Nello Cassese worked with Gordon Ramsay and runs a Michelin-starred restaurant at the Copacabana Palace
Nello Cassece is the chef of the 10 locations of the luxury Belmond in South America, including eight hotels, two trains and 13 restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Mee and Cipriani, his favorite, at the Copacabana Palace, in Rio de Janeiro.
Under his command is Luiz Filipe do Evvai at the Y, at the Hotel das Cataratas, in Foz do Iguaçu; Pía León from Central and Kjölle in Mauka, at Palacio Nazarenas, and Jorge Muñoz at OQRE, at Monasterio, both in Cusco.
“I haven’t Italianised everything, I insist that each chef brings his own experience. As a foreigner it bothers me when I come across French or Italian dishes, you can’t betray your own culinary tradition”, explains Nello.
Having said that, it is at his home, that is, at Cipriani, that the chef from Nola expresses himself at his best. There he consolidates his “concept of modern, contemporary Italian cuisine, but with a lot of connection to tradition, because every Italian has it”.
Mentions of recent travels, experience in French cuisine, local products and the desire to get to know Asia are present “without taking anything away from the fact that it is an Italian restaurant and without it being tiring, which is why the tastings are not They’re so long.”
Namely, the menus have 11 or 15 steps (R$575 or R$695 respectively), can mix octopus and rabbit into a classic Italian pasta and resemble a gyoza, but will always have ragu and thick sauces, a roast and a risotto, also how they will play with pastry making and the nostalgia of Naples.
Sweet past
“Sometimes Italian customers come and say they are not Italian, but I have always wanted to do my own cooking and this requires a lot of study, I never stop”, says Nello who, with his feet together, swears that at the age of four, looking Gualtiero Marchesi on TV, I already knew I would be a chef.
At 15 he entered a hotel school and, the following year, in a pizzeria restaurant near Naples, where he learned the rudiments of bread making and pastry making. Hence the rigor with the puff pastries for breakfast and the pizzas of Pérgula, with the most desired panettone in the country and the desserts of Cipriani, including tiramissus, in the plural.
«There’s nothing to be done: every time the menu changes, the tiraminello changes, as a customer defined it. Now it is made in three layers, with amaretto liqueur, zabaglione and mascarpone. It also has a white chocolate shell and the colors of Italy. It’s successful,” says the author. Despite this, ice cream is his most famous sweet treat.
Nello has been at the Copacabana Palace for eight years, the same amount of time spent in restaurants, both starred and otherwise, owned by a celebrity chef, the Scottish Gordon Ramsay: “My first experience with a star in Italy was not good, I held events in the people’s houses until I went to England I didn’t even know who Gordon was.”
In the kitchens of the Englishman, the Italian was struck by the “adrenaline that comes from work, from pressure, from the need for self” – something he loves. He passed the Mayfair, a bar-grill, the upscale Savoy Grill and the Gordon Ramsay restaurant, where “for the first time I saw a female chef, but angry, angry, angry.” In this case, triple star Clare Smyth.
He also had moments at the starred Pétrus, in London, and at the Gordon Ramsay au Trianon, at the Waldorf Astoria Versailles, before heading to the restaurants that the group opened in Italy: “I decided to leave, although I had Gordon’s advice, it was little present and the company did not want to accept my desire to conquer a star”.
A desire, among other things, shared by the Copacabana Palace. Today, despite spending 12 hours a day in a hotel in Rio, Nello finds time to train in cross fit, often together with his wife Ana, who prepares him roast chicken legs and “rice, beans and farofa girls”, his daughters Emily and Nicole, with whom he doesn’t give up going to the beach.
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.