2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
Florentine, 47 years old, degree in philosophy. He specialized in Ayurvedic cuisine in India, he was Pietro Leemann's main collaborator at Joia in Milan, left with a Michelin star: an absolute first for a vegetarian restaurant.
But no biographical notes on Simone Salvini it would be complete if it didn't mention Maurizio Crozza's parody, perfect in catching the tics of vegan cooks, able to go from the usual ethical shampoo on the suffering of animals to those experienced by the pumpkin when it is cut (?!).
Simone Salvini, who is now more popular than ever thanks to that parody, collaborates with Massimo Bottura at the opening of a Refectory at the Antoniano in Bologna, following the example of the Refettorio Ambrosiano, a jewel canteen managed by Caritas that fed 90 poor people a day for the duration of Expo 2015.
Loyal readers will remember: during the months of the exhibition, the most famous chefs in the world cooked the food leftovers recovered every day at the Expo, transforming them into haute cuisine dishes that comply with food safety regulations.
From 9 May it will be repeated in Bologna, after the Ambrosiano one, Bottura and the Chef to Chef association guarantee the evening opening of the kitchens for the poor in via Guinizzelli.
In the meantime, the monks of the Antoniano of Bologna turned to Simone Salvini to direct the refectory kitchen every Wednesday evening.
Unexpected: it happens that the guests of the canteen do not particularly like the cruelty free and meatless menu of the vegan chef.
Some of the poor told me "At this point we go back to the street, we need the meat". Yet my staff and I are trying to cook healthy, organic, plant-based foods as best we can, Salvini tells Corriere.
Shrug and go. A vegan chef traveling to Bologna does not have an easy life, a city where high cholesterol values are part of the DNA and pork cracklings are a delicacy that is difficult to describe.
But Salvini does not let go: he has already identified a dish to conquer the skeptics: small meatballs with legumes, bean sausages, soy sauce.
Do you think he will succeed in the enterprise?