EMIN Haziri, from escape from Kosovo to Michelin star

Emin Haziri He is the best chef of Kosovo, the small Balkan state which in 2008 proclaimed independence from Serbia. Six years earlier, Emin had fled with his parents and three months brother who were looking for a better future, after the war had recently ended up: a five -day journey, not easy especially in the passages from one border to another and entering Italy hiding Among the woods on the border with Slovenia.

“We succeeded, on foot and at night, after paying in cash a Slovenian frontier: I still remember everything, but now I’m peaceful” tells. At seven years of age, he found himself the son of illegal immigrants, with a family who had practically spent everything for the trip. “It was December, he pulled the Bora and we repaired under the stairs of a house with the door open: We were helped by a wonderful person who the next day accompanied us to the police headquarters so that they were recorded and started in a reception center »he tells with a veil of emotion.

The example of Germany

The Haziri family lived four years there (“finding everything, extraordinary and criminal people” recalls) and had to wait four more to have the residence permit. «The real anger was to see drug dealers with the documents in place and good people like us who were no longer clandestine but did not exist for the state. And this still annoys me a lot if I read such stories. As for the attitude of the Italians, I noticed a sensitive improvement compared to when we arrived and I, like all poor children, I felt a foreigner and not loved. It is now full of people, of all ages, who are not born Italian ». Currently i relatives of Haziriwho remained in Trieste, have a long -term residence permit and await citizenship while he became Italian only three years ago, after twenty years after his arrival as a clandestine. «I hope that the proposal to halve the time to have citizenship will arrive at the quorum. It makes sense to follow the rules of Germany: five years and sometimes three are enough. I think that if a foreigner works, he behaves well and does not give the community problems has the right to obtain it in correct times. Not like those who served me “

Linguine of Pastificio Graziano, Aragosta and Champagne sauce: a Signature DISH by Emin Haziri

“An unparalleled sponge”

EMIN inherited the passion of the cuisine from the mother and grandmothers, he enrolled in the hotel against the opinion of the parents (“I wanted me doctor, my brother will take care of his studies in medicine” he says) and started the apprenticeship with an internship at the aim of the other Philippe Leveillé. Evidently it was brought: the following steps were Carlo and Camilla in sawmill at the court of Carlo Cracco and the Mudec with Enrico Bartolini. Then various experiences abroad like the nine months at the Noma of Copenhagen (“We were in sixty in the kitchen, to get noticed you had to be good and work from 6 in the morning to one in the morning”) and the period to the saddlellato Le Petit Nice of Gérald Passedat. “I call myself an impavid sponge. Fear because I have never been fear of taking the responsibilities that in turn the great chefs assigned me. A sponge because I brought something home from any experience: sometimes acquiring technique, other times discovering new raw materials, or learning approaches and ways of working in a group that I used to build my brigade ».

The main room of Procaccini Milan

Pupil of cannavacciuolo

The real mentor was however Antonino Cannavacciuolo That after a first passage to Villa Crespi chose him as head chef of the starry bistrot in Turin, at just 25 years old. Hence a tour of the Petit Royal of the Grand Hotel Royal and Golf of Courmayeur and here he is under the Madonnina, leading the elegant Milan Procaccini. “The best ‘area-test’ possible for a chef, but at the same time a square where there is everything and the margin of error is thinning considerably compared to other situation” he explains. In his brigade, Italians and foreigners are on equal numbers. «Especially in our work, which requires time and commitment, there is no difference: if you don’t want, you can’t do it and abandon. It is a question of believing it, to give our best and not race »he underlines. In speaking with Haziri, one appearance for someone discounted but which instead has a great value emerges: has not forgotten his land Where, when he returns home, he is greeted by local media as a star. «I am so proud of my roots that among the consultancy that I was offered I privileged what allowed me to return to Pristina to the Hotel Marriott. In Kosovo I am perceived as one who has made it and I believe that every people must be able to reflect in positive models ». True, very true.