Cook's Christmas Dinner

It is always a pleasure getting to work with the team from Cook Magazine in Italy.  We have been on many trips and photographed many of the world’s best chefs together.  However, this time I was commissioned to photograph the team behind the magazine having Christmas dinner.  The dinner consisted of a meal that each member of the magazine associated with Christmas.  

For this shoot I arrived in Milan late on the Sunday, Monday morning, bright and early, we took over a section of the exclusive Ginori Chinaware store and got to work dressing the Christmas table.  A full team of set designers, flower arrangers, hair and makeup and food stylists were there to help create this feast.  

Everyone sat down and I started to photograph.  I wanted to suggest that they all raised their glasses and said ‘cheers’ - and I got some blank expressions back.  I repeated myself a couple of times before I realised that they all thought I was saying ‘cheese’.  The look of disappointment, ‘What has this pandemic done to the photographer - reverting to the good old classic cheese phrase?!’  A look of relief came across everyone’s faces when they realised that I was just trying to get everyone to raise their glasses.  Glasses were raised and laughter washed over the uncomfortable quiet caused by the one minute confusion.   

A large group shot, 6 individual portraits and 6 plates later - I jumped in the taxi and headed for the airport, back to London….

Shot for Cook Magazine, Corriere Della Sera

Massimiliano and Raffaele Alajmo

I have too admit that the introduction to this trip to Padua didn’t bode well for an amazing meal.   We rocked up to a roadside hotel on the side of a semi industrial district of Padua, Sarmeola di Rubano, at about 11pm.  The hotel, only a few hundred meters from our final goal and objective of the trip, the acclaimed restaurant Le Calandre.  The hotel had closed and we had to call and wake up the staff to come and let us in.  There we were met with a hotel that felt like Miami Vice on a budget.  I eventually got to my room quietly hoping that the Le Calandre, a couple of hundred meters down the road, would be considerably better.

When I first saw the restaurant from the outside it didn’t look like we were up for much of an improvement.  The restaurant entrance and windows looked good, but the building looked more like a mix between a South of France building estate and an industrial warehouse.  However, as soon as we walked into the bistro that is in front of the restaurant itself, we realised we were somewhere special.  Le Calandre restaurant is run by the two brothers Massimiliano and Raffaele Alajmo.  Max (Massimiliano) is the chef and took the restaurant in 1992 and took it from one to two Michelin stars in 1996, making Max the youngest ever chef to get two Michelin stars at the age of 22.  At the age of 28 Max gained the restaurant its third Michelin star, making him the youngest ever chef to get that accolade.  The restaurant has maintained its three Michelin stars ever since and Chef Alajmo has been given the nickname “Il Mozart dei fornelli” (The Mozart of the stoves).

The restaurant is a family business run by the two brothers Max and Raf.  The adjoining bistro is run by their sister Laura.  The restaurants were previously run by their parents Erminio Alajmo and Rita Chimetto.  The family now run several of Italian and international restaurants as well as having a bakery section that supplies food to external shops, bistros, restaurants and cafes.  

So - when a chef like Max, receives me with open arms and insists that it is a true pleasure to be photographed by me, then it is a true sign of his humility and generosity.  We did not only get to eat the taster menu at Le Calandre, which was exceptional! - but we were also invited to dine in the Bistro and their new restaurant on St Mark’s Square.  For the latter we were transported on a wooden speedboat, not unlike what you see in a James Bond Movie.  

The restaurants run by the Alajmo family do not only provide excellent food, but also an experience that makes you smile and laugh, makes you excited and stimulate all your senses.  So - to call Max the Mozart of the stoves may be an understatement.  

Shot for Cook Magazine

Vitantonio Lombardo

I have been very lucky in my career and had the chance to travel all around the world to work with some of the world’s best chefs. This trip for Corriere Della Sera’s ‘Cook’ magazine took me to Matera in the south of Italy, right in the middle of Spaghetti Western country.  The town Matera is a city built into the mountains in the middle of this desolated landscape.  The houses and hotels are basically caves.  The town had only recently been made into a modern city.  It previously didn’t have a modern plumbing system which meant that the town had been left to disintegrate, considered poor and nobody wanted to live there.  It became a dumping place for rubbish and a playground for drug users until the government put a lot of money into it and modernised it.  Work began in the 1970’s and it is now one of the ‘must see’ destinations in southern Italy.  The houses, (or caves,) are still there but now they have built in plumbing and are desirable to locals, businesses as well as tourists.  The town has been the backdrop to many films, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ being one of them.  

The Michelin star chef Vitantonio Lombardo packed down his Micheline star restaurant in Salerno and opened up shortly after in Matera, getting a Micheline star almost immediately, being the first restaurant in Matera to get one.  

I spent 2 days in Matera, photographing the town, but also Chef Vitantonio Lombardo and his restaurant.  Lombardo invited us to a 2 hour lunch experience which ended with a dish where we had to snog a pair of lips up from a plate, not using any cutlery, wearing earphones with an Italian love song on.  It’s not many exclusive restaurants you see the diners pushing their whole plate into their faces, licking up a lipped shaped cake - but it was strangely nice…. Almost like being a teenager abroad, experiencing your first holiday romance:  Slightly unsure how you approach the ‘lips’, the fear of the unknown, but when the lips (desert) meet your lips, you can’t stop…

Shot for Cook Magazine

Norbert Niederkofler

A while ago I was contacted by Angela Frenda and Tommaso Galli from Corriere della Sera in Italy. The newspaper was about to start a monthly food magazine, “Cook”. The magazine wanted to give the Italian food magazine market a new and fresh look. Tommaso and Angela’s passion for the food industry left me in no doubt that they were serious about including the best of the best and the magazine would serve as an inspiration for Italian food enthusiasts. And, as far as food enthusiasts are concerned, the Italians have a particular passion for food that you don’t see often in other cultures.

For the first issue of Cook we went to photograph Norbert Niederkofler in the Dolomites. I have worked with many chefs in my time as a photographer. Some have inspired me with their passion and ideas and others have inspired me with impressive locations and settings. If you want to be truly impressed in all areas of the visual and palatable sensory organs then head up to the three Micheline star chef Niederkofler. His restaurant, a part of the Hotel Rosa Alpina in the Dolomites, has views you can kill for as well as food which looks great, tastes delicious, is sustainably sourced and focuses on no waste. What more can you ask for?

When we arrived at the hotel, just over 3 hours drive from Verona we had already lost our breath by the sheer beauty of the curvy roads leading up the mountains. Norbert then ushered us into his car and we continued up to the top of the nearby mountain. Just above the tree line we found ourselves between white/grey rocks and a white/grey sky. Not a bad start after having woken up to a London night sky earlier that morning.

Norbert was generous with his time and knowledge. He spoke of his passion for food but also for the place we found ourselves. A place with so much history as it finds itself on the boarder of three nations and is one of the most connected ski resorts in the whole world, with a ski slope network that is so extensive it reads like a spider’s web on acid.

However, this was not a season for skiing. Mid July was more a month of motorised mountain bicycles (which were everywhere you looked,) and pristine green fields with wildflowers. In every valley you should see Julia Andrews’ lookalikes running down with arms stretched out. My lungs were filled with air so pure it reverted the ageing process and my lungs retreated into infancy stage.

We had the true pleasure of eating at Norbert’s kitchen table. A table looking over the kitchen and the focus, art and craft that it takes to be a 3 Michelin star kitchen. The food was served to us and the inspiration and thought behind every dish was carefully explained to us. The ingredients were all locally sourced and in season. An impressive task considering the inhospitable climates you face in the alps. Even more impressive considering that they have the same ethos all year around. For example, ingredients and flavours created by ingredients such as Olive oil and lemon juices had been replaced with ingredients that could be locally sourced. Nothing was wasted, but many dishes came in two parts. One dish would consist of the more luxurious part of an animal for example, whilst the next dish would be a great tasting dish made of the parts that were not used in the first dish. And so it went on, every dish a joy to the pallet.

The day after we woke up and headed up to a near by mountain top where the hotel owned a cabin. The kitchen staff and Norbert were serving up a mountain picnic. I’m not talking a baguette on a rock with a nice view, but a carefully thought through 5 course meal cooked to perfection, with a view that could make a grown man cry. After the meal we headed down to one of Norbert’s local suppliers who showed us around his organic farm perched on the mountain side.

Admittedly, seeing this in the summer light makes it all seem very idyllic. The snow covered mountains in the winter would also seem like an idyl to the eye. But I have a feeling that the existence that Norbert has chosen, to locally source and be true to the place where he works and lives, demands great discipline and hard work. Many of the dishes served during the summer months cannot be planned far ahead as it all depends on what the local suppliers can provide. And the winter menus need to be considered and prepared in the summer unless they only want to serve wild Groundhogs with snow and icicles on the side.

Shot for Cook - Corriere della Sera

Massimo Bottura

There is nothing more inspiring than an enthusiastic Italian. It’s been proved to me time and time again. A true enthusiastic Italian has the ability to project his/her excitement, to involve you, and in the end you will feel as passionate about the subject as they do. Furthermore they have the ability to seem genuinely interested in you and your wellbeing, you walk away feeling that you have made a new true friend.  This is very much the case with Massimo Bottura. A warm and welcoming man with an enormous passion for food, art and life. The passion was reflected in a kind of boisterous behaviour, the kind of behaviour that us in Northern Europe have learned to control as it is of course not cool to show too much emotion and enthusiasm. 

I had the pleasure of spending 3 days around the Modena area with Massimo and the editor of OFM, Allan Jenkins. A little road trip to soak up where his inspirations come from and to get a feel of his childhood district.  

The greatest experience was of course to be able to dine at Massimo’s 3 star Micheline restaurant Osteria Francescana. His legendary dishes ‘5 ages of Parmesan’ and of course the world’s best Tortellini (undisputed) were like having ballerinas dancing on my tongue. But second to that experience was meeting a lady who has been working closely with Massimo since the beginning. An old lady who taught Massimo everything there is to know about traditional Italian cooking and helped keep him on the straight and narrow in those early days.  We had listened to Massimo tell us of her importance in his life for hours before we were eventually brought to her house, a stones throw away from Massimo’s first restaurant. To witness the closeness, playfulness and the warmth between them was enough to give all of us goosebumps, and dare I say a tear in our eyes. A feeling of envy for the Mediterranean way of being where emotions are being worn on the sleeves and a warm hearted tickle is a friendly gesture that’s made between people of any age as a gesture of affection, on display for everyone to see.