The seven notes can be combined in thousands of ways, resulting in personal, sometimes unique works. Someone has said that the same applies to cooking recipes and Marco Bartolomei, owner and chef of the Papilla restaurant in Rietiis an eclectic, colourful and passionate demonstration of this.
Marco is eclectic in spirit, by birth, and the resulting colour is what he transposes into his dishes; that of passion, on the other hand, is a little longer. Because if the whole Bartolomei's working life is linked to the restaurant world, the clothes he wore until the 2020 lockdown were those of an entrepreneur and patron, not those of a chef. And now that suit has changed, the white chef's tunic has been replaced by uniforms tailored to the whimsy of his character but also to the measure of respect for those who have been doing this job 'for a lifetime'.
Marco, almost against the trend, in times of pandemic you chose to change your jacket, to be a cook...
'That's right, but luckily,' he laughs, 'I had already been connected to the restaurant business for quite a while! My business activities have always been connected to the world of food. I was born from a mother who was a cook and who was even born in the kitchen, because she was making gnocchi when I decided to come into the world and they took her away from the cooker by weight! I breathed in the air and the passion for catering since I was a child and when I chose the path of study I went to law school because I wanted to join dad's company and that's what happened! I ran the business from collective catering, and then school and company canteens, to the ownership and management of traditional restaurants. It has been an escalating path on an entrepreneurial level, but I have always had my nose in the kitchen!
That is, did you contribute to the design of the menu and dishes?
"Yes in my premises my imprinting has always been there. I have always loved to cook and I carried on my studies independently over the years. I didn't put my hands in the kitchens because I had many other things to manage, but I spoke the same language as the cooks and I even had heated battles over it. In short, some of the creative and imaginative vein that characterises me had to be in the dishes that my restaurants served!'
Why don't you wear the white jacket?
"Because I think it's something important, that white jacket represents an institution of someone who has had specific training and then evolved from it. I am self-taught and so I have never worn it, and perhaps never will. Of course, I have my own style dictated by research and study done independently and I have collaborated with important chefs, as well as just now starting an important course of study... but in fact I have only just started wearing this profession'.
A decision made in Covid's time...
"I approached it very gently and the pandemic gave me the opportunity. Being in the kitchen was probably a dream I had always had, and I made a necessity into an opportunity. With work taking a hit, I had a lot of staff laid off. I decided to keep just one of the premises I was managing and I got into the kitchen, supported by trained staff of course. I started playing around a bit, experimenting... until my customers, surprised that I had cooked the dishes, started coming back to taste my cooking. And that's when I stepped on the accelerator. I realised that perhaps the path I was on was the right one. I decided to invest all my love and passion in Papilla, and little by little I raised the level, also in terms of quality: excellent raw materials, little processed, and for the most part local.
Ingredients that narrate an area that is always talked about, gastronomically speaking, very little. Tell us about Sabina.
"I am very attached to my land and I have always put my entrepreneurial ideas down here. Rieti is a small town, located in a region that is geographically very large but not very populated. It is a land of nature, because we have mountains, lakes, rivers, hills, countryside... A culture that is very much linked to green, to greenery. It is a land rich in olive groves, so much so that the DOP oil of Sabina is a well-known product of excellence. We have the great resources of rivers and lakes, and here we have another excellence, freshwater fish: brown trout, salmon trout, rainbow trout... But there are also excellent dairy products, historically linked to sheep farming and therefore cow's and sheep's milk and all their derivatives, starting with pecorino (sheep's milk cheese). And again, where there is pastoralism, meat is brought to the table: lamb, sheep. Then there is wheat and spelt cultivation; let's not forget truffles, Leonessa potatoes, dry and with peculiar organoleptic properties... But there are also grapes, even if viticulture is not massive. In short, the geographical conformation of the Sabina allows us an infinite gastronomic richness. And I have decided to tell, through my dishes, the added value of this land'.
You offer not only traditional Sabine dishes, but also revisit traditional Italian classics with local products...
"Absolutely! I start from Italian dishes and make them with a strong Sabine territorial contamination. Then those in the kitchen with me get angry because I often make variations on the spur of the moment... I follow the instinct of the moment!
Could your signature in the kitchen be called 'spontaneity'?
"Definitely yes and sometimes I realise I am too much, but that is what I enjoy. For me, cooking is a constructive game, using good raw material and trying to convey joy and fun to those who taste my dishes. This is the force that drives me in the elaboration of a dish and this often leads me to immediacy: I structure a dish without studying it too much, following my intuition. What I would like to emphasise, however, is that for me the most important thing is the raw material, which must retain its identifying flavour and therefore not be manipulated too much. The main material is cooked as simply as possible, then it is in the combination, in the contamination with other ingredients that the game is played: a particular chromaticity, an effect of textures... All this, however, without raising the level too much.
How so?
"When you raise the technical level too high, there is a risk of losing, or at least overshadowing, the taste. Cooking is about five senses, all of which must always be maintained in a dish. This means that certainly the presentation must be impressive, the colour appealing, but nothing must be at the expense of taste. Because everything in a chef's profession is related to taste. It is fine to entertain the customer with beauty, with the right sense of aesthetics, but the final and absolute protagonist of the dish must be taste. The material is the material and its organoleptic properties must not be altered: if I bring a fish from the lake to the table, it must taste like fish from the lake!'.
How do you come up with the idea for a dish?
"My dishes can be born from an ingredient, but also from a colour, or a name. What always happens to me is a mental process that leads me to play in the kitchen'.
An example of a dish born from a colour?
'Cabbage what colours' is the name of a dish I came up with this winter. And the idea came from the colours of cabbage: purple, white and yellow. It is a dish that wants to unite fresh water with the sea through the land, represented by the cabbage. It consists of three cubes of pike cooked at a low temperature, and thus in total respect for the product, resting on three cabbage creams of different colours. And the cabbage becomes a trait d'union with the sea because each cream has a marine element inside: the yellow cabbage has clams, i.e., it is a cabbage cream made in clam extraction water; the purple cabbage has anchovies from Cetara; finally, the white one has a slightly more extreme flavour because it has bottarga (roe). To garnish it all there are little cabbage flowers either in cruditè or sautéed with garlic, oil and chilli pepper, as is typical of Sabine cuisine. The only thing I don't like about this dish is that it is too seasonal!'.
And the codfish that doesn't want to be Leghorn?
"This dish also originates from a colour, and in particular from the red of a tomato gelatine. The cod is served in a bowl with this gelatinous tomato sauce and eaten by the spoonful. The dish is completed by caramelised sweet and sour red onion and dehydrated capers. And here I pushed the cod, which didn't want it, to be Livornese. And the predominant colour is red!'.
A cuisine that tells the story of the land by experimenting with games that entertain the five senses. Like your bread and oil vertical...
"It is an entrée and tells of two key products of Sabina: wheat and extra virgin olive oil from the PDO Consortium. It is a dish you eat from left to right. It starts with bread from a local artisan bakery with tomato on top and a boule with extra virgin olive oil next to it: the classic snack of yesteryear. The second taste is a crostone of stale bread regenerated with oil and garlic, which brings us back to the fragrances of bruschetta, resting on a light beat of fresh tomato seasoned with oil and on top I played with the consistency of the oil, proposing a cream of extra virgin olive oil. The last taste is my most extreme interpretation, which shows how in the kitchen one can have fun and change the texture of food. Thus the crystal bread is born: the tomato at the base becomes a velvety gel made from pure tomatoes and the bread is completely transparent, made of starches only, which gives that crunch in the mouth that brings back the sensation of crunchy bread. To complete the bite, a mousse of oil and some olive earth. So, this is an example of reinterpretation that does not betray the taste, because in the end the protagonists remain the bread and the oil'.
You give a lot of space to lake fish in your proposals...
"Yes, in my own small way I try to be a spokesman for the true flavour of these products. I contaminate them as little as possible, looking for matching ingredients that do not detract from their essence. For example, perch spaghetto has a black garlic base that does not detract from the delicacy of the fish. Even in this case, therefore, my interpretations are never extreme'.
Marco, by character and work experience you are not only a creative and exuberant person, but also a great communicator. I know that you enjoy contact with your customers, chatting with them, and one of your cooking proposals tells precisely this side of you
"My cooking with a blowtorch! A proposal that interprets my character of course, but also my idea of cooking that wants to involve all five senses while keeping taste firm and strong. And in fact this proposal on the menu is called precisely the five senses! It is a cooking technique that is done in front of the customer, in the dining room. I arrive with a trolley with cubes of raw meat; the first thing I do is smoke some rosemary with a torch. Then, still with the blowpipe, I slowly cook the meat, while telling what I am doing. Before serving I smoke some more rosemary and ask the diners to eat the first piece of meat with their hands. A process that involves sight, smell, hearing, touch... and finally, supreme, taste!
How would you describe your cooking in one sentence?
"Enjoy Food! Which means enjoy the dish, but it tells that my enjoyment in the kitchen. When I stop having fun, if it ever happens, I will put my jacket and tie back on and do something else'.
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