Chef Locatelli: the future of cooking between challenges and opportunities

From the small trattoria to the big restaurant with three Michelin stars, the caravan is forcing people to close because of unsustainable costs. Have the costs become so exorbitant that you cannot find alternatives to such an extreme decision?
Each restaurant is a microcosm in itself, so giving an opinion is a bit difficult. But it is certain that margins have fallen.

Then let's focus on the starred restaurants.
Restaurants with Michelin stars have dropped even more. When we had a Michelin Star at Zafferano, from 1992 to 1997, we had a net profit of 30-35%. Now we don't even reach 10%. And if we consider that for example in London rents are impossible, you work three months to pay your rent... and then the cost of staff, if you want to treat them well above all. Then there are also the costs for electricity and gas. That is, if a house has gone up 700 euros a year, in a restaurant those 700 become 70 thousand. The costs have gone up a lot.

Do we need measures from above or is there something you restaurateurs can do personally?
The restaurateurs can only talk about it. That is the only thing they can do.

We are in the technological age: what role does technology play in your kitchen and, looking ahead, do you think it will be more and more present, possibly even replacing activities that we humans do now?
I don't know if it can replace what we humans do, but certainly technology has taken an incredible step forward in quality control. For example, we have probes to measure the temperature of fish and they allow us to tell exactly what temperature it is while it is in the fridge. From that point of view, technology has helped us a lot.

It helped even more in the ability to expose your product. It used to be that you would leave, make your restaurant, wait for a while for a journalist to come and you would start working well by word of mouth, when everyone was talking. You were starting to work slowly. Now, if you are 'instagrammable'.... Now you talk on social. You can open your market to a million people and at that point 0.1% of your audience fills your restaurant.

About Instagram and therefore young people: what is their approach to food? Is it different from that of previous generations?
Surely, especially the Italians, they are incredible. They have a much greater desire to interpret and understand the product than previous generations who were more consumerist. I see young people much more focused on the quality of what they are eating. There is much more talk about cooking among young people than there was when I was young. Back then being a cook was a nerdy job. You were never there on a Saturday night, you were never there at Christmas.

Vegan cooking has become very popular in recent years. Will we get closer and closer to this world?
Surely. We have to. I don't think there is any other way to get everyone to eat decently, with the right protein intake, and above all with a lot of variety. So yes, we have to focus on production that has less impact. Because if the whole world goes on steak, two vegetables and crisps, the world will burst, and well before 2050.

About steak, what do you think about synthetic meat? I think protein intake is very important for the growth of a nation, for the generations to come, and to maintain even those that are ageing. I think stopping research to find a system that has less impact is the biggest mistake.

Tell me about a key moment in your career to which you are particularly attached?
When I was twenty, I came to London to work at the Savoy Hotel. I had wanted it for ten years. I went for the interview and they told me to give the address and they would contact me. A month went by, I didn't have a penny... but I was never going back, you know? I was waiting, trying to get some change, I had to pay for the room I was staying in. Finally they called me and gave me the job. When I got there and put on the Savoy jacket...I remember that moment, I looked in the mirror and....

Was it kind of the beginning? Or the end, probably (laughing, ed). Every experience shapes you, but the first few times you really decided to do something and you did it is different.

And now, after so many years, how would you describe your culinary philosophy?
Well, now I consider myself a cook, yes, but also an entrepreneur. And that has changed things a bit because my focus is not 100 per cent on cooking...

Chef, do you have a dream in your drawer?
I have to say that no, I have never had this dream thing.

Let's talk about ambitions then.
It would be nice to really be able to work with young people in education. It would crown what I have done so far.

Of your restaurants, is there one to which you are particularly attached?
Restaurants are like children. You love them all equally. You usually make one and from there generate the others with the staff you have trained previously, so there is a symbiosis between them. I have to say that Cyprus is one of my favourite restaurants, but I also did 15 years of going to Dubai and hating it every time I went.

Why did he hate it?
Because it was... very demanding (demanding).

We talked about so many challenges, from the point of view of technology, sustainability, cost of living... At the moment, for you, part chef and part entrepreneur, what is the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge is to be able to have a restaurant that ensures a balance between customers, staff and those who run it. Sometimes there is a total imbalance and that bothers me a bit.