Change doesn’t scare me

This article is published in number 46 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until November 16, 2022

– Excuse me, but are those I hear in the background cowbells? … Cowbells of the cows?
– Um, yes, actually. But I can’t tell you where I am or who I am with. Ask no more.
– For charity! I cherish life, I will not.

In spite of appearances, Matteo Boschiero Preto, with whom I am talking on the phone, does not work for the secret services of any country, but he is a chef. In his 27 years he compressed several lives: Tamara’s second child, a heroin addict, lived on the street until he was 4 years old, when he was given in foster care and then, when his mother died, for adoption to a family that, for his own sake admission, it made me crazy. He does badly at school, but he discovers he has some talents: riding a bike, cooking and remembering cards.

His career as a cyclist fades due to a mysterious accident, and so is Preto – author of an autobiography written by Lidia Labianca entitled And I am reborn every timeDeAgostini, whose proceeds go to charity at the Arché Foundation – his most recent life begins in his twenties, but certainly not his last life: cooking for “private individuals”. Private individuals are wealthy and strictly anonymous people who introduce him to their crazy lifestyle which, little by little, becomes his too. While we stayed indoors for the pandemic, he passed from the Bahamas to Papua, from Auckland to Saint-Tropez aboard yachts whose owners had found their own interpretation of social distancing. On the other hand, he explains to me, he dedicates his free time to charity: African children, abused South American women, Senegalese mangroves. «But I don’t send the money: I go and
I build”.

Tell me, I’m confused: where do we start?
“From the fact that I’m happy. I am very much in love (we will be back, ed) and happy because I know that somewhere in the world, in someone’s head, there is an idea and this idea can save the world. In recent years my mission, together with other people, is to support those who have these ideas. We are doing a patronage in Senegal which is a talent incubator. We are 12 financiers, we come from different worlds. This project was born from a chat on a boat in Saint-Tropez. We said to ourselves: do we realize that something is wrong? That we are here, on a 40 million yacht, and someone on the other side is starving? The goal is not to sell the yacht and with the 40 million we go to help, because this is a speech that generalizes, it is a very wrong concept. The right one is: we use our ideas, our contacts, our desire to do and love ».

How did it end up on that 40 million yacht?
“Luckily. In my life I have been very lucky: I was lucky enough to live on the street, which allowed me to understand the world. I was lucky enough to have a toxic mother, and therefore to stay away from drugs, the good fortune to be passionate about cooking and to enter, thanks to my dishes, in those closed worlds, on those yachts. People who have billions are not stupid, they are interested in who they let into their house. ”

But she entered those worlds through the back door, in and out of metaphor. How did you find yourself, let’s say, on the bridge?
“For these people you are not a number, but a human being with a past and stories. And then there is everything in touching certain keys, in creating, thanks to the kitchen, an empathy with the person in front of you. When they find thinking minds they become interested and then slowly you become one of trust. You know, when you live in someone’s house you know who has a lover, who fucks who, if they have diarrhea, if the owner is happy or failed. When you enter this world then things happen: the other day someone from Gstaad called me and told me that he has a vintage Ferrari to sell, if I hear someone… Everything turns, now I have just bought 50% of a tannery. Of course, I live with accountants and lawyers sticking to the ass. “

Do you earn so much being a chef?
“But no, I make money playing casino blackjack. I remember the cards that came out, good memory is an honest way to win. I play in company with two others: Jacopo and the Chinese. I met them the first time I played. I was in Montecarlo with a family, I wanted to see what this famous casino was like. At my table there was a Chinese who played and won. The next day I went back and it was there, the third was there again. And he always won. We talked to each other and we also got together with Jacopo. I don’t know anything about them outside the casino, that’s the deal. We play on behalf of third parties: we give ourselves a goal and a number of days to reach it. If we succeed first, the rest of the time we play the money we have for us. Usually it suits us. ‘

You quantify well.
«From 350 to 450 thousand euros a year. Net. Doing good cleanses my soul of all this money. “

Did you dream of this as a child?
«I just wanted to be loved and loved. Cooking was a medium. I came out of school that I did not even know Italian, now I speak Italian, English, French, Spanish and I am learning Chinese. I’m a bronsa cuerta as they say in Veneto, a covered ember ».

Did she miss love?
“Ninth. Even with the escorts, whom I frequented a lot: the goal was not to go to bed, it was to win their trust, even if only for an hour, even if I would never see that woman again ».

What was the proof of this trust?
“Let them tell me their real name. The point is: trust me, not for the € 400 I give you. But because if you trust me we have both played bingo ».

Do you remember life with your mother?
“I remember once she pushed me on the swing I went on her and her nose was bleeding. I’m still sorry now. And then I remember we used to get under the bus stop shelter and stay there. When I was older and I went to school in Recoaro I spent every day in front of that shelter. I love my mom, I never go to the cemetery, but I miss her in recent years. I’d like to talk to her and tell her everything I’ve done, throw it in her face. The thing I’m sorry about her is that she didn’t have my strength. Instead I think in the evening: ok tomorrow I may not open my eyes anymore, but do you know that I am happy anyway? Did I do everything I could do? Yup”.

He’s a little young to die.
«I know, but I feel that I don’t have much time, I have also talked about it with my psychoanalysts, I have two. This is why I went to school in Ghana in two weeks, the hospital in Burundi in four months. And I’m setting up my own association which will later be a foundation. Did I tell you about the 150 million mangroves we will put in Senegal? ‘

What’s her life like, in an adjective?
“Luxurious. I work for individuals two or three months a year, live a bit in California, travel for philanthropy. Then two months a year I’m in Milan: I bought a 180 square meters in the center where I lock myself in, I only see friends. And I damn my three maids: the handles must be shiny, the tissues between the shirts perfect. And also the food, of course ».

Don’t you cook?
“Never for me. Nor for friends. Do you know who I would cook for? For Rocío, the girl I met last month and with whom I fell madly in love, talking for hours at Parco Sempione. But she is engaged. “

How do you do?
“I could go crazy, like with my ex, to whom I once gave 960 roses. But, as a dear friend who I can’t name her told me, these things leave the time they find. I am sure she will leave her boyfriend. But the real problem is that you told me that my lifestyle makes you suffer ».

And would she change it?
“For her, yes. I’m not afraid to change, that’s why I’m alive ».

What if he then loses everything?
«I was born on the street, look where I am. I’ll go back to the street and reinvent myself ».

One last curiosity: what do you cook for your private individuals today?
«Salad, roast chicken with potatoes and green beans, dessert with persimmons. Simple stuff, if they want to eat starred they go to a restaurant ».

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