Of LUIGI STANIZZI – Where have you been Peppino Siriannithe great chef in love with Calabrian cuisine?
The ambassador in the world of typical Catanzaro dishes has not been seen at work in the historic restaurants of Catanzaro for some time. Yes, that’s him, who identified himself with many famous places including “La Fattoria”, where he catered to the President of the Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro with a menu covering all three hills.
The chef of the greats, from Nilde Iotti to the Pope, to the greediest local guests, to the millions of Calabrian emigrants in the world nostalgic for morzello, kid tijana and soppressate. Not to mention fried surici, virdeddha, malangiani chini, stuffed squid, sardeddha, fried black olives, cod and potatoes and Decollatura, fry and paranza, risotto with fruits from the Ionian Sea, spicy fish soup, rapi and pose and Cortale, vrascioli , ficatu and chippu ccu lauru, smoked vrucculi, baked pasta and pruppettini.
How much authentic ancient joy! A tempting discovery of the “cuisine of the sun” for foreigners, even for those from Italy who live in the north. The creator of restaurants, with great students such as Tonino Grampone, predestined by his family with the renowned Stella Maris to – someone says – surpass the master, but here we also enter the world of modern marketing where a controversial yet unique incomparable out of class rages: Nello, ” you got it”.
Tonino Grampone at the beginning he followed Peppino Sirianni everywhere in the world, from Varese to Milan abroad, to delight thousands of lucky people. And now Grampone at the Stella Maris – a rare authentic fresh fish restaurant in Catanzaro Lido – is the King of unforgettable banquets, historic evenings with true friends, a favorite location for the local, national and international jet set, supported by his wife and children and the “ general” or “admiral”, call him what you want, he is always there ready to serve you with affection, and – sometimes – the cook (he prefers cook to chef) Sirianni also appears. And the research started right from the famous surviving fresh fish restaurant Stella Maris: after many phone calls, investigative chats and waiting we discovered that Peppino Sirianni lives in Anghiari, province of Arezzo, in Tuscany. Another great loss for Calabria!
But at least we finally found him out! And what is he doing today? What he has always done in his life: he promotes Calabrian cuisine. Stainless. And we thank him for this.
«In Anghiari, where I have lived for some years – Don Peppino Sirianni tells the reporter under a flowering wisteria – the Free University of Autobiography was born in 1998, which in addition to being a school where one learns to write about oneself, is also a of research on personal and collective memory. Five years ago I met Renato, one of the founders of this association which he defined as a ‘community of writers of themselves and for others’, and he gave me a book entitled “From stop to stop. Mnemogastronomic itinerary”, which collects the stories of the ancient refreshment places within the Municipality of Anghiari, some of which still exist today. I then thought that my story, for the love of Calabrian cuisine that has accompanied me in many years of my profession, could also be of interest to this community and so in many meetings I told Renato how, born in San Pietro Apostolo, at 15 years after leaving the country, I went to Turin in search – like many young people from the south in those years – of fortune. The first job in a kitchen of a restaurant in the city center was therefore the beginning of my professional career in the catering field, and there I met those men who have imprinted themselves in my memory, as my true teachers: all without exception Tuscans. It took years of learning and, thanks to their precious teachings, I then became a chef.”
«Back in Calabria – recalls the chef with a pinch of nostalgia – already with a fair amount of experience, I immediately began a careful and passionate search for our gastronomic traditions, thus giving me a precise specialization in the art of cooking the typical dishes of the Calabrian cuisine. Contacted by the Chambers of Commerce, I participated in international tourism fairs, each time setting up a small restaurant where the most typical dishes of Calabrian cuisine could be tasted. In this way I traveled in Europe, in those places where the fairs took place in Brussels, Bern, Colmar, Milan, Ferrara, Genoa among the main ones. The success of those events meant that I was requested by television for culinary entertainment programmes. Lugi Veronelli himself selected me, on 24 May 1982 I participated in the Rai 2 program “Il afternoon”, which was broadcast at 5 from the television studios in Miano, in Corso Sempione. The conductors were Tony Binarelli and Dino Siani. Again for Rai 2, with the director Broken legI participated in TG2 dossier and for Rai 1 from the television studios in Ferrara, on the occasion of the fair I was a guest together with other colleagues in the program “Uno Mattina”».
Peppino Sirianni’s eyes light up, he sips a drop of Cirò and adds: «Thinking back to those years, I cannot help but recognize that at the origin of my professional history there is the love for the cuisine of my land, which was passed on to me from an early age from the environment in which I spent my childhood, close to the women who prepared our poor dishes for their loved ones. I have ennobled these dishes and managed to make them appreciated in places where this type of cuisine was practically unknown. In more recent years I was commissioned by the Burnio School of Lucca, directed by the chef Gianluca Pardini, as a teacher of Calabrian cuisine giving lessons to chefs from distant Japan. It was July 24, 1995, when I organized a promotion at the Brussels fair, which supported a principle that is still valid for me: Tourism promotion begins with gastronomy».
«So – concludes the indestructible old good chef Peppino Sirianni – the advice I want to give to our good restaurateurs is to also pay a lot of attention to local cuisine, rediscovering and ennobling the most traditional dishes of all the regions of Italy».
Chef Peppino Sirianni, who is appreciated by many as seen in Catanzaro and beyond, wrote the book, and this arouses our interest even more, “Gulìe (Voglie) Easy and quick preparation dishes from Calabrian cuisine”, wanted since then very active president of the Chamber of Commerce Paul Abrahamin which among many rare recipes and advice the Patron Peppino Sirianni reports the poetic masterpiece of Francesco Mazzè ‘A Suppressata. (ls)
