[Applause]
okay I’m a little nervous hello everyone
people always ask me how I managed to
become a famous chef a woman chef when
95% of the chefs are men as a matter of
fact sometimes it happens it still
happens they ask can you call the chef
because we want to congratulate whenever
they tell me that they didn’t mean well
I don’t go to the table but whenever
they call they asked to call the chef
and I go there sometimes they look at me
says oh you’re a woman it actually
happens more in the bigger restaurant I
have two restaurants and one is smaller
it’s the upscale so people actually go
there knowing to find me but the other
one it’s a much bigger restaurant so
there’s always also also almost the
belief that a woman cannot manage you
know be a chef and manage a bigger
restaurant I come from the south and I
always ask myself since I was a kid if I
wanted to live by the set of rules
actually decided by society I come from
the south of Italy by the way if you
didn’t realize that by my accent and so
as a as a kid and as a woman probably
the only thing that people would expect
you to be is to grow up get married have
a couple of kids and eventually you know
find a job if if you are if you belong
like I did from an upper-middle class
probably they expect you to be a
professional so that’s how I ended up
going from foreign languages high school
to actually law I graduated in law I
worked for a couple of years in a law
firm a very famous law firm in my in my
city
until one day I decided that I want you
to take a big trip you know went to the
United States
well I discovered there that there was a
completely different set of rules
people thought differently people walk
differently people you know did
everything differently and it was almost
like a revelation it’s like oh wow
there’s not
side of the world that actually live and
live well with a completely set
different set of rules and that’s when I
decided I took a big step and I said I
am going to move I want to learn
anything that that’s to learn in the
United States and that was actually one
of the first of the other countries that
I wanted to visit then I actually never
ended up doing that I stayed in the
States for 16 years
I worked as a graphic designer
because you see I was not the artist of
the family my mom was the artist my
sister is an architect so I was not the
artist well while they’re living by
myself actually found out that I had a
creative part of myself and I went
through ten years of graphic design I
loved cooking and I finally decided that
probably the best means to express my
creativity was food and I ended up
enrolling and graduating in culinary
arts so basically the the you know the
thought was that I really wanted that
could become what I wanted to my mother
especially but in reality my family
really taught me that I could be whoever
I wanted my mom used to say all the time
you know
come on phrase if you can dream of it
you can be and that’s exactly what
happened to me being a girl from the
south I have many many me too stories
you know like anybody else like any
other woman probably in every single
part of the world but what I wanted to
do in reality is underline stress to
speaking out many many women right now
are speaking out speak out is a word a
verb that I love because a lot of people
especially women have a problem in
speaking out it actually presume they
assume that the person right in front of
us understands and knows exactly what we
are going to say no that’s not true
I am going to say exactly what I wanted
to so basically I wanted to inspire I
wanted to become somebody that people
was the leader of the pack since I was a
kid so I wanted to do something that
people would remember again inspired by
and I started thinking that if I wanted
to be listened I had to be successful in
the field where I operated I define
myself since I think I was probably 16
years old a terrorist from within so I
wanted to be successful in the field
where I operated as a graphic designer
first and then as a chef so that I could
change the rules the rules I put
together one point you know they asked
me hey you want to do a recipe book we
want to do like great porn food pictures
I’m like I’m not interested in a porn
foot pictures book there are like many
people that do like major job and great
food and you know wonderful I wanted to
communicate something and what I wanted
to communicate is my set of rules
because you see if there are certain
rules that inspired me and that helped
me to get where I am right now most
likely there would be one girl probably
the one that walks through the door of
my restaurant shy dad for herself not
really self-confident that might get
inspired and say hey you know she did it
I can do it so I put together this book
with ten rules do not worry I am NOT
gonna list end rules because otherwise
will get really boring so I picked four
and being a chef this is my my my-my-my
world you know this is how I really try
to push things through through all these
principles and as a chef of course you
know I used food to actually define what
my rules are so the first one is to find
the strength to different you know as
you can see I got no problem in doing
that but this this was conceived in 2006
consider that my restaurant is a very
modern restaurant with a modern
contaminated kitchen that’s how I define
my cuisine in the most traditional place
around its interests ever which
means across the Tiber which means
basically you are surrounded by
trattoria traditional food cacio e pepe
carbonara for whoever knows anything
about Italian cuisine but that’s it
that’s all you find well in 2006 in this
restaurant that had ambitions you know
wanted to get a Michelin star or wanted
to do a high-end food I came up I came
up with this panino we’re talking about
2006 in Italy nobody has ever imagined
thought conceived to serve a panino
because people like my partner looked at
me and said why would anybody pay to
come over here and we’ll let them eat
with their hands I’m like well because I
wanna shorten the distance between high
end cuisine and whoever eats my food so
I did you know I like a high-end panino
it’s a licorice pnina with a foie gras
escalope a fake mango ketchup at Paseo
mayo and in reality there there are
chips but I used to do rice chips so you
basically had like a hamburger and in
the beginning when I put it on the menu
people literally they looked at me and I
said it’s never gonna it’s never going
to be successful
I can guarantee you none Olly was the
most successful dish I’ve ever done it
was actually my breakthrough because I
was like this is exactly what I want to
do I want to take high-end cuisine and
propose it a street level which I went
all the way down now I got food trucks
for instance so not lower the quality
but just proposing in a different way so
that’s what I did this is my first
breakthrough with my food the second one
ayah all I like travelling and I always
think that food is culture you can
literally do a lot of things you can
transmit the culture of a population
through food in a certain period of time
so I decided that I wanted to reunite my
two cultures my two souls my American
soul with my Italian soul so I went to
the States
I went to New York I was lucky enough I
had friends
so I actually staged at Katz’s I staged
the rubs and I staged at Dickinson farm
to learn how to make pastrami so I went
back home in Rome there’s the so called
ghetto it’s basically the Jewish quarter
and they have pastrami where the regular
basket Ronnie made with beef brisket
while I took the awful part awfully is
very popular Roman tradition so a veal
tongue and I made a pastrami out of veal
tongue and I served it in a very elegant
way with actually a mustard ice cream
pickled vegetables by us it was a real
success then I took it and I’m made it
into a panino and that in 2013 gave me
like the buzz panino award in Italy
because I loved it you know it’s like
high-end food made with traditional
ingredients and brought it a street
level loved it then this one well it’s
never going to happen never gonna make a
dish that is this beautiful
this is contagious it it was in 2000 and
now 14 I think I fell in love with what
fell in love I actually was really
concerned about the bee problem the CCD
the colony collapse disorder that
affected all bees all around the world
so I decided to bring the issue to the
panel to identity tag illusive which is
the most important conventionally which
actually has an international crowd so I
brought it up and I came up with this
dish I actually cooked the honey
type in a pressure cooker another
breakthrough because people you know
always assume pressure cooker home
cooking in reality it’s not true at all
a pressure cooker can really help us out
in a lot of situation and wanted again
to kind of like shorten the distance
between high-end cuisine and regular
cooking street food cooking so the tripe
was cooked in a pressure cooker and this
was inspired to the menudo soup for
anybody with mexican affiliated or loved
loves Mexican foods they know what I’m
talking
it’s basically chili peppers it’s lime
and it’s stripe and the Texan version
where I lived I lived in Texas for nine
years
they put potato which is under and it
was there was a broth made with
fermented honey and so Mead I brought up
the issue of the the bees not only
inspiring myself through the shape so
that was the graphic designer in me but
plus with internationality and the
fermented food because fermented food
has been one of the things I really got
inspired by a very simple ingredient can
really become something else can really
reach its potential the maximum of its
potential through fermentation and with
our job respective herself and the world
we live in that was a principle that I
have got inspired for this dish
and finally nicotine are saluting in
consumer what does it mean this is the
Puglia
I’m from Puglia I’m from the south of
Italy but I wanted to concentrate
flavors and I wanted to demonstrate that
even though you have always the same
ingredients around there’s no need to go
and look for something that people don’t
even know how to pronounce myself
included and I wanted to demonstrate
that you can never ever and you should
never ever stop learning so these are
like absolutely ok it’s a hundred
percent broccoli rabe which have been
sauteed with anchovies exactly like we
do it in puglia but and then the broth
it’s only two ingredients the broth is
actually consumer a distilled consumer
with leftovers Grana Padano so it’s
eco-sustainable or it is inspired to it
aims to be enco sustainable these are
two ingredients consider that pretty
much every single plate dish on a hearth
is done with at least three ingredients
but I wanted to concentrate flavors make
it simple enough but simple doesn’t mean
simplified things simple means that P
can understand because you see I always
think that cooking is something that
needs to interact with whoever you sit
in it because otherwise it becomes like
a steel painting that nobody can
understand I won always a relationship
between whatever is eating will end the
person who is hitting it at the end of
the day I traveled a lot I work a lot
people say that I sleep four hours a
night
that’s not sure about four and a half
but I love what I do and it’s the
passion that’s my legacy at the end of
the day I think that being successful as
a professional in the kitchen is as hard
as many other for any other woman to be
successful in any professional field
because I consider my field a
professional field and but I
demonstrated that we are capable to do
so
so my legacy what is it that I want to
transmit what is it that I want to
laughed a little want to leave to the
people I work with I am so picky in
choosing the people I work with because
they have to be inspired if I see
somebody they is not passionate about
what they do and I can guarantee you the
right right is the second there are none
as a matter of fact I have to tell them
you cannot go to the restaurant before
12 o’clock otherwise there will be there
at 10 o’clock in the morning and we only
work a night
our service is 7:30 so they are all
passionate but really what I want to
transmit it my legacy is the way I treat
people my goal is to find special in
women that sparkle and understand how to
develop that sparkle up to the point
that that little girl that I was telling
you in the beginning the the the one
that came through my door and said maybe
I started too late
Oh sweetie how old are you 19
I’m like no I turned I change career 32
so you got plenty of time I want that
girl too
actually become the best like a
fermented food the best of what she can
be that is my legacy that is what I’m
going for it I’m really thank you [Applause]
okay I’m a little nervous hello everyone
people always ask me how I managed to
become a famous chef a woman chef when
95% of the chefs are men as a matter of
fact sometimes it happens it still
happens they ask can you call the chef
because we want to congratulate whenever
they tell me that they didn’t mean well
I don’t go to the table but whenever
they call they asked to call the chef
and I go there sometimes they look at me
says oh you’re a woman it actually
happens more in the bigger restaurant I
have two restaurants and one is smaller
it’s the upscale so people actually go
there knowing to find me but the other
one it’s a much bigger restaurant so
there’s always also also almost the
belief that a woman cannot manage you
know be a chef and manage a bigger
restaurant I come from the south and I
always ask myself since I was a kid if I
wanted to live by the set of rules
actually decided by society I come from
the south of Italy by the way if you
didn’t realize that by my accent and so
as a as a kid and as a woman probably
the only thing that people would expect
you to be is to grow up get married have
a couple of kids and eventually you know
find a job if if you are if you belong
like I did from an upper-middle class
probably they expect you to be a
professional so that’s how I ended up
going from foreign languages high school
to actually law I graduated in law I
worked for a couple of years in a law
firm a very famous law firm in my in my
city
until one day I decided that I want you
to take a big trip you know went to the
United States
well I discovered there that there was a
completely different set of rules
people thought differently people walk
differently people you know did
everything differently and it was almost
like a revelation it’s like oh wow
there’s not
side of the world that actually live and
live well with a completely set
different set of rules and that’s when I
decided I took a big step and I said I
am going to move I want to learn
anything that that’s to learn in the
United States and that was actually one
of the first of the other countries that
I wanted to visit then I actually never
ended up doing that I stayed in the
States for 16 years
I worked as a graphic designer
because you see I was not the artist of
the family my mom was the artist my
sister is an architect so I was not the
artist well while they’re living by
myself actually found out that I had a
creative part of myself and I went
through ten years of graphic design I
loved cooking and I finally decided that
probably the best means to express my
creativity was food and I ended up
enrolling and graduating in culinary
arts so basically the the you know the
thought was that I really wanted that
could become what I wanted to my mother
especially but in reality my family
really taught me that I could be whoever
I wanted my mom used to say all the time
you know
come on phrase if you can dream of it
you can be and that’s exactly what
happened to me being a girl from the
south I have many many me too stories
you know like anybody else like any
other woman probably in every single
part of the world but what I wanted to
do in reality is underline stress to
speaking out many many women right now
are speaking out speak out is a word a
verb that I love because a lot of people
especially women have a problem in
speaking out it actually presume they
assume that the person right in front of
us understands and knows exactly what we
are going to say no that’s not true
I am going to say exactly what I wanted
to so basically I wanted to inspire I
wanted to become somebody that people
was the leader of the pack since I was a
kid so I wanted to do something that
people would remember again inspired by
and I started thinking that if I wanted
to be listened I had to be successful in
the field where I operated I define
myself since I think I was probably 16
years old a terrorist from within so I
wanted to be successful in the field
where I operated as a graphic designer
first and then as a chef so that I could
change the rules the rules I put
together one point you know they asked
me hey you want to do a recipe book we
want to do like great porn food pictures
I’m like I’m not interested in a porn
foot pictures book there are like many
people that do like major job and great
food and you know wonderful I wanted to
communicate something and what I wanted
to communicate is my set of rules
because you see if there are certain
rules that inspired me and that helped
me to get where I am right now most
likely there would be one girl probably
the one that walks through the door of
my restaurant shy dad for herself not
really self-confident that might get
inspired and say hey you know she did it
I can do it so I put together this book
with ten rules do not worry I am NOT
gonna list end rules because otherwise
will get really boring so I picked four
and being a chef this is my my my-my-my
world you know this is how I really try
to push things through through all these
principles and as a chef of course you
know I used food to actually define what
my rules are so the first one is to find
the strength to different you know as
you can see I got no problem in doing
that but this this was conceived in 2006
consider that my restaurant is a very
modern restaurant with a modern
contaminated kitchen that’s how I define
my cuisine in the most traditional place
around its interests ever which
means across the Tiber which means
basically you are surrounded by
trattoria traditional food cacio e pepe
carbonara for whoever knows anything
about Italian cuisine but that’s it
that’s all you find well in 2006 in this
restaurant that had ambitions you know
wanted to get a Michelin star or wanted
to do a high-end food I came up I came
up with this panino we’re talking about
2006 in Italy nobody has ever imagined
thought conceived to serve a panino
because people like my partner looked at
me and said why would anybody pay to
come over here and we’ll let them eat
with their hands I’m like well because I
wanna shorten the distance between high
end cuisine and whoever eats my food so
I did you know I like a high-end panino
it’s a licorice pnina with a foie gras
escalope a fake mango ketchup at Paseo
mayo and in reality there there are
chips but I used to do rice chips so you
basically had like a hamburger and in
the beginning when I put it on the menu
people literally they looked at me and I
said it’s never gonna it’s never going
to be successful
I can guarantee you none Olly was the
most successful dish I’ve ever done it
was actually my breakthrough because I
was like this is exactly what I want to
do I want to take high-end cuisine and
propose it a street level which I went
all the way down now I got food trucks
for instance so not lower the quality
but just proposing in a different way so
that’s what I did this is my first
breakthrough with my food the second one
ayah all I like travelling and I always
think that food is culture you can
literally do a lot of things you can
transmit the culture of a population
through food in a certain period of time
so I decided that I wanted to reunite my
two cultures my two souls my American
soul with my Italian soul so I went to
the States
I went to New York I was lucky enough I
had friends
so I actually staged at Katz’s I staged
the rubs and I staged at Dickinson farm
to learn how to make pastrami so I went
back home in Rome there’s the so called
ghetto it’s basically the Jewish quarter
and they have pastrami where the regular
basket Ronnie made with beef brisket
while I took the awful part awfully is
very popular Roman tradition so a veal
tongue and I made a pastrami out of veal
tongue and I served it in a very elegant
way with actually a mustard ice cream
pickled vegetables by us it was a real
success then I took it and I’m made it
into a panino and that in 2013 gave me
like the buzz panino award in Italy
because I loved it you know it’s like
high-end food made with traditional
ingredients and brought it a street
level loved it then this one well it’s
never going to happen never gonna make a
dish that is this beautiful
this is contagious it it was in 2000 and
now 14 I think I fell in love with what
fell in love I actually was really
concerned about the bee problem the CCD
the colony collapse disorder that
affected all bees all around the world
so I decided to bring the issue to the
panel to identity tag illusive which is
the most important conventionally which
actually has an international crowd so I
brought it up and I came up with this
dish I actually cooked the honey
type in a pressure cooker another
breakthrough because people you know
always assume pressure cooker home
cooking in reality it’s not true at all
a pressure cooker can really help us out
in a lot of situation and wanted again
to kind of like shorten the distance
between high-end cuisine and regular
cooking street food cooking so the tripe
was cooked in a pressure cooker and this
was inspired to the menudo soup for
anybody with mexican affiliated or loved
loves Mexican foods they know what I’m
talking
it’s basically chili peppers it’s lime
and it’s stripe and the Texan version
where I lived I lived in Texas for nine
years
they put potato which is under and it
was there was a broth made with
fermented honey and so Mead I brought up
the issue of the the bees not only
inspiring myself through the shape so
that was the graphic designer in me but
plus with internationality and the
fermented food because fermented food
has been one of the things I really got
inspired by a very simple ingredient can
really become something else can really
reach its potential the maximum of its
potential through fermentation and with
our job respective herself and the world
we live in that was a principle that I
have got inspired for this dish
and finally nicotine are saluting in
consumer what does it mean this is the
Puglia
I’m from Puglia I’m from the south of
Italy but I wanted to concentrate
flavors and I wanted to demonstrate that
even though you have always the same
ingredients around there’s no need to go
and look for something that people don’t
even know how to pronounce myself
included and I wanted to demonstrate
that you can never ever and you should
never ever stop learning so these are
like absolutely ok it’s a hundred
percent broccoli rabe which have been
sauteed with anchovies exactly like we
do it in puglia but and then the broth
it’s only two ingredients the broth is
actually consumer a distilled consumer
with leftovers Grana Padano so it’s
eco-sustainable or it is inspired to it
aims to be enco sustainable these are
two ingredients consider that pretty
much every single plate dish on a hearth
is done with at least three ingredients
but I wanted to concentrate flavors make
it simple enough but simple doesn’t mean
simplified things simple means that P
can understand because you see I always
think that cooking is something that
needs to interact with whoever you sit
in it because otherwise it becomes like
a steel painting that nobody can
understand I won always a relationship
between whatever is eating will end the
person who is hitting it at the end of
the day I traveled a lot I work a lot
people say that I sleep four hours a
night
that’s not sure about four and a half
but I love what I do and it’s the
passion that’s my legacy at the end of
the day I think that being successful as
a professional in the kitchen is as hard
as many other for any other woman to be
successful in any professional field
because I consider my field a
professional field and but I
demonstrated that we are capable to do
so
so my legacy what is it that I want to
transmit what is it that I want to
laughed a little want to leave to the
people I work with I am so picky in
choosing the people I work with because
they have to be inspired if I see
somebody they is not passionate about
what they do and I can guarantee you the
right right is the second there are none
as a matter of fact I have to tell them
you cannot go to the restaurant before
12 o’clock otherwise there will be there
at 10 o’clock in the morning and we only
work a night
our service is 7:30 so they are all
passionate but really what I want to
transmit it my legacy is the way I treat
people my goal is to find special in
women that sparkle and understand how to
develop that sparkle up to the point
that that little girl that I was telling
you in the beginning the the the one
that came through my door and said maybe
I started too late
Oh sweetie how old are you 19
I’m like no I turned I change career 32
so you got plenty of time I want that
girl too
actually become the best like a
fermented food the best of what she can
be that is my legacy that is what I’m
going for it I’m really thank you [Applause]
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