Matteo and Salvatore Aloe are brothers and they are keen on Italian traditional cuisine and they have reason to live the art of making pizza. They are the owners of Berberè, every day they promote the real Italian raw materials and they support the changing of food culture.
Our food ambassador Francine Segan met them:
1) Nine words to introduce yourself.
Eighty-six, rational, independent, traveler, ambitious, determined, forgetful, curious, glutton.
2) What is the episode that originated your passion for food?
As for the sweet: beating the yolks of the eggs taken from the roost few minutes earlier. They had the color of that afternoon of May and we were making the birthday cake with our mom. As for the savory: ordering a pizza with tomatoes and marinated anchovies on the rocks of Pizzo Calabro. Maybe it was the same year, even if the memories are quite decontextualized. I must have been 5.
3) What is the Italian recipe or dish that represents you the most?
I know my answer can sound banal, but it represents me properly: spaghetti with oil and Parmigiano Reggiano. The spaghetto must be made in a pasta factory that does know how to make pasta, that uses Italian organic durum wheat. It must be cooked al dente. The tomato must be cooked for maximum 8 minutes on medium heat, with little salt and nothing else. The oil (extra-virgin olive oil, “Carolea” race) must be used raw and with no parsimony. Also the basil must be picked on the spot from the vegetable garden and ripped. And I like the Parmigiano Reggiano that is not too aged, 24 months aging is the most suitable for my taste. That’s it, if done like this it does represents me.
4) The three indispensable Made in Italy products in your cuisine?
Wheat. Tomato. Oil.
5) Who cooks at your house?
Lately it is Ylenia, my partner, who has been keen on Japanese cuisine over the past year and when it rarely happens to be home together, she cooks and I work.
6) What do you think is the biggest commonplace the foreigners have on Italian cuisine/food?
That it is good. When actually there is a lot done wrong and a lot of products that hide, behind their names full of history, the void.
It is truly necessary to deeply know what hides behind a cheese, a fruit, a salami.
7) With regard to the “Italian Sounding” phenomenon, what do you think can be the solutions to fight it?
Educating and communicating what the real products are. For instance, Italians have often been the first ones to open restaurants abroad using “parmesan”. So it is only possible to fight it if we Italians are coherent, otherwise it is useless to complain. I think the Italian government should protect the products by controlling those who make Italian cuisine. Just like those who certify themselves “organic”, we should certify those who make “Italian”.
8) Three words to describe Italian food abroad.
Pizza, regional, agriculture.
9) Your role as spokesperson of 100per100 Italian “Made in Italy”
I and all “Berberè” staff are committed to the research of products that are Italian, good and organic. It is an important work that requires commitment and energy, also renouncing to some taking, but that is paid back once our clients tell us our pizza is good. We know that with the products we use we educate and we continue transmitting the heritage we got from our predecessors.
10) What are the awards you won or something else you would like to add?
The awards are not what we aim for, even if we are glad to receive them, all of them. Maybe we would like to receive some recognition outside the world of food journalism, because we believe that our company case is a positive example in a country where it is hard to manage a company. An award I am particularly proud of is “Pizza Chef Emergente 2014” (Emerging Pizza Chef 2014) where our pizza maker Faysal, with us from the start, came in 3rd place. For us he deserved the 1st!
Thanks to our Italian Food Ambassador Francine Segan for this amazing interview.
