Valerio Nucci
Valerio Nucci really likes to keep his focus on the kitchen and to concentrate on getting the flavours right in his dishes. He is less concerned with their look, and even less with their written descriptions - except to avoid unnecessary length. He doesn't waste words in his conversation and certainly not on his menus. "I really like simple things on the plate. Even the menu will just say 'Roast duck', without much explanation, without the words 'jus', or 'reduction', just plain things. Basically I like to cook what I like to eat."
He did that for 10 years at Melbourne's acclaimed Cafe di Stasio where he was the chef from its opening. Since Valerio left several years ago, the dishes remain the same and so do some of the staff he trained in the kitchen there. The cafe is considered one of Melbourne's finest, with its stylish look and excellent flavours of the food. Now Valerio is executive chef at the Boulevard and at Matches, both restaurants set up by his partner, Ros Harvey of Epicure. It was not until he was in his late 20s that he started to work in a professional kitchen. This was in Melbourne, though he had always loved cooking and being in kitchens in Italy. "I was born in the centre of Milan, my mother is from Como, and my father originally from the Marche region. Even my father used to cook at home maybe once or twice a year. I cooked with my mother and grandmother at home. They would let me shell the peas, cut up things and make risotto, sauce for the pasta and minestrone in the milanese way, with stock and vegetables".
Later on Valerio used to cook for large parties at the home of a friend on Lake Como. He became quite renowned for his dishes and was encouraged to continue. However one of those friends, whose opinion on business he trusted, advised him to "be a chef or a marine biologist". The cautious young man opted for studying and did his degree, qualifying as a surveyor and then specialising in marine biology.
He came to Australia for a holiday, loved it but could not work as his Italian diploma was not recognised here. So Valerio went to see my uncle Ferdi Vigano at Mario's Brighton Beach and asked for a job as a dishwasher. He recalls, "I was 25 then and I remember your uncle Ferdi saying to me - 'You can't be a dishwasher, that's not the job for you.' But a few months later, they advertised again and I got a job as a kitchen hand." Valerio spent six years at Mario's. After three years he thought that he should get "a piece of paper", so did his apprenticeship on days off. He admits to learning quite a lot at trade school about things other than Italian cooking.
At Mario's he was put in charge of the bistro and of the stable areas serving quite complex food to large numbers. He remembers on weekend nights there would be some 500-600 people eating. "It was a very good training ground. Everything was made on the premises from ice cream to pasta, and I don't how many restaurants then would use Arborio rice and imported parmesan, so it was pretty good, very fresh, quite clever". After working continually for six years between Mario's and doing school, with only Sundays off, Valerio decided to take a break. He worked at a delicatessen, a suburban restaurant and at the Hilton before the start of Cafe di Stasio.
Some of his dishes which remain at the cafe include the roast duck, steaks - fillet and porterhouse, quail, baby octopus with red wine and, of course, the risottos. "My dishes, like in Italy, have not got many ingredients or spices and herbs, one herb I think is enough. Everything is very subtle, the taste is there but it is not overpowering. Otherwise you end up with a concoction of ingredients that don't come together. People are trying too hard I think. I don't like the East meets West combinations. I just like Italian food, and I am always careful not to mix too much. But you can do that quite easily in Australia, because there are so many ingredients around to play with".
And for Valerio the look of the dish should be clear and not confused. "It is very important to picture what the plate is going to look like. I picture it in my mind and then I put on the plate. I prefer simplicity." He hates the fashion for 'stacked' food. For him it means that you have to take the dish apart in order to eat it, which is totally contrary to the work of the chef. Valerio believes that food should be possible to eat and to enjoy simply, "you don't have to make a tower of Pisa. But it seems these days, most chefs go for look rather than flavour."
Valerio Nucci's Recipes
Emmental or Fontina Cannelloni
Roasted stuffed quails
Ricotta cheesecake with mascarpone cream