As the car climbs up the winding hairpin bends that lead to the fairytale village of Champoluc, in the Aosta Valley, I think back to our first phone call. “I really like your project, it's courageous. Your sustainable philosophy is interesting. Can you send me some samples?” After months of virtual exchanges imposed by the pandemic, we can finally meet. The emotion is strong, not only because Luca Gubelli - Executive Chef of campZero, Active Luxury Resort 5 stars in Champoluc, Aosta Valley - he is a very good Chef, but also because he was among the first to believe in the Boniviri project , one of the almost thirty small producers selected by him, personally, for the two restaurants at campZero: the “ Cliffhanger's Grill ”, the casual brasserie for hotel guests, and the “ Summit Restaurant ”, the gourmet restaurant, open only in the evening, where Luca, through truly unique sensory and emotional atmospheres and landscapes, leads enthusiasts on food and wine excursions to very high peaks.
“They hate me in the administration,” he jokes. “I have four suppliers just for cheese.” So an avalanche of delivery notes and invoices overwhelms the purchasing office every day. “Not to mention the logistical hassles I have to deal with personally. But this makes the difference, it’s what makes my cooking good and right. I get the blueberries from a lady in town, she picks them by hand and brings them to me fresh. I’m lucky, here at campZero I have carte blanche.”
From Mozzate to Champoluc, I ask him what brought him up here after a career of over thirty years built with sacrifice in the most glamorous restaurants in Milan. “Nice, but I couldn’t take it anymore, my daughters were grown up by now, it was the right time”. And the right place… “Yes, my career began in ’89 and in ’93 I arrived in Aosta for the first time, to work with Chef Paolo Vai, two Michelin stars. I’ve always had this valley in my heart”.
While we chat, the colleague brings us one of his fruit juices, apple and ginger. In that juice so essential - and so good - is concentrated his whole idea of cooking. Simple ingredients, carefully selected and cooked with wisdom and creativity. "A concept of cooking that maybe is not instagrammable (and, instead, it is, look at the gallery) and particularly innovative (and innovation, I assure you, you can perceive a lot), but it is authentic because it is mine. Here at campZero I have reached my 'gastronomic maturity' with my concept of 'Alpine Fusion' kitchen” . A perfect synthesis of cultures, cooking methods and ingredients that are extremely distant and different from each other. You can feel, as he proudly guides me through the spaces of campZero, that even the personality of the restaurants is all his. “I designed the kitchen, the systems, the equipment, the catering strategies, in short, I tailored this place to me”.
We are interrupted by the lost voices of a couple of guests who entered through a service door instead of the main entrance. He is a distinguished man, dressed all in designer labels, she is a lady with a discreet charm reflected in her precious jewelry. I ask Luca if sustainable cuisine is democratic, if it is not destined to remain a luxury for the few: "Do you think everyone can buy a fifty thousand euro car? No, and yet they make payments for ten years because they can't afford it, the same goes for the three hundred euro shoes and the thousand euro bag. Why the bag yes, the shoes yes and the food no? This is the question we must ask ourselves and then make coherent choices: eat less, eat better, to respect the work of small farmers, the planet and ourselves”.
When it comes to sustainability, Luca is uncompromising. “If I walk into the kitchen and see the tap running, I become a hyena. In this way, I will already be dead, I tell the kids, but you won't even have water to drink, if you continue like this. Our job as Chefs is also to educate on these issues, unfortunately not enough is done in schools”. For him, sustainability also means knowing the territory, the farmers and their products . Here too there is still a lot to do. “I often get chefs, even from important restaurants and starred hotels, who don’t know how to clean fish, debone or recognize a cut of meat. Nowadays, distributors bring the food already cleaned and ready to put in the oven. Is this cooking, in your opinion?”
It's lunchtime, we move to the terrace overlooking the large park surrounding the hotel. "Luca, you do it." We start with a selection of breads served with oil, Boniviri of course. Even though the restaurant is casual, the guests don't want to give up their luxurious composure and, trying not to be noticed, they dip the bread in the oil like children dip their noses in candy floss at Luna Park. They close their eyes in silent enjoyment and, losing all restraint, off with another dip. What satisfaction! "Some customers ask me for a bottle before leaving. This oil is really good, they tell me." The beetroot marinated trout with oyster mayonnaise arrives. An explosion of colors, flavors, emotions, which continues throughout the lunch and never leaves me.
We close with a bread dessert placed on a bed of blueberries, amazing. It’s time to go back to the valley, before saying goodbye I ask him what the cuisine of the future will be like. “Globalization is inevitable, we will only have vertical concepts. Pizza will survive and restaurants will disappear, except for the very high-end ones, it’s a very evident trend among young people that will consolidate more and more”.
Luca, is it worth it? “As long as at least one in ten understands my project, yes. Because we will have given our contribution to a healthy, good and fair cuisine . " As these words accompany me along the hairpin bends that take me back to the valley, I think that his cuisine, courageous and tenacious, is one of the best medicines of this time, sick of straight and clear roads. Of easy solutions and compressed times, short views and narrow perspectives.
Thanks Luca.
Photo credit: Manufactured
