Gianni, Massimiliano, Matthew: two generations and three chefs

It's always enlightening to hear the stories of those who spend or have spent most of their lives behind the stove hot kitchen, with the loving passion of those who know that a dish is not only a technical stuff but also passion and balance.

The story of Giovanni, Massimiliano and Matteo Cameli, three chefs and two generations is all here. This week our post is dedicated to them, those who along these years and delighted your palate with their plates, between the traditional cuisine of Tuscany and Romagna and the creativity taken during the various trips abroad and the experience in the best starry international restaurants.

From Le Marche in Milan: the story of Gianni

Gianni is a gentleman from another time: clear eyes, a smile that opens up the kaleidoscope of his world of lots and lots of hard work but also of all that he learned by observing his mother in the kitchen. He first tried a traditional job in a factory but the lure of the kitchen won and so he went to Milan and started working as an assistant cook in one of the best traditional restaurants in town.

Milan gives him experience, the sense of taste, aesthetics, and ... .Marisa. The young woman he met in Melegnano and his inseparable companion of life.

From Milan to Portico di Romagna. It would seem a step back. But it is the story of a gritty adventure almost unconscious. A leap without a parachute that continues today. In 1980, Marisa, originally from Portico di Romagna, sees the sale sign on an old house in center town. It was open. A short visit, and soon she and Gianni bought the building. Three years later, they opened the restaurant Al Vecchio Convento that soon became a reference point for all the gourmet in the area. A few years later they founded the Albergo Diffuso. The cuisine of Gianni? Much knowledge, time and love. Best dish: mushrooms with aged cheese.

Massimiliano: like water for chocolate

He defined himself in this way, according to the Spanish idiom "Como agua para chocolate" which refers to a person in the throes of passion as the boiling water for the hot chocolate in the cup. Massimiliano grows in the kitchen of his father. From the age of thirteen, observes and absorbs and learns the rudiments. During the years of the kitchen school, he elaborates his own way of working. These are the roaring years of the Adriatic coasts success. The young cooks work as commis in the hotels of the Adriatic Coast, where the numbers are large and the daily work very hard. Massimiliano also works here. But his idea is another. He studies pastry for two years and goes around the world, working in the best starred restaurants. He resumes the family tree of recipes, those of his father and focuses on an aspect that is crucial for him in the kitchen: the taste that must always prevail.

A seemingly simple concept that is the starting point of each new dish that he creates. The inspiration that comes every day from any type of visual stimulus or olfactory, through the taste of Maximilian that processes already knowing what the end result and how the dish will be, reviewed and enhanced. A dream? See a new generation of chefs from Romagna carrying out the tradition.

Matteo flair that starts from tradition

Osmosis. This word defines his first experiences in the kitchen of his father. A passion that comes slow: the kitchen school, internships repeated at Frasca Restaurant in Castrocaro, the trip to the US to learn English and the offer (later rejected) of a chef in Los Angeles and the return home. The path of Matteo chef stops. Another project attracts him: the Italian school with his partner. But the passion for cooking is stronger and Matteo returns to work in the kitchen creative and hardworking of the Vecchio Convento. His philosophy? Transforming the strong flavors in light food. His inspiration? The market for fruit and vegetables: colors, smells, shapes, textures.

Intrigued? Now you have to test your palate.