Italian name: FABIO
Graduated: IL CUOCO – ALMA 14^ edition
Location: SEOUL
Restaurant: MOLTO BENE
Favourite dish: RISOTTO ALLA MILANESE & RAMEN
Fabio, what are you at today?
Today I have a restaurant in Seoul, it’s called “MOLTO BENE”. I used to have two, but I closed one of them. I specialize in Italian Cuisine. In the kitchen with me there are 3 people. Then 4 more people work front of house. We can accommodate 30 people in the dining room. My favourite dish to serve is gourmet pizza: I think I am the first person in South Korea to have offered gourmet pizza. I learned it during my second internship at the restaurant “I Tigli”, with chef Simone Padoan, while I completed my first internship at “La Pecca”.
How long ago did you open the restaurant? You also went through the difficulties of the pandemic. How did it go?
I opened the restaurant right after the course, about 6 years ago. During the pandemic we were also open and able to work. A few times I had to close down, since in Seoul, the situation was more complicated. Fortunately, none of us got sick.
What is your background?
Before ALMA, I studied Culinary Arts in college. Then I worked as a cook in the USA for about two years and Australia for about one year, and then I worked another year in South Korea. But I felt the need to know what authentic Italian Food was, so that’s why I came to ALMA.
Tell us about your experience in ALMA.
It was a great course, I met so many friends. And it is thanks to this course that I became who I am today: it helped me a lot. I wanted to study pizza – I insisted on going to a pizzeria-restaurant for an internship, and ALMA gave me the opportunity to go to “I Tigli”.
What would you like to do next?
I want to go back to Italy. I’m still in touch with the chefs I met during my internships – Chef Simone Padoan and Chef Stefano Portinari are like fathers to me: they took care of me, they were like a family. Four years ago, I was able to welcome Simone Padoan here as he came to visit South Korea.
