The warm colors of Van Gogh’s canvases warm up this wet Saturday. I meet Nadia Frisina, Executive Chef of Six Senses Rome, after visiting the exhibition of the Dutch painter at Palazzo Napoleone. “The yellow of the wheat fields, the deep blue, the thick brush strokes. He is one of my favorite artists. Crazy, misunderstood, true” – Nadia tells me welcoming me with an affectionate hug. Coincidences, sometimes, resemble destinies. We comment on the portraits of the sowers, of the farmers who work the land. Art and cuisine, I feel it will be a beautiful journey.
“I started this job almost by chance, in Sicily, during high school. I have always had an independent spirit, I wanted to support myself”. From there a meteoric career. “At 29 I became the youngest Italian Executive Chef”. The adrenaline of the challenge, the satisfaction of a prestigious achievement. Nadia finds herself at a crossroads: complete her law studies or continue her career as a chef. The choice is clear. “Dad and Mom didn’t understand her, they didn’t speak to me for a year. But I felt it was my path”.
People who fought over inheritance, money, property. In the studio, Nadia felt sad. “I needed colors. My guests gave them to me, with their stories and the world they brought with them. I have always felt a great responsibility towards them. Hosting is like opening the doors of your home. It is in the daily joy of generating an emotion that I find the motivation to move forward. If at the pass I imagine that I am cooking for you and your girlfriend, I turn off”.
“Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the truly passionate painter who dares.” I think back to Van Gogh’s words, while Nadia tells me about her blank canvases: first the experience in an important hotel in Beijing, then in Macao to manage the opening of new venues. “I felt curious to discover Asian culture. I wanted to contaminate myself with a world that people were just starting to hear about. A bit like Van Gogh when he leaves his village and goes to Paris to meet the great artists and discover the trends of the moment. It was a shocking experience.”
Asia, Amsterdam, then back to Asia. And Sicily? “I always carry it with me. Being authentic means letting who I really am shine through, without masks. Anchored to my values and emotions. There is always a bit of my land in the dishes, citrus fruits first of all. Cooking must not be self-referential. And it is not even enough for it to be comfortable. It must be aware and committed, convey values, educate”. Also for this reason, Nadia has chosen the Six Senses project, where sustainability does not accept compromises.
We go up to the rooftop that has just opened. A thin red veil slowly falls on the humid sky of Rome. If you had a canvas, a brush and a palette, how would you paint your idea of cuisine? “A lot of yellow and blue. And the volcano. Me and Sicily. Maybe one day I will return to close this circle”.
It is evening. The sky wears a robe of stars that illuminate the words of Van Gogh written under the plaque of the sower. “I feel unequivocally that the history of men is like that of wheat. If you are not sown in the earth to germinate, it happens that you are ground to become bread”. Yes, Nadia's story teaches that the secret to becoming the artist of yourself and painting your own masterpiece is to listen to yourself. Cultivate your talent, make it germinate and share it. Recognize it in others and nourish it.
