Milan the city, and AC Milan the soccer team. Enrico Bartolini, the Italian Michelin Guide’s 11 th 3-star chef, mentions this pair in every interview. He is Tuscan, from Castelmartini (a village in the province of Pistoia). At 40 he still has the physique of a young man. He mentions Milan because it’s become his city. “It’s explosive, and has incredible energy. I didn’t feel bad in Cavenago, otherwise I wouldn’t have been awarded the two Michelin stars at the time. But every time I moved around, problems came up, so I felt stuck. With the Mudec museum a world opened up. Success has led to new venues, and these to other initiatives. The reference to AC Milan is an homage to his passion for soccer. For years he cooked in a lounge during the big matches at San Siro Stadium and was a guest several times at the Milanello training grounds. He called himself the “Pirlo of the kitchen.” It might seem presumptuous, but Bartolini displays the same genius that the former AC Milan (and Juventus) midfielder was known for. With the extra star for Mudec and the one added to Ristorante Glam in Venice, Bartolini’s network has reached eight “macaroons,” as the French call Michelin stars. “If they had told me this would happen when we moved from Devero, I would have had a laugh. It’s an incentive to continue to do well, but also to find more and more courage to put into practice the ideas we have in mind.”
From the trattoria to Mudec
Bartolini is a pure talent, with a steely spirit. He got his start in his uncle’s trattoria in Pistoia – practically a teenager – then wandered around Europe to learn, also about suffering. The turning point came during a three-year period spent at the restaurants of the Alajmo family, one of the great families of Italian cuisine. From then he was an adult and on his own. “He was the cook who was able to transmit emotion in the kitchen. Massimiliano was a little older than me, but he already had three Michelin stars. My only regret is that I couldn’t get even more out of it. I was too young.” He was the first star in the Oltrepò Pavese area, near Pavia, a land without any real champions. This was 2009, after four years at Le Robinie di Montescano. Then, two years later, he went to work at the (terrible) Devero Hotel in Cavenago, the most gourmand “rest stop” in the world, they called it because it overlooked the Milan-Bergamo autostrada. And yet, Bartolini got his second Michelin star in 2013. The new Milan wouldn’t leave him down there, and the Mudec opportunity came up: a bistro in Via Tortona on the ground floor and an elegant restaurant on the third, which garnered two stars in a few months, just like at Seta, located in Milan’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
A network between Italy and the world
So now a new story has begun. A series of locales that have garnered one star after another. Starting with Glam in Venice, led by the talented Donato Ascani, who won his second star. The others belong to Casual Ristorante in Bergamo, Trattoria Enrico Bartolini in Castiglione della Pescaia (where he had the satisfaction of replacing Alain Ducasse, with even better results), Tenuta La Badiola, which houses the exclusive resort L’Andana, and Locanda del Sant’Uffizio in Cioccaro di Penango, in Monferrato. In addition, he manages the Poggio Rosso in Borgo San Felice in Tuscany and three restaurants abroad: the splendid Spiga in Hong Kong and the two Roberto’s bistros in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. “We have to offer foreigners what they expect from us and nothing else. Respect the ingredients, prepare the dishes in a traditional and delicious way. It’s hard for the foreigner to accept creativity when they’re in Italy, even harder when you’re on their land. It makes no sense for me to reinterpret the amatriciana in Asia or the Emirates. It’s already a problem to find the right raw ingredients to cook it. I have nothing against their goods, but I bring as much stuff as possible from Italy,” he explains.
Not innovative, but contemporary
Bartolini is not considered an innovator. “I’m a cook who looks at traditional recipes with a technical and contemporary eye. I don’t like to deconstruct or change by force, but to improve and lighten. In many historical dishes, now, you can avoid the heavy part and find the balance of flavors. I always cite as an example our Alici di scoglio in incontro di saor e carpione, which seem to be something else, but are exactly that ancient dish.” At Mudec – a minimal and suggestive place, inside the museum in via Tortona, and with an amazing wine cellar – he has managed to square the circle by offering two tasting menus: the Be Contemporary – very seasonal with a wealth of ideas – and the Ritorno alle mie Origini with signature dishes.
Remo Capitaneo’s role
Equipped with Anglo-Saxon wit (which he only shows to a few), kind and communicative (though not obsessively), Bartolini has been at the top for years, but he lives it in a detached way, also because he doesn’t have much free time. His public outings are very rare; it’s almost impossible to find photos of him in the company of colleagues either at formal or informal events. He is obviously esteemed, but he doesn’t get immediate sympathy because his growth strategy often forces him to poach talents from other high-level kitchens. But choosing who joins the team is part of the game, and in this he probably has no rivals in Italy. Also, he doesn’t belong to any of the great families of Italian cuisine. His family, in short, are those who animate his various locales and have blind faith in their captain. His right-hand man is Remo Capitaneo – three years younger, from Foggia, in Puglia – who for ten years, in addition to helming Mudec when Bartolini is absent, has been monitoring the empire and choosing employees.
Next stars...
With the new recognition, Bartolini can be proud for another reason. Curiously, it was he who brought three stars back to Milan, which had evaporated in 1993 when Gualtiero Marchesi moved them to Franciacorta. “It’s an honor, of course. I’ve never met the master, but like all Italian chefs I owe him something and consider him an extraordinary example for our profession,” he said. Is he satisfied? Absolutely not. “At 40, I can start my real career. It’s a refrain they tell the young cooks, but all in all, now that I think about it, it’s not entirely wrong. If I look at Alajmo or Cerea, for example, I still have a lot to do. For example, the ninth star that many predict for the latest restaurant he’s taken over: Poggio Rosso.” We’ll see in 2020.