Locatelli's little Italy
Giorgio Locatelli is in full flow, talking poetically - even romantically - about Italian food. He's unequivocal in his passionate belief that his country's food is its culture. Forget Michelangelo, forget da Vinci, forget opera, forget - well, forget just about any artistic claim to fame that Italy has. If you want to know about Italians, look at the food.
"At the end of the day it tells you more about the people than [the city of] Ravenna or a painting by Raphael or whatever," Locatelli vehemently tells me with a broad smile on his face. "Take that ham over there: it's been made in the same way for 400 or 500 years. The work behind it is incredible; it's a representation of the culture of the person that made it."
He is gesturing towards a deli-style counter at one end of a long, stylish bar running the length of the new London restaurant he's launched with contract caterer Parallel (see panel) in the Crowne Plaza London-The City hotel at Blackfriars. It's called Refettorio - or rather the fine-dining area tucked around the corner is: the main area in which we are sitting (the hub of the whole operation) is called Convivium. As it's name suggests, it's designed for sociable eating (part of that Italian culture thing again), with a large, eye-catching refectory table down the middle of the dining space.
The counter in question is groaning under a cornucopia of cold meats, cheeses, breads and pickled vegetables. All painstakingly sourced in Italy from artisan producers or made on site in Refettorio's kitchens under the watchful eye of head chef Pasquale Amico. There are 25 cured meats (mostly salami), 26 cheeses and seven breads begging to be eaten - and the cheeses and salami have their own bespoke, microclimate-controlled cabinets behind the counter.
Instrumental in sourcing the cheeses and many of the hams is Marco Vineis, whose company Gastronomica (020 8981 8885) is based in London's Borough Market. Less flamboyant than his countryman, he's a pivotal person in Refettorio's set-up, according to Locatelli. The two first worked together when Locatelli was consulting at Mayfair restaurant Cecconi's three years ago.
And it was during a photographic shoot that the duo were involved in last year in northern Italy - for a book that Locatelli is currently working on - that the concept for Refettorio was born.
"We were photographing a cheese that we were doing a recipe for," explains Locatelli, "and we were in the mountains. The fog came down; it was incredibly cold (even the antelope were running away), so we stopped for lunch in this village that looked like nothing - I mean, like nothing - and we had some great cheese and salame, some fried trout from the river and some porcini and a couple bottles of wine (my brother was driving).
"And we started thinking that we should do something to promote the people who were still making things in the old way. So we came back to England and we mumbled and we mumbled and we mumbled, and I said, if we can ensure that the quality, the ripeness, the stagionatura [ageing process] of the cheese and ham isn't compromised, we can have a restaurant where a good percentage of the money can go back to the producers."
Great sentiment, but does that mean Locatelli is not aiming to make any money himself? "Of course," he admits with a wicked grin, "we want to make a little bit of money out of it, too." Ditto the hotel and Parallel (not to mention the latter's parent company, Aramark), which has the food and beverage contract at the Crowne Plaza (see panel, page 32). The minutiae of the deal Locatelli has signed with Parallel are, says the chef, recorded in a contract several hundred pages long and, essentially, centred on a consultancy role which gives him several get-out clauses if he's not happy with the standard of food being served.
Does the menu square with Locatelli's avowed aim of conveying Italian culture through food? Yes, it probably does. There's a sense of the value and love of food and sociable eating in the emphasis placed on quality and artisan produce used in the restaurant. And infectiously enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff like Liliana Tamberi, who's on hand to guide diners' taste-buds through the myriad of cheeses and salami, don't hurt either. I suspect that Refettorio is going to do very nicely, thank you. n
| Meats Included among the meats are a gamey Tuscan prosciutto di cinghale (wild boar) hung in its fur for between 15 and 24 months; an Umbrian prosciutto di Norcia, a cured ham with a delicate nuttiness to its fat acquired over 18 months of hanging; another Tuscan ham from near Siena, capocollo Toscan, infused aromatically with fennel; and culatelli di Zibello, a cave-matured ham from Emilia Romagna, which has to be soaked overnight in white wine to soften up its thick, hard skin before carving. Refettorio also has spice-infused salami sourced from places such as Tuscany, Liguria and Umbria and various smoked specks from the north-east of Italy, where the German influence is stronger. And there is a fantastic Umbrian lardo di Collonata - a matured pork fat, originating from near the Carrera marble quarries, which is cured in marble and delicately infused with rosemary, salt, sage and bay leaves. |
| The contract connection The argument has been raging for some time about the role of celebrity chefs in the contract catering sector. The truth is that independent caterers who don't have a celebrity chef on their books either don't want to spend the money or can't afford to. Meanwhile, the big players can spy added value and are busy courting famous names with their bulging chequebooks. So there were probably only a few raised eyebrows when Aramark announced that it was opening a new restaurant called Refettorio with another well-known chef. There were, however, probably more surprised expressions when the giant US-owned caterer announced it had won over Giorgio Locatelli. Many view this latest signing as a real coup for the company. Locatelli, the flamboyant Italian chef, is extremely well respected, and his restaurant, Locanda Locatelli, is one of the current hot places to dine out in London. And don't forget, his involvement is sure to feed the success of Refettorio, which is part of Parallel's (the hotel and leisure division of Aramark) new food and beverage operation at the Crowne Plaza London-The City hotel, near Blackfriars Bridge. For Simon Titchener, managing director of Aramark London and Parallel, the restaurant is the final piece in the jigsaw for Parallel's operation at the hotel. It now has an Italian restaurant, a New York/Italian-style caf‚ and take-away called Benugo and a New York-style jazz bar called Bar 606. The idea is that the hotel has three strong brands that will compete head-to-head with the high street and bring in passing customers as well as guests and, according to Titchener, this offer suits the City location. It is also very indicative of Parallel, says Titchener, tailoring an offering to fit the customer. Hence Locatelli? Well, according to Titchener, he is the right chef in the right place at the right time. "If you look at where Refettorio is located, it is surrounded by companies such as Reuters, Goldman Sachs and other City big hitters. In this environment it probably wouldn't be right to have a Brian Turner restaurant." So is it all about wooing business with the big City firms then? Titchener explains that it's not all about that, but concedes that the City is a fickle area to do business in and a tie-up with a famous chef can help win invitations to City boardrooms that decide the future of many lucrative catering contracts. But the deal has wider implications, too, says Titchener. "Celebrity chefs are part of the business. It is part of the relationship that they help support our business. Brian Turner recently opened the new staff restaurant at BP Sunbury. There aren't many staff restaurants that can boast that. "In hotels, a celebrity chef restaurant adds value and increases profitability of the restaurant, but you can't quantify how much it is worth to our business. It also helps us attract the right staff, because they will get the chance to work with a Ramsay or a Locatelli. "It is a more attractive proposition - you can work in contract catering with the benefits of the hours and the facilities, but also with the opportunity to work with fabulous chefs." What's more, Titchener stresses that a celebrity chef almost guarantees the success of the restaurant, which will generate extra revenue for the food and beverage operation. "I guess that if you phone here in a few weeks' time to book a table, you will be on a waiting list. "A celebrity chef adds a different dimension to the F&B in a hotel - it doesn't matter what star the hotel - but very often one of the first thing guests ask is, what are the local restaurants like?" Titchener wants to change that attitude at London-The City, but he adds that people's expectations are now far higher when dining out. "We can deliver to that here and add real value. When we brought Turner into Millennium & Copthorne's Millennium Mayfair, it helped the hotel raise the profile of its food operation. Suddenly, it is recognised as having a restaurant, too." Restaurateur Roy Ackerman, who is chairman of Parallel, normally brokers any deal with celebrity chefs. "Roy is a great restaurateur and has all the contacts," says Titchener. "What we bring to the party is the commercial skills, the resource, the strategy and the back-up. It is a perfect marriage. His and the chefs' skills are our weaknesses." But, Ackerman explains, it is not simply a case of "dotting famous chefs about". Some sites don't need it, such as Parallel's other recent deal with the London Hilton Metropole hotel on Edgware Road. The restaurant-cum-bar there, called Nippon Tuk, doesn't have a famous face to go with it, he explains. "It is a case of fitting the site to the chef or the chef to the site." |
| Cheeses Among the cheeses on offer at Refettorio are: Nostrano val di Fassa Piedmontese cows' milk cheese. Stored initially for two weeks at about 17¡C before being matured at cooler temperatures. Qualities: hard, strong-tasting and GruyŠre-like in texture. Sola mista Another Piedmont cheese (from the Val Pesio region), made from cows' and goats' milk. Sometimes matured underground, it looks like a flat, crusty loaf. Qualities: hard rind hides a tangy, semi-soft centre, similar to Cheddar on the palette. Castelmagno Piedmontese cows' milk cheese. Matured in caves in the Val Grana area. Can be eaten at anything from three to 12 months - and age determines whether it is a white or blue cheese. At three months it's young, fresh and quite soft with a limited acidity but strong taste of the unpasteurised milk. Best eaten at four or five months, unless you want the more mature taste of a blue cheese, in which case eat between eight and 12 months. Moro Buffalo milk cheese rolled in ash, from Molise, near Naples in southern Italy, developed five years ago by small farm producer De Nigris. Best eaten after eight months' maturing. Qualities: Wensleydale-esque in texture and taste, though not so crumbly - has a bit of bite on the palate. Bubalus Buffalo milk cheese - again from De Nigris - matured over two weeks. Qualities: semi-soft cheese, younger, fresher, more acidic taste than the sister cheese, Moro. Pecorino There are several varieties of these ewes' milk cheeses from central and southern Italy. They are of varying degrees of hardness and saltiness depending on age and where they are sourced from. A six-month pecorino Sardo (from Sardinia), for instance, is harder and much saltier than the pecorino di Pienza bianco (made near Siena), which has a milkier, creamer, fresher quality to it. At Refettorio, the pecorino cheeses are served with fragrant pears, whose sweetness cuts through and balances the saltiness of the cheese. |
| The restaurant deal Officially it may be known as a consultancy, but in reality Locatelli has an exclusive three-year contract to work for Parallel at the Crowne Plaza London-The City. He receives a set fee, and both parties are able to terminate the agreement if they wish. Several hoops have to be jumped through first, though. |
| Crowne Plaza London-The City hotel Parallel has a three-year contract to run the food and beverage operation at the 200-bedroom Crowne Plaza London-The City. This includes Bar 606, Benugos and Refettorio. It also includes in-room dining and conference catering. It has an annual turnover of £3m. Bar 606 is a New York-style jazz bar. It is linked to the 606 Club in Chelsea and has live jazz three to four nights a week. Benugos is an Italian/New York-style deli-caf‚-bar that serves eat-in or take-away food. It is open seven days a week from 6.30am to 11pm. Refettorio is open Monday to Friday from lunch through to the evening. Saturday opening is planned for the spring. Jonathan Walker, general manager at the Crowne Plaza London-The City, says: "What we wanted to create in this hotel was three really strong offers and brands so we could survive on the high street. If you took the hotel away, these offers would stand by themselves and can increase volume and drive revenue." Walker says this was one of the attractions of working with Parallel. "We have a very smart hotel in a great location in the City and we want our guests to come and stay here and not need to venture out, because we have exciting brands that suit them." Parallel brings this expertise and the strong brands, but it doesn't make Walker's job much easier, he says. "I think that is the wrong way to look at it - it's not an easy way out. I think it still takes the same amount of input, but we get a better product at the end of it." Titchener adds: "If we get it right in the hotel, it's a win-win for everyone. The key is that the hotel general manager doesn't know we are here and he can focus on his job, which is what he wants to do." |
