Niko Romito: “My new campus, where to teach the culture of good and healthy food”

This is good news for the world of Italian food. Niko Romito – one of the great chefs of our country – will open a Campus, an in-depth study center «to share knowledge and develop it at various levels. But above all for create a new food culture: that of transformation based on the values ​​of healthiness, sustainability, circularity, solidarity and democratic access ”explains the 47-year-old from Abruzzo.

THE THOUSAND LIVES OF NIKO
A decidedly ambitious project, which should not surprise when you meet Romito.

A cook who has a magnificent obsession with teaching. He who has become one of the best Italian chefs practically self-taught, who in 15 years has gone from the family trattoria to Three Michelin Stars of the Reale and to an important position (51st) in the last The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, that of 2019.

That’s why, knowing how important the technical and cultural preparation of a future cook is, he opened in 2011 in Casadonna – the renovated ex-convent of Castel di Sangro where he leads the Royal three-starred Accademia, considered as one of the best schools ever. «My reference was what was created by Alain Ducasse’s École in Paris: I understood that the method that allowed to conduct gastronomic formats, with great qualitative consistency, all started from the training center. An idea that I tried to apply to the Italian tradition and to my philosophy », explains the master from Abruzzo. Sixteen students per course, thirty-two students a year, which generates “human capital” for the group’s restaurants and projects, and at the same time spreads an approach to build one’s own culinary language. After six months of immersive training – followed by top-level teachers – we leave for a six-month internship in one of the satellites of the Romito network.

That is why – joined the project Nutritional Intelligence in partnership with La Sapienza University and the Cristo Re hospital in Rome – that the Michelin Chef Mentor Award 2021 both went to him, right in the month – November – in which Romito was director of the magazine “La Cucina Italiana”. Now the definitive qualitative leap.

WHAT IS THE CAMPUS
The structure of 3700 square meters on Strada Statale 17 – also in Castel di Sangro – which will host the Niko Romito Campus, it will be born from the recovery of a furniture factory. Romito elaborated the project during the many weeks of closure of his activities and obtained clear visions from it. “One of my missions for the future is to make people understand the importance of food and the consequences it has on health – he says. – In 2020 we have both aspects better in focus. So it’s crucial to make it clear that eating well and healthy can improve health. In addition to reducing public expenditure, because malnutrition generates 40% of diseases and therefore the expenditure of enormous resources to treat them. A serious cook, today, cannot exempt himself from being involved in these issues ».

For Niko, it must be said, this is nothing new: many projects have helped him in the creation of the Campus. «In recent years I have understood the social value of food. And how crucial industrialization must be in food transformation processes to improve the catering of hospitals, canteens, companies and schools. The commitment must be to convey good and healthy products through simple or more complex catering models, as long as it is for the benefit of the largest number of people possible“. All following a single standardizable, accessible, open application protocol. “Research is certainly the starting point of this path, whose immediate next step is training. But the goal of this path is to become the format incubator, necessary so that everything is not limited to theory, but finds a concrete outlet in entrepreneurship linked to nutrition and catering. It is a long and ambitious job, I realize that. But it is the only way I know ”the mentor from Castel di Sangro continues.