Giorgio Locatelli: “The kitchen has come a long way in the past 30 years”

Giorgio Locatelli, an Italian Michelin starred chef and restaurateur working and living in the UK, was recently in Cyprus to host a special event to celebrate his namesake restaurant at the AMARA hotel in Limassol.

CBN got the chance to sit down with the famous chef on one of the hotel's terraces and find out more about how he got here and what his plans are for the future.

​​​​​​“You know? I feel so lucky,” he said as he took in the breath-taking views. “I come to work and this is my office. In London the office is just underneath the restaurant, so I have this little window and the light comes in; when there is some light.”

Locatelli along with fellow Michelin-star chef and friend Nobu Matsuhisa – who also runs a restaurant at AMARA – took over the hotel’s kitchens for a one-of-a-kind cocktail party featuring delectable bites from both chefs on 23 June.

Guests got to sample their famous food while they also enjoyed signature cocktails by the two chefs. Both chefs were on site, interacting with guests.

“The story is very long because me and Nobu have been sort of neighbours for a long, long time; from London to Dubai and here now,” Locatelli said as he mused about what led to the collaborative event. “And when we get together we always try to do either a menu or something like that. This time we thought of maybe a more lax way to eat our food and drinks and mix them together. Because you know, they do mix together.”

Japanese and Italian food is so different but also very alike

Likewise, he said Japanese and Italian food is so different but also very alike. “They really do go together,” Locatelli explains. “There is the same level of attention to the ingredients, and maybe presentation is a little bit more of a strong point for the Japanese than the Italians. Quantity for the Italians is very important. They’re very different cultures, but both of them they have the same incredible respect and knowledge of the produce. And the simplicity as well of the produce that their cuisine is based on. Then it becomes very sophisticated.”

And the close link between the two countries – and more importantly their cuisines – becomes more apparent when you learn a little fun fact:

“Did you know that the only foreign restaurants they have in Japan are Italian?” Locatelli informed me.

The AMARA project was a “really good idea” for multiple reasons

The backstory to his collaboration with AMARA hotel is quite similar. “We kind of know Demos and the Demosthenous family from London., they have been our guests, clients in the restaurant,” Locatelli explains.

The two often toyed with the idea of a collaboration, but when Demosthenous showed Locatelli the AMARA project, he thought it was “a really good idea” for a few reasons. “First, I think the property is magnificent. Every time I am here and I look at my office, I am a very lucky man. And the second, and almost more important thing, was that they run the hotels by themselves. So you don’t have anybody in between. This is a very important thing, because when you try to do a restaurant you try to give it a character. And what Demos wanted was a hotel that has two restaurants that have very different characters.”

So the experience must be really different and be an “experience”, he said. “I think that he wanted two restaurants that really hit the point. Japanese food and Italian.”

Another important factor was that Cyprus is a European country, meaning it is easy for Locatelli to employ Italian staff. “That’s very, very important and very nice for us as well.”

And now, “the whole thing seems to have come to a head” he added. “We worked on a design and we started to build, and then the pandemic happened and all that. And you know, we kind of drove it through, got through that, in a better way than we would’ve done if the company was run by a CEO or something.”

It is the human level that a restaurant can reach that makes it a special experience

It is precisely this, what he calls “the human level”, that makes his restaurants such a success. “The human level. I always feel with a restaurant, yes the design is very important, what we do, the food is super important. The quality of the service, the standards that we keep; but it is the human level that the restaurant can reach that makes it a very special experience. So here, there is a human level that goes through a chain to the top. You are attached to the top. So it’s very important.”

To drive his point home, Locatelli says that having worked under the same capacity with massive companies and conglomerates – including the Hiltons – it is extremely difficult for a restaurateur to do their job. “You don’t know where you’re going and tomorrow the guys have changed. Here you have a sense of stability. It’s a great thing for us; for me it is a great feeling. I have a problem, I pick up the phone and dial Demos and I get him to handle the problem. And that’s a very important thing.”

The fact that he is no stranger to Cyprus also helped with his decision to open up here. “I came here the first time with my wife – we really liked Cyprus in itself. We haven’t really had the time to travel to the north-east but we have been to the south and it’s a lovely, lovely place. It feels good. It feels a little bit like Britain; a little bit. There is a bit of both I think. There is Sicily and there is England in it.”

So what inspired him to become such a successful chef? “Well it wasn’t really an inspiration, it was kind of like, literally I grew up and my family had restaurants and I was the smallest one and I couldn’t help being in the front so they put me in the kitchen. That’s where I was. So I never did anything else in my life.”

“I always try to feel like it’s not a job, it’s what I do”

And does he have any grand plans for the future? “I’m not even that good about making projects for the future, if I look at people like other chefs, the way they just programme what they do. I like day to day, I enjoy the people. I like being with people, and being in the restaurant. That’s what I like to do. And that’s quite important. I always try to feel like it’s not a job, it’s what I do.”

Locatelli also runs restaurants in Dubai and the Bahamas; two completely different locations. So does he adapt his menus to incorporate the local cuisine?

“Yes, it does adapt to local ingredients. But there is a problem sometimes. We use certain products and they are not always there; but you know it always starts like that. The restaurant is always the one that opens the doors for other ingredients to come across the market. I remember in London, if you had to get mozzarella in 1985 you had to go to a specialised shop to buy mozzarella. Now if you go to a supermarket, there are nine-10 different types of mozzarella.”

“There’s always a place for avant-garde”

Of course, many would argue that there’s not much you can do to improve Italian cuisine. But Locatelli doesn’t agree. “No there’s always room for improvement. There’s always a place for avant-garde; there’s always somebody who does something a little different. That sometimes is useful, sometimes it’s not, but it’s quite healthy as well I think, no? not to be completely attached to something. You know, there are some dishes where you say, ok this is done like that, you can’t better it.”

Asked if he planned to open any more restaurants in Cyprus, Locatelli laughed: “I can’t! I legally can’t. But no, it’s more than enough to come here to this, you know. I am very happy about what’s happening here. And even if it is not as profitable as Dubai, the money there is stratospheric compared to this, the satisfaction here is much better.”

Cypriots do love their pasta!

So what is the Cypriot customer like? “They do love their pasta,” he says with a smile. “Even if you are inside a hotel, you still have a real relationship with the local community. Obviously we also have a great international clientele here. Certain days we have more clients from outside than from the hotel, so it is working really well for us.”

He added, “People seem to be very happy to listen and having a really good service, that’s very important.”

Locatelli and his team like to change the menu every month to keep things moving, as he said.

“I don’t like bullies; I’ve never liked bullies”

There was one last thing I was itching to ask. Locatelli appears to be a very calm and relaxed person. But is he this relaxed in the kitchen as well?

“No! I’m very demanding as well. But you know it is a concerted effort. If you are the leader of that effort, you’re going to have to give direction and you have to make sure that everybody understands that. It can be perceived as a little harsh sometimes. But it’s not really, it’s not.”

The famous chef says that there is more humanity in the kitchen nowadays. “Especially now, the young people are very, very different,” Locatelli explained. “When I was young it was really tough. You’d get kicked and everything. Literally, kicked in the legs, somebody would stomp on your feet if you made a mistake. Young people would never accept anything like that now. And it is absolutely right as well.”

He added, “The kitchen has come a very long way the last 20-30 years. The image of the chef has grown to a very different level than it used to be. With this comes a responsibility; you have to have some responsibility, you have to educate the people the right way. This is very important. I don’t like bullies; I’ve never liked bullies. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get upset if something is wrong, but I try to keep it calm. I guess that when you’re in your 20s and 30s you get a bit on fire. But as you grow a bit, it’s calmer.”