by Stefano Polacchi, editor-in-chief of Gambero Rosso.
“How many chefs today can truly say they are eco-friendly? I try to be… but for me it comes more naturally because of where I live and the the choices I have made; if I did things any other way I could no longer make a living . My cuisine is inextricably tied to the land. But when you are far from the land, how ecological can you be?”
Berardino Lombardo is a troublemaker, most of all for himself. He has a good head on his shoulders and his feet are firmly planted on the ground, but his thoughts are, and have always been, totally focused towards utopia: so much so that a part of his dreams have already born fruit and he is looking to enlarge on them.
Berardino ran a successful and highly-awarded restaurant, La Caveja at Pietravairano (in the province of Caserta). Then he bought a farm where he could produce his own vegetables, fruits and herbs and raise farm animals (black pigs, capons and chickens) in semi-liberty… In the end he left the restaurant and retired to Conca della Campania where he is surrounded by 30 hectares of paradise and everything a man like him could possibly need. It is here that he produces his “treasures” such as the stringata – a monument to pork – which can be found in great gourmet restaurants and is revered like crowned jewels.
You can find him at the center of his dining hall, completely at ease, cooking for his customers as if they were guests at his home… It certainly doesn’t look like a model that can be easily exported. There are however, qualities that can be duplicated. In fact Berardino has a project he’s working on (it’s at an advanced stage of conception and will shortly be visible online): a Relais&Chateaux immersed in the woods, between heirloom fruit orchards and fields of wild herbs: bitter chicory, borage, thistles and cardoons, porcacchia and berries, Morello cherries and wild plums, sweet and sour apples, chickens and capons. There will be twenty rooms with a kitchen-laboratory totally dedicated to wild produce. a club with fifty members who will be owners and beneficiaries of the structure.
“I am already in contact with Italian and international professionals. Soon the project will be online, and subscriptions are already available… There are 20 hectares of incontaminated grazing land where one can live in tune with nature, where one can cook what one has picked in the field…” Simply put, a slice of utopia, a utopia directly cloned from Berardino’s farm; it’s not only a way to maintain physical health and mental wellbeing, but also a means of defending the environment and protecting hectares and hectares from cementification, contamination and fires.
This is an idea that could be repeated in a forgotten corner of Australia, England, or Japan. In the meantime Berardino lives and thrives here. People travel from far and wide to eat at his tables. Soon there will be a Relais… and a depressed area of southern Italy will find a new life, and many people will benefit, for a while at least.
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