His kitchen respects nature and is waste-free, in line with new trends
Giancarlo Morelli, from child prodigy to award-winning chef and shrewd entrepreneur: one Michelin star,
six restaurants, a long list of awards in world haute cuisine. Born in the Bergamo countryside from a family
of farmers with solid roots in the work ethic, Morelli immediately stands out for his strong-willed character
and passion for cooking, which he learns by osmosis at a very young age by imitating his mother’s gestures.
He graduated as best student at the Hotelier of San Pellegrino Terme and at that time he was already
working to support himself.
At the age of eighteen he embarks as a junior chef on American liners.
He travels, works, learns.
And on his return to Europe he perfected his cuisine following the strict Frenchschool, with masters such as Bernard Loiseau and Alain Ducasse. Thanks to his enterprising vision and his
seriousness, at the age of twenty-four he became the manager of the first golf club in Italy, in Monticello.
On the strength of many awards, he decides to open his first restaurant in Seregno, in Brianza, in 1993.
He calls it Pomiroeu – pometo – in homage to the apple, a sincere fruit and the beginning of “everything”.
Thanks to his elegant and straightforward cuisine, where tradition, research and conviviality converge, he
was awarded the Michelin star in 2009.
The career of Chef is added to that of entrepreneur, and Morelli inaugurates a branch of the Pomiroeu in Marrakech and the Pomiroeu Phi Beach, on the Costa Smeralda.
In 2017 he opens two other restaurants: the Bulk mixology & food bar and the Morelli, gourmand cuisine
complete with a chef’s table, housed in the 5-star luxury Hotel VIU Milan in Milan.
An admirer of Peruvian cuisine, he is one of the first European chefs to import methods and flavors from Peru into his recipes.
Always a supporter of a kitchen without waste and respectful of nature, Chef Morelli is part of the board of
CARE’s Etichal Chef days, an event of sustainable nutrition.
With the chef we went to analyze the situation linked to the post-pandemic recovery, in a sector – such as
that of catering – among the most affected by the pandemic.
“The resumption of work, fortunately, began with the vaccination campaign. From that moment on there
was something that made me realize that we were going in the right direction.
I have never complained about the closures and suspensions of activities, because I knew that, sooner or
later, there would be a recovery of momentum also in our sector.
We have always been close to both our customers and our employees and collaborators.
This attention paid to them is paying off in this phase of recovery.
Talking about recovery, however, does not mean totally upsetting our way of working. Doing this would be
short-sighted.
To live long in this sector you have to work well, be serious and cultivate relationships.
It is logical that today, taken by enthusiasm, there are many new things around Italy – openings, formats,
situations – and this gives great incentive for everyone to always improve “.
A change that does not presuppose upheaval. This line of thought can also be found in the menu choices, in
which the chef always tries to put quality, customers and the need to bring them back to the center of the
discussion.
“As for the menus, from my point of view, a setback like the one we experienced does not lead to a
distortion of the menu that is being proposed, of the way of working and of conceiving catering.
It is certainly a way of working a little more focused on the needs of a linear, true kitchen that does not hide
anything.
Catering needs to make itself more and more available to customers if you want to talk about the future
from a far-sighted perspective.
The customer is our only resource. Without them we can do nothing. Consequently, we restaurateurs must
recover that willingness to put ourselves at the customer’s service.
In fact, I see an increasingly pronounced tendency to create mandatory paths inside restaurants. Instead, I believe that the restaurant experience should be a moment of leisure, of free thought, of using a service to be enjoyed to the full, according to your needs.
In all my places, what I will never change are our signature dishes, which are increasingly requested by our customers.
Certain iconic dishes should never be abandoned, because they give DNA and recognizable personality to the work team.
Alongside these fixed points, it is logical to always go in search of something new that can enter our world. But I see at the same time that people get so attached to memories and keep asking us for our signature dishes.
Even when a customer does not take that particular dish – perhaps because he has already tasted it several times – he checks our menu if it is still present.
If I had to indicate one among all, I would mention our risotto creamed with a slightly smoked ricotta, with
red shrimp tartare, anchovy sauce and black truffle. It is one of the dishes that distinguish us, from the sea
to the mountains. It is a dish in great demand also abroad “.
With the holidays approaching, Giancarlo Morelli spent some words on his concept of the holiday menu,
favoring the taste of home, from which to experiment with proposals in a contemporary key.
“As for the holidays, I think that these celebrations, which are part of our history and our culture, must
offer those dishes that manage to generate the memories of tradition.
All this is certainly brought back to a contemporary reinterpretation, but the fundamental point is to give a festive scent to the menu, which is given by the dishes of memories “.
Always a supporter of a kitchen without waste and respectful of nature – in fact he is part of the board of
CARE’s Etichal Chef days, an event of sustainable food – Chef Morelli also spoke on the issue of
sustainability within the world of catering.
“Anyone who knows me knows perfectly well what my battles have been. We hear a lot about green
turning. I speak of respect: of the earth, of man, of the customer, of ourselves and of life. It is natural that
today we ride the wave of this issue.
The big reflection to do, in my opinion, is to ask what was done before. By doing so, it is easy to distinguish
those who are serious and care about these dynamics from those who ride the wave of a fashion.
No one is the last custodian of the truth. But investigating the truth of what we are being told is a good
attitude. In this way, raising awareness on this issue becomes more effective, and everyone is led to
contribute a part more than they are already doing.
For example: how many have stopped using plastic in the kitchen? How many no longer use, or have
significantly reduced vacuum cooking? How many have decided not to do long cooking at low temperatures
anymore? These, for example, are two practices that make plastic circulate within our sector.
It is useless to talk about organic products, if in the kitchen we continue to abuse plastic. Unfortunately, our world
slavishly follows trends – starting from the 70s and 80s with the fashion of canned shrimp, rocket and
carpaccio – and this modus operandi inevitably leads to a saturation of resources and devastation of the
planet. Today it happens that olive trees are explanted to plant hazelnuts.
If we want to be ethical, we need to be informed and aware; if I see a hazelnut from which hundreds of hectares of olive trees have been uprooted, then I don’t have to buy it. We must start from these behaviors “.
