Be an artisan, not a chef
Be an artisan, not a chef
two restaurants to know in Rome, and wisdom from Rome's under-the-radar Chef Davide del Duca
Sometimes a new restaurant is a home you never knew you had.
That’s what restaurants really are here in Italy (historically, that is). A place where you trust the owner, the cook, the server like it were your grandmother - a person who knows you and knows how to nourish you. It’s a relationship that evolves, with the bond strengthening in each conversation and each bite.
In Italy, it’s often because these cooks do things your parents or grandparents did. They make you happy as you were eating spaghetti as a kid. The simple things there are just as magical as the more fancy, with tradition alive and well, keeping your belly warm even when your grandma may not be there anymore to do so.
Finding Bianca Trattoria seemed too good to be true. Excellent food just a few passi (steps) from my house. It’s a rather new spot, but the food felt rather familiar, and cozy. Sure, it is mostly Roman. But I felt something else.
So naturally, I lurked (the website, the Instagram - the usual). I found the chef, and I went ah!
Davide del Duca is the chef and owner of a longstanding contemporary bistrot in Rome - Osteria Fernanda - tucked away in the tourist-adored Trastevere. He recently opened Bianca Trattoria, a more casual spot with less frills, but equally delicious fare.
However, this isn’t what first caught my eye.
Chef del Duca is from Ciociaria, and not just any part of Ciociaria - Pontecorvo/ Castrocielo, just a few minutes drive from where my grandmother and cousins grew up. I absolutely adored his bio on Osteria Fernanda’s website:
cuoco capitolino di fiere origini ciociare con un marcato spirito creativo
“A Roman chef of proud Ciociaro origin with a strong creative spirit”
So I got curious - what is Davide’s story? He has one well-respected restaurant in Rome and just opened up another. With all the theatrics and The Bear-like celebrity that chefs seem to embrace these days, you’d expect the guy to boast some snazzy IG profile and do food collaborations with one of those hip places in Milan, or Garbatella or something.
But, for Chef del Duca - it isn’t about being a Chef, it’s about being an artisan.
Enter: Chef Davide del Duca
“My style of cooking? I aspire to be more of an artisan in what I do. I am not a super modern chef that only assembles a plate of pasta. I truly love to cook. I approach each dish like an artisan would,” says Chef del Duca.
“When you work artisanally, you can turn something simple or even considered “poor” into something incredible.”
Being an artigiano, an artisan means your craft is your life. You make something by hand. And with the best quality raw materials. Michelangelo was an artisan, a undoubtedly genius one at that. What was the famous Michelangelo saying that sums up the concept of an artisan so well?
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free
-Michelangelo
Of course, marble is an arguably more pricey raw material than perhaps bread. But making an angel out of marble is no doubt a prime example of an artisan.
In this light, you could say that Chef del Duca’s approach is so refreshingly Italian. This country’s history of artisans is what makes it so beautifully special. It’s also what’s being lost in many ways. To Chef del Duca, that’s because people focus on the fancy and the trendy instead of what’s right in front of them.
And, what’s just near Rome is Ciociaria - where Chef del Duca proudly grew up, where he learned his artisanary mantra.
“It wasn’t that I only watched my Ciociara grandma cook,” says Chef del Duca.
“My grandparents had a farm where they grew vegetables and made homemade cured meats, cheeses, etc… It was a rather large operation. I grew up with them in this business. It was them who brought me close to the kitchen through artisanship.”
Unfortunately, the advent and power of large cooperatives eventually caused his grandparents to close their business. Still, Chef del Duca knew he needed to carry the artisanal legacy of his grandparents along with his Ciociaro roots in every step of his culinary career.
And if there’s one thing about being an artisan, it means you work for the people.
“To bring my kitchen to everyone, the first tasting menu I offered at Osteria Fernanda was 35 euros. It was a shock, a contrast to the approach of my maestros and colleagues. They said it was a bit dishonest and that I wouldn’t earn anything,” shares Chef del Duca.
“But I thought the opposite - to me, it’s more dishonest to pay 200 euros for dinner.”
Chef del Duca provoked quite the thought, especially as he went on to explain how higher-end restaurants may jazz up an anchovy and charge more when in the end the anchovy is an affordable raw ingredient for the people.
“The fact you don’t earn as much isn’t true. If you’re not approaching the kitchen as an artisan, you don’t have a sustainable restaurant,” adds Chef del Duca. “What will cost you are those pricey artisanal products that you are not crafting yourself.”
Chef del Duca opened Osteria Fernanda back in 2006 when Rome didn’t have many contemporary locales or Michelin-starred restaurants with reasonable tasting menus. Most could only dream of affording a meal at La Pergola or Il Pagliaccio.
Today, Chef del Duca sticks to his approach firmly, keeping Osteria Fernanda’s high-end contemporary setting an artisanal experience for all. For example, Osteria Fernanda offers a reduced price tasting menu for those under 30 years old, making its innovative gastronomic experience accessible to all ages, to inspire Italian youth to find the artisan in themselves.
The dish: pane sotto
A little trip with your tastebuds to Ciociaria - that’s pane sotto.
“This is a typical Ciociaro dish that we put on the menu 5 or 10 years ago, and we’ve recently brought it back,” says Chef del Duca. “The basic construction of the dish is this: below is a slice of toasted bread and then on top you put all the leftover things - vegetables, meat, beans, veggies, etc…”
Pane sotto and other Ciociaro bread-based dishes like it are what helped my grandmother, Chef del Duca’s grandparents, and others in Ciociaria survive. Bread was never to be wasted, and that morale resulted in brilliance.
At Osteria Fernanda, pane sotto of course has a more modern and elevated presentation. When the dish arrives at the table, it then becomes a soup - a luscious broth is poured over the dish before your eyes, allowing every texture in the dish to be right with every bite.
Chef del Duca serves pane sotto on his menu usually in the Springtime, in new and inventive ways, capturing the vibrance of Spring in Ciociaria through its foundational cooking methods. Naturally, he works with producers in Frosinone to access fresh ingredients, for this dish and many more.
Each bite of Chef del Duca’s pane sotto transports you to a lesser-known land that you may know better than you think - if you are American that is.
“The Abbey of Montecassino is known more by Americans than Italians. But there’s no communication about Ciociaria to these tourists,” says Chef del Duca.
Ciocaria is a cultural region that sits right under Rome. It makes up the modern-day province of Frosinone and boasts a rich food history often laying in the shadow of tragic historical events - like the Battle of Montecassino, the WWII battle with the most casualties in all of continental Europe.
My grandparents survived this battle, and the legend goes that it’s the reason my grandparents even met - hiding in the caves as the Allies and Germans went at it. One of the biggest losses: the gorgeous ancient abbey of Montecassino blown to bits.
The Montecassino Abbey has since been reconstructed and remains a popular tourist destination, yet many people rarely stay to discover the beauty of the Ciociaro land around it.
“There are so many beautiful places, like Isola della Liri with waterfalls. You can spend 5 days there,” adds Chef del Duca.
Still, the lack of marketing has led to many places closing outside Ciociaria’s industrial cities like Frosinone and Cassino. “Ciociaria needs more investment, people to really dedicate to building the tourism. We are super near Rome, but we don’t have the tools to put us on the map.”
It’s no surprise to hear me urge you to visit Ciociaria. So how about we make a deal?
You give Chef del Duca a visit and try his pane sotto - then, I am sure you will be thinking twice about who is the master of bread dishes in this peninsula (sorry Tuscans). Between his revisited Roman classics and unexpected imaginative dishes, you’ll be curious where Chef del Duca’s creativity came from, and his ingredients.
You will probably book your rental car right at the table for a little road trip adventure.
Until the next newsletter - it’s a spooky one (with many secrets!)
Xx,
Victoria
Wonderful story. Thank you.
If you haven’t been, I’ll suggest Dal Pescatore here. Fab.
https://www.greatitalianchefs.com/restaurants/dal-pescatore