Between Flavours and Memories

The pleasure of good food is something that has accompanied humanity since time immemorial. We find depictions of banquets in the oldest tombs, and almost every ritual — religious or otherwise — involved generous libations: to celebrate an alliance, to mark a birth, a marriage, even a recovery.

From the simple gesture of hunters gathered around a fire sharing the spoils of the hunt, sitting together at a table is an intimate act that connects people at the very level of their essence. As civilisation advanced, this simple gesture grew ever more refined, and as culinary art evolved, a flourishing of customs and traditions accompanied it.

In ancient Rome, the evening meal was the most important moment of the day — hunger having already been satisfied by fairly frugal fare, consumed perhaps at the fast-food counters of the time, the Thermopolia. Come evening, people gathered on their triclinia to celebrate good food with guests and family, and to cultivate the art of conversation. By the light of oil lamps, philosophical debates unfolded and sharp wit was turned on the powerful figures of the day.

From medieval banquets to the baroque splendours orchestrated by François Vatel, very little has changed beneath the culinary skies of humanity.

For me, having grown up in the countryside, the love of good food has always walked hand in hand with the aesthetic sensibility that shapes everything I do. Cooking is a creative act, but it demands solid foundations. From my grandmother I learned the secrets of traditional cuisine, which I later enriched with family knowledge — and if you add to that a small circle of trusted friends, all devoted lovers of the table, everything falls into place.

Setting a table with care is a way of honouring one’s guests and oneself, but also a means of giving free rein to creativity beyond the kitchen: an outsized creativity that moves from designing a piece of jewellery to preparing things that are both delicious and beautiful to behold. As Don Giovanni declares in Mozart’s opera: già la mensa è preparata — the table is already set.