There are difficulties in life that drive you crazy or give you an inner richness that makes you shine. This is what happened to our favorite chef and writer Vanni Cicetti, when nearly twenty years ago he had an aggressive spinal cord tumor that left him in a wheelchair.
For some years Vanni has been publishing his recipes on our website with wine pairings and we have also involved him in the next launch of Donna Vittori's pasta. His articles are always very welcome but perhaps few know the difficulties he has to face every day without ever complaining and with a smile on his face.
I join him at home to bring him some ingredients and we have a nice chat while also remembering some mutual friends, in fact we both grew up in Colleferro and the town was still small at the time.
“I started cooking out of desperation. I'm sorry to say it but my mother really didn't know how to cook and so at the age of 14 I decided to put myself in the kitchen. The first dish I prepared was a second course with pizzaiola slices at my aunt's house in Terni. I can't forget the emotions I felt feeling so observed and having to appear self-confident!
Then I think I was helped by my education, by attending the Colleferro institute I acquired familiarity with chemistry but also with the art of combining ingredients, especially when I was a barman”.
As luck would have it, one of the first jobs was at Antonello Colonna's Locanda in Labico. Today he is a starred chef but back then it was still a gourmet restaurant where Antonello's mother was the queen of the kitchen and she behaved in a motherly way teaching us all the secrets of cooking.
They have all participated in the growth of the restaurant by learning about wines, organizing meetings with great producers and choosing the best pairings with dishes, even the most elaborate ones of a gourmet kitchen.
Vanni loves to study and eagerly reads all the magazines that arrived from America (at that time there was no internet). Having no family traditions in the kitchen, his training was above all the result of personal work and direct experience.
Due to a series of unusual circumstances, as always happens in his life, he is called by friends to take over a restaurant in Colleferro and the town's call becomes almost irresistible for a young man who wanted to grow up.
Paris, marriage and children made him make a choice: no more work in the restaurant business, no more being absent at family parties because he was busy in the clubs. But the real turning point came in 2004 when he was operated on for the first time at San Camillo Hospital and began rehabilitation at the San Giovanni Battista hospital.
It may seem incredible but in the 6 months of hospitalization he cooked for the whole ward. In fact, the hospital had a large kitchen to teach the disabled to become independent and Vanni enjoys being helpful.
This is the positivity and the light that emanates when he smiles. This is his way of facing life with courage and with the desire to do 'beautiful things'.
So, he again cooks in his second hospitalization at the CTO, when they gave him hopelessness during the pandemic and where he spent 7 long months. His hospitalization ended with a plate of fettuccine al ciasculo salami, Tropea onion and smoked scamorza cheese cooked for the whole ward.
You can read him every Thursday in our newsletter, but you can also follow some of his lessons on wines by visiting him at home.
And since he never stands still… now he is thinking of opening a home restaurant with his daughter.
Great Vanni!!
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