imagining one day reading of the menu by: chef Alessandro Borghese. I well remember the head chef’s welcome speech based on humility, talent accompanied by study, passion and respect for raw materials; these are words that still accompany my career in the company born after meeting my wife. When we met, Wilma was working for a multinational: together we decided to change my job, which has become ours.

Our company, AB Normal - Eatertainment Company, is based in Milan and deals with restaurants, catering, food consulting and television productions “. Being an entrepreneur today means being a simple person who makes work an act of devotion. And if you have good instincts and believe in yourself, then it means you have courage. It is not rhetoric, it is as if you were the captain in the middle of the sea, you know that to keep the bar straight, it takes preparation and experience, but it takes responsibility and if you have it, then you have courage. The courage to have brought the world of catering where others have not. To make it become debate, meeting, dialogue, show and growth.

Ten years ago it was unthinkable to be a fan of a Chef of the kitchen, or rather, it was unthinkable to be a fan of a Chef of the kitchen! The television programs in recent years have brought new professionals in the sector, a very high increase from those who write only about food to those who put their face to promote brands, before it was unusual to be present in university theses as a benchmark, it was also the period where the hotel school was not a favorite.

That past, allowed me to follow my intuition until today and this takes courage

Did the passion for the roar of engines come before that for the kitchen?

You first put your hands on a steering wheel or a handlebar, and today how do you manage to cultivate this passion for speed?

I live on passions!

In my veins runs blood and engine oil! My grandfather had the Borghese auto parts, on the Riviera di Chiaia. He had also been a car driver, he raced at the Grand Prix and lost his life during a race. My father grew up in a garage, he raced on motorcycles and was a fan of beautiful cars, he had a Giulietta Spider on which he raced on the black asphalt of the Italian highways. I’ve always been a lover of open mufflers and made-up mopeds. I started doing motocross with a KX125, then I moved on to the KX250, the CR250 Honda and then I moved on to racing on the track with the Hornet 600 and 900. I have had many Honda bikesVTR 1000, Yamaha RD350, Suzuki Gamma 250, Husqvarna from super motard and today I switched to Harleys to have the freedom of the motorcyclist with the satisfaction of the twin cylinder.

With the birth of my daughters I have calmed down, my set-up has gone from two to four wheels. As soon as I have a Saturday or Sunday free I wake up at half past six in the morning and go to the track with my GT3.A few months ago, in Monza, I was chatting with Guido Meda who was telling me about a competition with historic motorcycles in which he would have participated . At one point he says to me: “... I still take a door with the twenty-year-olds on the bike.” I, on the other hand, take a door with the twentyyear-olds on a Porsche on the track, and I do less harm, I replied. It is a passion still alive that burns inside me.

You have inside the entrepreneurial spirit of your father Luigi Borghese and the naturalness of an actor in front of the cameras of your mother Barbara Bouchet. As a child of art, you certainly had to work twice as hard to demonstrate your talent, you can tell us about your story a personal defeat and victory whose teachings do you still carry in today?

I learned a lot from my parents, but in reality I chose the path myself. From my father I took the gastronomic side, from a sanguine Neapolitan he was a homemade lover of Neapolitan and Roman cuisine. I remember the ragù put on the stove early in the morning that “pappuliava” for hours, and then became pacchero or spaghettone. And the next day, with what was left over, he made us the macaroni omelette. My mother eats because her body needs food, I became familiar with showbiz from her. They taught me values such as humility, effort, education, respect that are functional in every field. I took them to the kitchen.

“The luxury of simplicity” is your Meme. Doing things with love seems to be the essence of the “sacred fire”, the philosophy that fuels your multifaceted projects, and your way of cooking. What fuels your enthusiasm and your vitality?

Maintaining simplicity in the kitchen means many things: it could mean reducing a dish to its basic shape or focusing on an ingredient to experience its essence. For example, mine “Cacio & Pepe”, I wanted to pay homage to it as a flagship dish in my restaurant, persevere in research and enhance and enrich the raw materials, with the luxury of processing techniques, with the luxury of being able to receive ingredients from careful suppliers and the simplicity of being able to use your own hands to transform them. In any case, “simple” in a kitchen rarely means “easy”. It’s a cuisine that has evolved over time, which has gone further and then returned with the luxury of making you feel good! It is also the name of my restaurant is in its name: Alessandro Borghese - luxury of simplicity. Once my guests cross the threshold of my Milanese restaurant they realize that they have entered my world.

They are fascinated by the materials, finishes and stories that the photos inside the elevator tell as they go up to the first floor. Crossing the portal, the style recalls the splendor of the 1930s, the sumptuous cruise ships that sailed the oceans and the luxurious hotels in the skyscrapers of New York. It is an environment that makes you feel pampered and at ease. An atmosphere that stimulates the mind to discover the infinite details and prepares the stomach for the food and wine journey of my kitchen. There is a lot of my life set between the joints of each finish: my travels, my work experiences and all my memories, which I have set in the form of images in the elevator shaft. Every object, furniture and even the colors of my restaurant are made to measure.

Therestaurant “Alessandro Borghese - the luxury of simplicity” is an emotion rather than following a philosophy, I want to please those who come to visit me, I want to make my guests happy. An environment with a highly refined, personal aesthetic character, which has the presumption of revolutionizing the restaurants of tomorrow, making them lose the label of places dedicated to the administration of food, making the environments exclusive where you can rediscover the pleasure of conviviality. An environment open to everyone and at any time, where you can spend time enjoying the pleasure of being surrounded by a refined environment, rich in culture, art and food. Picasso said: “For my torment and perhaps for my joy, I arrange things according to my passions…”. Inspiration also comes from leaving your kitchen and going to the streets, markets, around. The evocative power of music has the gift of giving travels, paths, dreams and emotions with pure and simple perception, just as taste always gives new sensations that tease, spoil and surprise the palate.

Inspiration is important, and comes from an idea, from a song, or from a painting. When I enter the kitchen, I feel like Pollock in front of a blank canvas. The mind takes over on reason and is inspired by passions. The eyes are unable to follow the quick hands guided by the muse of art. From the desire to create an emotion in those who, shortly thereafter, will satiate the own spirit with something good, something beautiful. I often arrive in the morning and tell my kids: “Last night I got the inspiration for a new dish!”. Together we set the general lines and then we test the dishes. I remember that my fish sandwich and my Savarin were born after that walk in the Louvre with good rock in my ears. Food provokes and communicates to us: through colors, sensations, elements, light… it only depends on what you can see and hear.

This year you have brought Italian tradition mixed with the experimentation that distinguishes you overseas in the Maldivian resorts of Constance Hotels, with gourmet dinners and live cooking events. What did you like about this experience of “luxury and simplicity”?

A WONDERFUL experience! And then do you want to add the pleasure of cooking with a sea view after the service? I wanted to make a blend of both Italian and Maldivian recipes, also because every time I go there, I enjoy playing with the local chefs and their products. For those who do my job it is customary to go abroad and take something with them, a custom that falls within the own gastronomic baggage. And in the suitcases for the return I put some good tamarind and excellent spices. I hope to use them as soon as possible and I am sure that some interesting dishes will come out, revised in an Italian key.

Italian cuisine is a driving force for a global restart! A priceless heritage that produces taste, style and beauty every day; I had further confirmation in the Maldives, when the international guests of Constance Halaveli and Constance Moofushi, accustomed to choosing and recognizing the best, showed great enthusiasm for my cuisine during the live cooking and sincere appreciation for the signature dishes "luxury of simplicity "dedicated to gala dinners. We set up a fish menu, I chose jack fish (Dhigali Haa), a fish similar to our sea bass, worked with Italian techniques but adding the local raw material and developing together an unusual preparation; to guarantee guests the quality to be enjoyed immersed in the paradisiacal atoll.

Creativity in the kitchen and dining room, passionate, you have provided a location for contemporary art for famous and emerging artists, making your Milan restaurant AB - The luxury of simplicity also an exhibition gallery. You can tell us how this initiative was born in which works of art are the background for your creatives menu to enjoy all-round beauty?

Music, art, my travels, my experiences are a source of inspiration for my dishes. Music makes me feel good. It inspires me. I grew up with a mixture of influences that originate mainly from hard rock and heavy metal of the seventies: Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath. Then came eighties pop and rock, from Depeche Mode to Guns N ‘Roses. Later I switched to listening to jazz and singing songs in a band with friends of Jamiroquai. In my Milanese restaurant you listen to music with a DJ Set and some vinyls come from my private collection. If art doesn’t take you out of your comfort zone, what’s the point?

He has to like it, he has to provoke you, he has to make you question. Otherwise it’s just decoration. On the contrary, creativity and style, which has always been present in my work, have inspired the mise en place of our events signed “AB - the luxury of simplicity”. I absolutely wanted to, do to know who comes to visit us, the art-cuisine combination in person in my restaurant, hosting both established artists in the national and international market, and emerging talents. My restaurant-gallery “Alessandro Borghese - the luxury of simplicity” hosts, in Milan in the heart of Citylife, personal and collective exhibitions in different creative expressions that form the backdrop to the menus of the restaurant, to ‘taste’ beauty in the round. Paintings, sculptures, photographs and design objects flank the works of the permanent collection and embellish and decorate the multipurpose spaces of the restaurant. The kitchen, like art, is the expression of those who make it! The combination of stomach, mind and head and for this reason each kitchen is unique. In my dishes I describe my state of mind, exactly as an artist does in a work of art; cooking is also art.

Your rock soul is the essence of your “Alessandro Borghese Kitchen Sound” program, a video encyclopedia, an innovative culinary journey to the rhythm of music, which this year has reached its seventh season. Over the years it has become a TV cult with over 1000 episodes broadcast, and several dishes told with enthusiasm. Which dish did you like most to “set music” in this new edition and what news will there be?

Alessandro Borghese - Kitchen Sound is the only true video encyclopedia of recipes for all tastes, for young and old, for vegans and enthusiasts. I wanted to satisfy the countless requests that I receive on a daily basis: from the fearful mother about how to make her children eat vegetables, to the professionals in the sector looking for new ideas. From 20 September the new season, produced from Food Media Factory, is broadcast on Sky Uno every day at lunchtime.

From my laboratory I will take you into my world, in seven stages, which correspond to as many thematic strands. Kids: dedicated to the little ones with the pediatrician in the studio, Amici My, where many colleagues will come to visit me, the wonderful Great Classics and the quick recipes, the comfortable ones for walking but also on the sofa… On The Road! And then, the delicious Pastry and Bakery. And for the first time I present some dishes from my restaurant the “The luxury of simplicity”. A unique journey with industry professionals, colleagues and friends. A sensory experience through the evocative power of music which, like food, has the gift of giving travels, itineraries, dreams and emotions. Easy ingredients and preparations to be made at home, excellent raw materials, my music playlists, my combinations, my secrets and essential accessories for your kitchen. In search of taste to train it towards surprises on the palate. Food as well as music has the gift of giving travels, paths, dreams and emotions with pure and simple perception, it always gives new sensations that tease, spoil and surprise the palate. In my recipes you can find my travels, my passions, my music, I place my playlists on my website, on my social networks and on my television programs. There is no life without “rhythm” and without food, this is “Alessandro Borghese Kitchen Sound “.

With your television program “Alessandro Borghese 4 restaurants”, you have brought the backstage of restaurateurs to the fore. How was the innovative format, active since 2015, and what is the strength of this beloved program, now in its eighth edition?

“Alessandro Borghese 4 Restaurants” is a program that I care a lot about and with my team we have tried to give viewers a broad sincere window on the varied world of catering Italian and to travel around our beautiful country. A clear message far from the usual catering circuits and lobbies, which reaches the homes of all Italians and the public appreciates for the generosity and sincerity of the images. If a competitor is not used to being organized and prepared in his daily working life, you can be sure that he will not be. in any of my kitchen inspections. This comes to viewers, they greatly appreciate the veracity of the program. The sticker displayed outside the restaurant, of the program logo, afterwards each episode has strengthened communication and helped many restaurants to relaunch. In the new season that will be broadcast on the Sky platform there are many new features, new graphics and new stops for a tasty tour around Italy.

Discovering and rediscovering many territorial identities and the flavors of the place. Stories of people who tell themselves through their restaurants.

It’s nice to see families united in a common passion or two guys investing in catering. There are many even bizarre formulas, with different ideas and business, there is the philosopher who has made a creed about cooking, who thinks of cooking as a poem for the palate and who wants to keep the tradition of the typical dish alive. It is curious to note how there are different reasons for how someone starts doing this job or for those who have handed it down for generations; there is the couple who want to put themselves into practice, the young enthusiast who gets involved out of passion or to change their lifestyle.

The van with the program logo can be recognized everywhere when it is parked, stopped at the traffic light, placed for a shoot near the seafront, on social Web the photos next to the black door go crazy: hugging boyfriends, friends with selfie sticks and the child in stroller.

I am very happy with the success of the program, there is a lot of curiosity in the city or in the village when we arrive to meet the restaurateurs and taste the cuisine of the restaurant in the competition, from the main square to the most hidden coves, the location comes alive and wants to understand which both the restaurant in the race. Filming takes place in historic centers, in places of major cultural and tourist interest. A visit for those who follow us affectionately from home to enter the architectural and artistic wonders, where I too enter with immense pleasure in the reality of those places and in the daily lives of those who belong to them.

What distinguishes your new coking show “Alessandro Borghese Piatto Ricco” dedicated to amateur cooks, why did you choose Gennaro Esposito for this adventure?

Programs, from reality shows to big shows, evolve over time. The answers are given by the famous share numbers, people want to get involved and want to have fun. I am very satisfied. The audience is enjoying the program very much and the audience figures tell us that we have worked in the right direction. I receive a lot of affection from those who follow me and there is no shortage of requests to be a guest on TV! The project was developed in one year. I wanted an innovative format that would break the traditional cooking programs with a different interpretation: the strategy in the kitchen in a cooking game! The skills required are what we need they belong, we cooks are those of the last second, unexpected events, like when someone from the brigade is missing: we are problem solvers! I’m happy with the audience’s response to get involved and figure out whether or not to play with your pot. Gennaro is one of the masters of Italian cuisine and is a friend, a travel companion who, with my plans, has entered the homes of all Italians. When he is in Milan he always comes to enjoy it my cooking at the restaurant, because he loves it.

Let’s talk about America, how long have you lived there, in what period of your life and What do you carry inside of your American experience?

I was born in San Francisco cold for the climate and warm for the air you breathe, my first memories are the summer holidays spent with my overseas uncles. Sun. Home. Ocean. Flower Power. Highway. Cold for the climate and hot for the air you breathe. Today I go back more rarely, but when it happens, I love to take the motorbike with Wilma and go to the Haight-Ashbury district and get lost in the vinyl shops to listen to the energy of the music; Philip Wallach sang Blondheim, better known as Scott McKenzie. Such a strange vibration. People in motion.

There’s a whole generation. With a new explanation.. California for me it is also surfing, in Bolinas bay, I find the “hang loose” of my friends and that sense of freedom on my board. Those places have a magical aura for me. I have seen them change, evolve and some, in spite of myself, even disappear. But one thing always remains the same. Permanent.

Durable. The pleasure of finding the apple strudel prepared by my aunt, my grandmother’s recipe. With each bite the memory of that taste is renewed, as if it could be decades compress in the few moments locked up between one bite and the next. I see myself as little more than a teenager wandering among the colors and sounds of a city that I always carry in my heart.

We know that you like to take inspiration for ingredients all over the world, which made in Italy ingredient would you not give up and which made in America?

The United States was born from a fusion of several ethnic groups, certainly the choice is wide, I love the “beef pastrami”, the typical marinated, filleted and spiced meat with a particular method of preservation, widespread as street food, for me a a must is to eat it at Katz’s Deli, especially when I’m in New York. And obviously if we talk about made in Italy, we have created a universal language on food: pasta, cappuccino, spaghetti, parmigiano, espresso, pizza.

You can find yourself in any place in the world, speaking in a language that is not yours, that the word “pasta” remains for everyone the synonym par excellence of the Bel Paese. With the Armando company, I had the opportunity to experiment, to try, to give birth to a new project from my passion for cooking: Spaghettone, the largest of Armando’s long pasta shapes. I wanted to give the lovers of good food a new die of tough, tasty pasta, with perfect cooking and bite resistance. Spaghettone wraps itself in the sauce without reserve, releasing emotions, pleasure and the intense aroma of wheat. I could never give up to pasta!

And finally, if a genius could grant your wish, which one would you express?

Only one? If I reveal it, then it doesn’t come true!