Daniela Cicchini

 

I know Daniela since tasting her cooking.

It’s a cuisine that speaks a story of soul and gastronomy, an enchanting combination of colours of dishes and the delicate shades of her soul.

Daniela is friendly, open, with the eyes of a child capable of dreaming, she’s a woman when she speaks of life, and an inventive Chef who loves her work.

Years ago when I happened on the restaurant in which she, together with Elisa Veltre, cooked I understood to be in the right place. At the end of the meal, it was natural to go to the kitchen bringing my compliments to both.

I saw Daniela again at a vegetable cooking lesson where we both particpated as students: “there’s always something to learn” she responded to my surprise at seeing her as the student and not the teacher.

Now I’ve started down a new path, together with Elisa, and I’ve asked her something more

 

In pandemic times you’ve had the courage, together with your associate Elisa Veltre to open a gastronomy restaurant activity (LINK): recklessness or, on the contrary, consciousness that things are changing a little at a time and that vegetable cuisine is more in demand.

 

Good morning Sabrina, good morning world. Today is a beautiful day and I’m even more predisposed to be confident. In this moment I wouldn’t talk of recklessness, but the daring of an adventure, a journey in a world, that of catering that I know so well and that I’ve breathed since I was small: the aromas of the kitchen, the noise of the pots and pans, I’ve sneaked into weddings, dodged working waiters, in short I’ve grown up in the temple of food, among the scenes of a truly demanding show that has no mercy, unless you are totally at it’s disposal. And it leaves you exhausted but happy, only if you’re in harmony with all it’s aspects which are multiple.

Things are changing, certainly today people have started to be more aware of what they’re eating, of where the ingredients are coming from and the quality of same, an attention to health and a glance with awareness to the relationship between man and nature. Another very important aspect is that eating has a direct impact in the relationship between ourselves and our moods.

For me food goes beyond the material.

 

How did you decide the name of your restaurant and what does it represent in you?

 

Terra Madre (Mother Earth) are two words that just pronouncing them inevitably brings you to the centre of life if you let them resound in your heart; they are roots and sky, they’re alive and speak, always. Each one of us is Mother Earth, creative force in movement naturally.

 

Let’s talk about you: your diet changed when you were very young and the vegetable cuisine was not so widespread as now: what difficulties did you encounter at that time and how did you overcome them?

 

Love. I changed for love. In 1985 I met my husband, a vegetarian chef. Our families had problems accepting our choice of diet and the difficulties were substantial, especially when you have 3 children and decide to not have them eat meat, fish, eggs, suagr and dairy products and you turn also to homeopathy. However I could count on people who were very prepared and competent who I had the possibility to get to know and who were pioneers in alternative nutrition. 

Since then many thing have changed, inside and outside of me. I’m a person who questions myself a lot and I’ve done this with eating and cooking. There are many stories, as many as the amount of people on this earth and even more, I try not to judge. I peacefully search, firstly inside of me, my interior world and emotions which is a succession of sensations which sometimes leave me breathless, but I must admit are my strength.

 

What would you advise right now to a person who wants to abandon the omnivorous diet in favour of vegetarian or vegan?

 

To not be afraid. Listen to yourself and be compassionate especially with yourself. We are such imperfect beings. Ask yourself why you want to choose a vegetarian or vegan diet, know your starting motivation, where you’re coming from. Knowledge in any field is fundamental. If we are authentic everything happens spontaneously without too much effort. Then there are nutritionists, experts, those who have already made this choice and can be of help: now there is a whole fabric made of knowledge and experience that can sustain for a style of life that is, namely, sustainable, you just need to listen.

 

When you enter the kitchen what is your first thought?

 

OH MY GOD! More than a thought, I’d say a prayer! Said like this it could seem a little excessive.  But in the end it’s true. I really need to live a sacredness. I need to feel inside myself the sacred, inside of life, the earth, inside a protection, inside a Spirit.

 

Can cooking make us happy?

Certainly! We’re born to be happy.... the most difficult thing is: how can I be happy now with what I have? I think that the state of happiness exists always in us, regardless, but we don’t notice. Cooking is an art and can help a lot to discover our happiness. 

 

What is the dish that above all others you like to prepare?

I don’t have any particular dish that I love to cook but l leave the ingredients the right to speak then if I manage to understand them then yes I love what I cook.

 

You have a real art to dishing and taking photos, you love colours, contrasts of light: how much fun and passion goes into all of this? And what does a colourful dish manage to transmit apart from the flavour?

 

I’ve always breathed cooking, but my relationship with her hasn’t been easy, for various reasons, and cooking as a job can be a real curse, cooking is a very demanding lover.

Today, at the age of 55 I spend most of my time in the kitchen...I only have the school of experience and work, I started working very early, at the age of 11 I was already a waitress where my mother worked, I didn’t continue with high school studies (even though when I got married at 19 I was preparing to sit my exams which in the end I didn’t finish). Photography I started much later.... it’s a sublimation instrument, a companion, a silence, and a listener, a contemplation and a centering. Unfortunately at the moment I’m neglecting it a bit....the kitchen is calling.

How to do without colour? Colour is life, seduction, harmony, magic....it enchants and astonishes us and the astonishment blocks us, a stop in a world of velocity. Eating calmly, stopping to eat is and must remain a pleasure, and pleasures must be consumed slowly.

 

If you had to summarize in a phrase your philosophy of life, what would it be?

Be sincerely authentic first with yourself, then with others.

 

What are your dreams?

a house by the sea and a light heart

 

FOLLOW DANIELA:

@eladani65

facebook: terra madre - gastronomia veg