Chef, TV face, writer, entrepreneur, one of the Italian food and wine excellences tells us his story: “There is nothing more democratic than cooking”
You will excuse us for the term. Certainly rude, but also faithfully taken by the thought of one of the most profound and least known intellectuals of our nation: Edmondo Berselli. “We go through three phases during our life: brilliant promise, usual asshole and venerable master”. Davide Oldani smiles. We smile back. We managed to make his lips curl. To create a sort of crack on the armour. Nothing bad, believe it. After all, “there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in“. A lot of light comes out of the words of the D’O chef, indeed. “Someone – Oldani begins – thinks that I am still a promise. Maestro doesn’t sound very good to me: I have about forty guys with whom I collaborate and to whom I try to transmit something. In the end, I always receive more than I give. If I may say so: I am a coach-player. Like Vialli at the time of Chelsea”.
We are in a “living room”: D’O was imagined like that. Several rooms, whose names and furnishings recall “home”: the one in which we grew up. Therefore, you can eat in the “dining room”, try out innovative ideas in the “study” and comfortably chat in the “living room”. On armchairs that also host our reflections on cooking and life: “Because D’O is more a project of life than a restaurant”.
Chef, writer, entrepreneur, professor: who or what is really Davide Oldani?
“One who runs too much – the chef answers without thinking – maybe the sum of all these things”. The dream of cooking, the great teachings of Gualtieri Marchesi (“He is my second father; he took care of us and then sent us around the world, letting us free. I owe him a lot”), the experiences with Ducasse, Roux, Hermé and, then, the homecoming. “I missed my loved ones – explains Oldani – you have to go somewhere in the world to settle down: my place is in Cornaredo. Indeed, in San Pietro all’Olmo “. It is precisely here that D’O was born in 2003: various experiments, the arrival of the first Michelin Star and then the other thousand experiences. The Ambrogino d’Oro award, the Casa Italia chef at the Rio 2014 Olympics, advertising with Roger Federer…
Oldani is considered the creator of the POP cuisine: three letters per thousand meanings. “There is nothing more democratic than eating: music, for example, can’t be heard by the deaf, as the blind can’t see a picture. Food is part of us “. The openings abroad, the project to “land” in the centre of Milan and the books: nine to be precise. Demonstration of a pressing need, to put thoughts on paper: “I don’t want my ideas to stop. An idea, to be considered such, must be sold. Otherwise it’s nothing “. Oldani is quite resolute. At the stove as on the first soccer field and then tennis. By the way, who is better: Roger to cook or David with the racket in his hand? “I love sport: at 16 I played in C2. I would say on the same level”. We believe it: the eyes hardly lie. And Oldani’s eyes hide a veil of madness. In our opinion, this is a virtue: who is able to distinguish precisely the boundary between genius and madness?
