Andrea Valentinetti took his first steps in 2003 working at the Michelin-starred restaurant Acqua Pazza located on the Italian island of Ponza to continue. Later he continued his career working as a confectioner in the historic Caffè Cavour in Padua.
A promising young chef, later he has been hired by Le Calandre Restaurant (3 Michelin stars) and to complete his experience he joined the superb Carlo Cracco’s team at the Peck Restaurant in Milan.
He is now the Chef of his own restaurant RADICI, where he rediscovered the importance of a savoury pastry production combined with a fine and well-balanced menu, without excess that let the customer appreciate the flavour of superior ingredients.
Watch the video or read the interview below:
“My restaurant’s name is Radici, Terra e Gusto. When a customer smiles at me and makes me compliments saying that he enjoyed it, I think it’s the best thing.
We aim to revamp the tradition of ancient dishes thanks to the new technologies in kitchen supplies. In a restaurant not everything can be processed fresh, a small supply must be produced. We have noticed that a blast chilled product, obviously processed by following specific rules, will provide many benefits.
On Tuesday, which is our opening day, we are concentrate on general production, then Wednesday is all about meat processing, and Thursday is entirely dedicated to pastry; Friday is dedicated to vegetables and side courses, sauces and broths preparation. We don’t produce on Saturday and Sunday.
There is absolutely no difference between a freshly prepared product and a product that I take out the refrigerator after 10 days or a week. Indeed, there are improvements in some products; for example in the structure, composition, and texture. For example, an appetizer that we make with the blast chiller is a tuna tartare; the blast chiller will give a perfect shape to it so that the client will notice regularity and precision both in the visual presentation and plating.
We work with many pre-desserts like macarons and cream puffs. For example, when working on the cream puffs, we fill them already on the tray, we blast chill them with VISION and then, depending on the day, if we need 20, 30, 50 pieces, we bake them in the oven. So we work on a product that is always very fresh, we just apply the blast chilling method.
We absolutely use VISION to proving all the bakery, bread, and savoury croissants.
Our kitchen supplies the bar as well; we produce all the midday snacks including different types of Tramezzino sandwiches, bread loaves, brioches, other sandwiches, and toasts. The 3, 4 additional functions, found in the VISION blast chiller that you cannot find in other blast chillers, allow you to better organise your work and also to optimise the space. In our kitchen space is limited, for this reason, the possibility of using the blast chiller as a prover is very important to us.
It’s obvious that everything else is organised in production cycles. As a restaurant, we also organise several catering services. A week before, thanks to the blast chilling method I am able to create a product that is always perfect. This method allows me to work easier, not day by day but well in advance. This organization means everything to us”.