My name is Riccardo, I was born and raised in Rome, I am 28 years old and I am a chef, and a sommelier, and I have a degree in food and wine sciences. These titles are what my experiences have given me. How do I like to define myself? An expert lover of Italian food and wine.
I was born into a small but very warm family, where my “nonnas” Lidia and Isabella (aka “Ninni”) are masters of the culinary tradition, but it was above all thanks to my mom Giovanna that I developed a deep love for cooking. At every meal, I was able to learn the manual skills and traditional recipes she made and, at the same time take an example from her great creativity in the kitchen. Cooking together, trying recipes, and making pasta by hand, were the first steps that determined my vocation.
After high school studies in languages, another great passion of mine, thanks to which I can say that I speak English, Spanish and Portuguese well, I decide not to continue my studies and this leads me, thanks to family and friends, to work for six months in Angola and then to study Portuguese in Lisbon for five months. Experiences, even these, helped to build my path toward the world of cooking. At 18, I found myself having to cook and eat by myself and I realized that I did not mind at all and that indeed, it was a precious moment in my days.
Back in Italy, on the strength of this awareness, I decided to enroll in the Italian Chef Academy cooking school, where I studied, deepened, and learned the profession of the chef. At the end of school, I began an exciting career path in the field of Roman restaurants, in various places and positions, which allowed me to really enter the world of cuisine as a restaurant, putting myself into play and understanding its virtues and limits.
However, after a few years, I decided that I wanted to combine practical experience with the theoretical study of this wonderful world and I enrolled in the new degree course in Food and Wine Sciences at the University of Roma Tre. At the same time, I am passionate about the world of wine and I also enrolled in the course to become a Sommelier at the Italian Sommelier Foundation (FIS).
In three years, I graduated with an experimental thesis on the production of sparkling wine based on a three-month internship in a Lazio winery and a few months later, the Sommelier licence arrived with the final exam of the course.
Trying to understand what my path was at this point, I began to amateur cultivate one of my greatest passions: making fresh pasta. I go back to studying the techniques, and the types of pasta and I do a lot, a lot, a lot of practice, to try to achieve better and better results. It is an art and as such, it needs exercise and passion.
After less than a month, the love for cooking, and the leitmotif of my experiences, finds a way to combine with my passion for languages and abroad through a new project on cooking classes. Thanks to this reality, I developed my fresh pasta class experience which allowed me and still allows me to meet many wonderful people from all parts of the world through cooking and eating well and together.
The experience of Covid-19, unfortunately, ceased these encounters, but it did not quench my desire to bring my kitchen to the homes of the world, so, through online classes, instead of coming to me, I came to you, virtually, creating a fantastic experience of sharing and support in this very special moment.
To date, with the resumption of face-to-face classes, online classes, and some collaborations with a few restaurants in Rome, my agenda is always full, but the ideas are still many, both on food and wine, so stay connected and follow me to discover them all and continue this wonderful journey in Italian food and wine together.
