In one hand a wooden spoon, in the other his smartphone. Near the stove the tablet connected to Facebook. The spoon sinks into the smoking pot, a slow stir into the bubbling fish, broth and spices. A great aroma throughout the kitchen. White apron, which like his thick hair tell of a passion routed in the ancient knowledge, in the millennial culinary tradition. Food and wine as a commandment, as a religion. From an early age, when he watched his mother making bread at home: “In the morning I used to get up early, stand on a wooden fruit box and knead the flour. My mother occasionally gave me a lescone (a slap) because I was ciaccione (curious)”.
Blue eyes behind the lenses of his glasses and a generous smile: Roberto Moretti is the chef of the Valdichiana, but he is well known also abroad.
He turns the ladle in the caciucco (fish soup), one of his specialties, and posts photos on Facebook of these delicacies. “It’s a way to pass on good food culture, in a world that races, where there is little time for good things, that, instead require time. It is a message I try to convey, especially to young people who get into this job. On Facebook I’ve got many ‘Likes’; I consider it a useful tool for enhancing a kind of culture that otherwise would be lost, and in the era of new technologies, web is the most effective and direct tool to pass on ancient folk traditions”.
Seeing him at work it is difficult to say where the job becomes a passion for Roberto and vice versa, because his life is made up of feelings, intuitions, experiments. The common features of the recipes are the ingredients, strictly local, and seasonal. He seeks and selects them himself, before he gets into the kitchen. “If I have to prepare the dumplings I know exactly what kind of potatoes I need and where to find them. Potatoes are not all the same, they have a name and a surname. And when you create a dish you have to look for the quality of the products you use”. At the age of nine his first job: pastry chef. “At that time we worked in a basement and I learned to prepare desserts. Then I helped my father who was a trader; during the war he went to procure meat and he had a greengrocers shop in Foiano in 1932. Moretti’s shop was very popular at that time, because it brought in the first fruits of the season before other traders”. In the years of Fascism, his grandparents were the owners of the Trattoria Garofano Rosso. Perhaps a sign of destiny for him.
Amongst Tuscan nicknames, Roberto’s is Il Fattore (the Farmer) because he was the first of five brothers and the father gave him the task to “take care of the family, after his death”. Through the years Robert has become a chef appreciated also abroad, maitre, sommelier and member of Amira (Maitre d’Italia, restaurateurs and hoteliers). “I have participated in many events in Europe, sharing gastronomic knowledge, spreading around the culture of food that Italy is able to express at the highest levels. I managed to feed up to a thousand people at one sitting”.
In his professional curriculum, important contacts that led to friendships. With Giorgio Napolitano, as witnessed by the photos on the walls of the kitchen. “I knew him in 1975 in Florence and we were always in touch. When he was Interior Minister he came often to Cortona to visit the family of a costume designer to whom he was very close. I have often cooked for birthdays or family celebrations, and I have had the opportunity to do it also in his house in Rome, in the Monti district”.
In the album of memories there is also the widow Bucarin, from the time of the Cold War between America and USSR; and two other friendships of which Roberto is proud: “Walter Veltroni and Massimo D’Alema, for whom I cooked on so many occasions, including the Feste dell’Unità. Often when they passed through the Valdichiana they phoned me and I started to cook. Among other things, Veltroni has very strong ties with my village because his father was born in Foiano”. He loves to cook, changing everything: from fish to meat “because a good cook can not only have one dish”. And about “ciccia” (“meat” in tuscany dialect) he has an obsession: the tail, the leg, the tongue, “all the lower parts of the beast, the so-called “fifth”, are my best dishes, the ones I prefer. The way I cook oxtail, they dream about in Rome…” he exclaims smiling and waving his spoon in the air.
The caciucco is ready: Roberto places it on the plate. And the wine? “The right combination is a Syrah from the Doc Cortona or a Rosé from the early harvest of Stefano Amerighi”. Guests are at the table. Roberto greets them: caciucco, so be it!