Speaker 1: You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2: If you find yourself on a freezing mountain and you
Speaker 2: need a ski jacket, if you're going to a party
Speaker 2: and want something beautiful to wear, or if you're in
Speaker 2: Paris or Milan and craving perfectly cooked fish, the man
Speaker 2: to meet is our guest to day. Remo Ruffini, CEO
Speaker 2: and Chairman of Montclair, co owner of Langusturia restaurants and
Speaker 2: cities all over the world. Ramo is dynamic, elegant and
Speaker 2: a visionary person. Taking over Montclair, he transformed it into
Speaker 2: one of the world's most distinctive fashioned companies, launching the
Speaker 2: Montclair Genius Project, a platform for creativity across the arts
Speaker 2: and sports. He puts sustainability at the heart of the
Speaker 2: company with his Born to Protect initiative. Rama's leadership is
Speaker 2: a manifestation of Montclair's ethos, dreaming big and bringing those
Speaker 2: dreams to life. To day, I'm in Milan for Design Week.
Speaker 2: Montclair has taken over the Central Train Station to launch
Speaker 2: its latest campaign, Invitation to Dream, curated by Jefferson Hack.
Speaker 2: I'm here with Rama Ruffini to celebrate fashion innovation inspiration
Speaker 2: and most of all, daring to dream. So we are
Speaker 2: here to dream before we start into the food, tell
Speaker 2: me what you were doing with daring to dream?
Speaker 3: The station was a project that I have in mind
Speaker 3: since ever, you know, because I love dream. I dream
Speaker 3: every day, do you Yes, I try to be consistent.
Speaker 2: That's what I said at the quote. I said that
Speaker 2: every day I went to school and I thought, what
Speaker 2: am I going to day dream today? That was That's
Speaker 2: what I said. Tell me about your dreams.
Speaker 3: No, in my in my life and my job, uniqueness
Speaker 3: is very important, and to give food for thought to
Speaker 3: the uniqueness. I think dream is very very important, you know.
Speaker 3: I think I try to dream every day, every day,
Speaker 3: every night, you know, and always I always say after
Speaker 3: the dream and say, yes, this is a dream. But
Speaker 3: I honestly must be very consistent on that otherwise remain
Speaker 3: too high, you know, remain remain in a dream.
Speaker 1: Dream I think is helping.
Speaker 3: Me a lot to give, to give me the possibility
Speaker 3: to make the next step, especially in my job.
Speaker 2: When you say you dream of food, do you think
Speaker 2: of what you're going to eat that day, what you're
Speaker 2: going to cook that day?
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, I dream of food too, much.
Speaker 3: I love every every food, I love every kitchen, I
Speaker 3: love every you know.
Speaker 1: All around the world.
Speaker 3: I travel a lot, and very cool is to understand
Speaker 3: the culture in every in every country. But I don't
Speaker 3: want to be spoiled. But when I back home, when
Speaker 3: I'm back in Italy, I always find the best raw material,
Speaker 3: you know. And I want to talk about this receipt
Speaker 3: about later. And I think you know, when I talk
Speaker 3: about romata, especially in South Italy, you know, you can
Speaker 3: mix something very easy, cooks something very easy with really
Speaker 3: few ingredients. But thanks to the row materia, we can
Speaker 3: find the is you know, the Spaghetto Pomodoro.
Speaker 1: It is amazing, you know.
Speaker 3: But Eving said that I love I love the kitchen
Speaker 3: from the food from South America. I love Japan, I
Speaker 3: love China, I love everywhere. But back to Italy, I
Speaker 3: feel much more comfort.
Speaker 1: Let's see.
Speaker 2: Well, what I say about Italian food is that if
Speaker 2: you cook with very few ingredients, those ingredients have to
Speaker 2: be so good. You're making ingredients and we love it
Speaker 2: like you. I love complexity. I love French food. When
Speaker 2: you get a fish with hollandaise sauce, so you get
Speaker 2: a beef that's been cooked in wine for hours and hours.
Speaker 2: But that the changes in the cooking. Whereas if you
Speaker 2: grill a piece of fish and las collo or where
Speaker 2: we love, or you make a pasta with just tomatoes,
Speaker 2: and tomatoes have to be ripe. The basil has to
Speaker 2: be from the summer when the sun hits it, and
Speaker 2: the fish has to be from the sea.
Speaker 1: Doesn't it And then it's very important.
Speaker 3: I learned a lot in South Italy because for example,
Speaker 3: I love spaghetto with yellow tomato, the small yellow tomato.
Speaker 3: But you can have only this yellow tomatoes soil in
Speaker 3: certain periods of the year because they must be very dry.
Speaker 3: Very dry means the wait to take it when it's
Speaker 3: really dry, ready for make the best paghetta pomodoro.
Speaker 1: That is not obvious. You know.
Speaker 3: Normally you go to buy in the in the store
Speaker 3: and the shopping. But this is make the big difference.
Speaker 3: That's why I think the raw material is everything. Having
Speaker 3: say that I love many other food you know, also
Speaker 3: slow cooking that we're talking before, I love a lot
Speaker 3: slow cooking. In terms of cook especially the meat. I
Speaker 3: don't and I'm not a fan of meat, but you know,
Speaker 3: I meat mostly it's low food, cook meat, you know,
Speaker 3: because there you can have a go in Morocco, you.
Speaker 1: Know, and then.
Speaker 3: And we have a lamb shoulder, you know, cooker eighteen hours.
Speaker 2: That's interesting to me that you grew up in this
Speaker 2: region like Como, and yet the food you talk about
Speaker 2: quite often is from the south.
Speaker 3: I think there is very interesting food also in Lombardia.
Speaker 3: In the area of Milano Como, it's very wintry food.
Speaker 3: It's very heavy. Let's say we have a catsuola. It's
Speaker 3: a mix of vegetable, is a mix of part of meat,
Speaker 3: all cooked together. Very very you know, wintry, very wintry.
Speaker 3: Milano is very popular for the Trippa trip as well,
Speaker 3: is very heavy, heavy, but we have we have many
Speaker 3: or sobuco or sob with yellow rices.
Speaker 1: More Bologna is more bologn.
Speaker 2: My love, you love, but I started, Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3: You know, there is a lot of food here, very
Speaker 3: very interesting in my area. But really for winter, I
Speaker 3: think it's very because we are very close to the mountain.
Speaker 3: You know, the influence is really from more for the mountain.
Speaker 2: But do you think the originalism of Italy is very strong?
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 3: You can eat Italian all around the world. Now, you know,
Speaker 3: you find an amazing restaurant, you know, amazing food in
Speaker 3: terms of cook I was really last week in the
Speaker 3: middle of nowhere, let's say it was close to Santa Barbara.
Speaker 3: In this Italian restaurant. It was Massimo the chef, for sure.
Speaker 3: I don't remember the name of the restaurant. It was
Speaker 3: inside the in this place Montecito, that is an hotel.
Speaker 2: It's a big hotel there, yes.
Speaker 3: Owns by these guys from Los Angeles. Rick Caruso invite
Speaker 3: me at this Italian restaurant. Actually, who was you know?
Speaker 1: Huge?
Speaker 3: I say, you know, I say no, I say, Massimo
Speaker 3: came here. I have to understand this really Italian cuisine.
Speaker 3: I like to have a touch of carbonara, in a
Speaker 3: touch of paper like this, I can understand really if
Speaker 3: you make not like to be Massim was poor, but
Speaker 3: the paper and carbonaro was very good.
Speaker 2: In London they used to say that in and I
Speaker 2: think probably in America as well, that a lot of
Speaker 2: restaurants were opened not by chefs but by managers of
Speaker 2: waiters who'd come over and so they cooked the kind
Speaker 2: of food that we all had a vision of. You know,
Speaker 2: quite heavy and certainly where I grew up in New York,
Speaker 2: the the idea of Italian American food was very.
Speaker 3: Too many, too many problems inside, many things, too many things.
Speaker 4: Yeahonar is very easy, eggs, cheese or catcha pepper is
Speaker 4: pepcorino and pepper. You know, you make it not much
Speaker 4: in the last twenty years, but I used to cook
Speaker 4: a lot. Now sometimes I love to cook vegetables, but
Speaker 4: try to really copy the receipt from the South Italy,
Speaker 4: you know, especially when you have egg plant with tomato
Speaker 4: and salt, or fabe with onions. You know, this kind
Speaker 4: of this kind of specially receipt from South Italy.
Speaker 1: I like to cook.
Speaker 2: And the lemons are so amazing, you.
Speaker 1: Know another interesting things.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, but you can get Southern Italian food here.
Speaker 1: Do you wait till you go to You can have
Speaker 1: rare you know.
Speaker 3: There is a few plays that have daily delivery, but
Speaker 3: mostly you have to go for me. Much better in
Speaker 3: Naples than in Sicily and Ccils. They used to have
Speaker 3: good food, I think now is in Naples, Apples and area.
Speaker 3: You know, it's much better again in Siciies they too much,
Speaker 3: you know, they put too many ingredients in every receipt,
Speaker 3: I think, and Naples is the best.
Speaker 2: I like capponata. Do you like capponata? But I like
Speaker 2: it very with very little in it the other but
Speaker 2: sometimes people put too much in the capponata. You just
Speaker 2: want the egg plant and the raisins and few pinets.
Speaker 3: I think caponata is good when it's the real Sicilian
Speaker 3: number one, that is without pepper. Then I make to
Speaker 3: make confusion, you know, I mean it's more simple, it is,
Speaker 3: I think as well. The caponata is good, I.
Speaker 2: Think, and tomato, so maybe what we should do is
Speaker 2: read the recipe. As we're talking about tomatoes, tomatoes pomadori
Speaker 2: from the south, shall we read the recipe that you chose.
Speaker 3: To Yes, I think is this is a very simple
Speaker 3: recipe that I like very much.
Speaker 1: Because it's based on two ingredients. You know. But normally
Speaker 1: when the.
Speaker 3: Recip is so simple, it's very difficult to make it
Speaker 3: is I always say, is like architecture, you know, you
Speaker 3: feel the minimalism is easy to design. No, minimalim is
Speaker 3: very difficult to design, you know, because it's only questions,
Speaker 3: few details, and everybody can say the few details. So
Speaker 3: I try to easy read my receipt because I think
Speaker 3: it is interesting to understand. To make this very simple
Speaker 3: low roasted tomato with basil, we have for six people.
Speaker 3: Normally we have twelve tomatoes cut in two sea salt
Speaker 3: and black pepper, extra vageen oil for sure, we suggest
Speaker 3: see six tablespoons, two gloves garlics. Finally, slice and twenty
Speaker 3: four basis leaps. Cooking this on very low it makes
Speaker 3: the tomatoes sweetener and it adds more flower perhaps the
Speaker 3: owen to be one hundred and ten degrees. Put the
Speaker 3: tomato and banking try side by side. Season them with salt, pepper,
Speaker 3: and add some olive oil. Top each tomato with a
Speaker 3: piece of garlic in a basy left roasted for two
Speaker 3: hours thirty minuts. That is quite a lot, but I think, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Think they need.
Speaker 3: I think they need every thirty minutes, gently pressed the
Speaker 3: tomato with a spoon, carefully remove from the oven, and
Speaker 3: finish the dish with some olive oil on top and
Speaker 3: serve at room temperature.
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I.
Speaker 3: Think it's a few things, but not difficult to make it,
Speaker 3: you know, but you have to be very careful. The
Speaker 3: most important thing here is the raw material.
Speaker 2: So you would make this in the summer. It would
Speaker 2: only make this. So we sometimes have people coming in
Speaker 2: from New York or somewhere to the River Cafe in
Speaker 2: January and they say, like a tomato salad, and we say,
Speaker 2: we don't have tomatoes, and they go, come on, you know,
Speaker 2: you're an Italian restaurant, we're the tomatoes, and we could
Speaker 2: because you can get good tomatoes. Actually they have winter
Speaker 2: tomatoes from Sicily. Have you had those, the very hard
Speaker 2: ones that you get in the winter. But otherwise it's
Speaker 2: good to wait till the And also with a basil,
Speaker 2: I think, don't you that in the summer, when you
Speaker 2: have the heat of the basil of the sun.
Speaker 1: This is very live tomato.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell Lorenzo. But also I think what I'm
Speaker 2: reading this recipe and I haven't read it for a while,
Speaker 2: is I think when I tell the chefs it's important
Speaker 2: to press the water out of the tomato, because tomatoes,
Speaker 2: I keep saying, tomato, tomato, it has a lot of
Speaker 2: water in it, doesn't it. And you need to kind
Speaker 2: of sort of just very gently flatten it so the
Speaker 2: juice comes out and.
Speaker 3: Then you're left with with the This is very ready
Speaker 3: because I try an alternative in French they call tomat
Speaker 3: provinceal that is more or less the same.
Speaker 1: My gain.
Speaker 3: They put a lot of fers, a lot of things
Speaker 3: that is not.
Speaker 1: As good as this. If you have a very good material,
Speaker 1: do you cook yes? Sometimes sometimes yes, and you sell
Speaker 1: on the south. I use the boat only weekend.
Speaker 3: When I start from let's me say Portofino, I go
Speaker 3: down to Corsica Sardinia. I love Punza. That is incredible approach,
Speaker 3: that incredible place they love the call the Costira Malfitana.
Speaker 3: Sty out there because not too much, because I increase weights,
Speaker 3: I mean I eat too much.
Speaker 2: When you travel? Do you think about what you're going
Speaker 2: to eat? Do you think very often about when you
Speaker 2: go to If you go to a country that you
Speaker 2: don't know or a city you don't know, do you
Speaker 2: research before you go?
Speaker 1: I research. I really love to discover. You know.
Speaker 3: When i'm the boat, I go every day morning to
Speaker 3: make shopping. Just understand the producce, just understand the culture
Speaker 3: and normally maybe it tells you a lot, Yes, very important.
Speaker 3: Sometimes we're going special wrestaurant. Then I just understand the
Speaker 3: local cuisine.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: For example, last year I went in Turkey.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 3: Yes, the food was actually very good. You're going very simpletory.
Speaker 3: They have this kind of meds. What did you do
Speaker 3: you remember of many many things. Aubergine is very good.
Speaker 3: Aubergine smoke of mergine is very very good. A lot
Speaker 3: of vegetables started they called meds. I think they are
Speaker 3: quite not all but a few there are quite quite interesting,
Speaker 3: like much.
Speaker 1: More, this kind of meds approach.
Speaker 2: The River Cafe is excited. We're opening the River Cafe. Cafe.
Speaker 2: Come from a morning briocean cappuccina, a plate of sea
Speaker 2: an all antipasty on the terrace, or on ice cream,
Speaker 2: or a paratibo in the sun. We can't wait to open,
Speaker 2: and we cannot wait to welcome you. Growing up, Can
Speaker 2: we talk about what it was like to grow up
Speaker 2: in your household? Because you grew up here with your
Speaker 2: mother and your brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: Do you have a big have one brother? Were born?
Speaker 3: Everybody in Como on the lake, and I was there
Speaker 3: since a few years ago, still back and forth and
Speaker 3: mostly now I'm Milano.
Speaker 1: I grew in Como.
Speaker 3: My father and my mother was They have a clothing
Speaker 3: company at that time, very similar to my job, different style,
Speaker 3: very similar to my job.
Speaker 1: Then I love Cooma. I don't want to move from Como,
Speaker 1: no reason to move.
Speaker 2: What was the food like in your house? Did your
Speaker 2: mother and father cook or did you have not much?
Speaker 1: Not much because they work a lot, you know, they
Speaker 1: traveling lot.
Speaker 2: Did you love food from an early age? Was it important?
Speaker 1: Not much?
Speaker 3: You know, because there is no We didn't have the
Speaker 3: culture that time to you know, quality, to have the
Speaker 3: best product was more when I was fifteen fourteen sixteen,
Speaker 3: it was more what we call junk food, you know,
Speaker 3: to go. We opened McDonald's in Milana. Everybody wants to
Speaker 3: go to McDonald's in Milano. You know, this was the
Speaker 3: approach of that time. But you know in Como the
Speaker 3: food is not very interesting.
Speaker 1: Do they But it's very well.
Speaker 2: It's not Pimonte, No.
Speaker 1: It's Lombard.
Speaker 3: The region of Milano's forty five minutes from Milano. The
Speaker 3: food is okay.
Speaker 1: I would say the love the lake lakes fish that
Speaker 1: I'm not a fine at all.
Speaker 3: And there is persico I don't know in English, fried
Speaker 3: with rice, you know that is specially don'nama. We have
Speaker 3: like three four fish that today I don't eat at all.
Speaker 3: When I was, it's especially on Friday. We used to
Speaker 3: use this kind of missle teeny, this kind of fish.
Speaker 2: What did your parents entertain? Would they have dinners and parties?
Speaker 2: Did you we're growing up because.
Speaker 3: There was more very fashion at that moment, you know,
Speaker 3: because fashion was super important in Italy. It was the
Speaker 3: beginning of fashion. Because we're talking about the seventies, you know.
Speaker 3: Then my father moved to United States late.
Speaker 1: Sixties, sixty eight or sixties.
Speaker 3: Because you have a company in Italy and it was
Speaker 3: much more successful in the United States. Actually, ninety percent
Speaker 3: of the business was in the United States. The ten
Speaker 3: percent was in Europe. He decided to move to New York.
Speaker 2: With the family.
Speaker 1: No, we stay, We stay with my mom.
Speaker 2: And now I see he moved.
Speaker 1: He moves, he moves alone.
Speaker 3: Basically, I was living in Greenwich, Connecticut, very close to
Speaker 3: New York.
Speaker 1: Back and forth. The office was in New York and
Speaker 1: this was in a come back.
Speaker 2: Was it when you would visit him? Would you go
Speaker 2: to eat American food? Did you?
Speaker 1: In his house? Was Italian food? Yeah?
Speaker 3: All the Italian food, yes, and a lot of vegetable
Speaker 3: I remember very Italian and very Italian approach. And then
Speaker 3: when when we go out, was a different restaurant, and
Speaker 3: mostly we stay because I was visiting him in Greenwich.
Speaker 3: I mostly staying Greenwich because he won't back and forth
Speaker 3: to work and the Greens. It was a couple of
Speaker 3: very small restaurants, very nice, very interesting, very very very coast.
Speaker 1: Very you know, you know, yeah exactly. I love the
Speaker 1: lot of the food.
Speaker 2: Did you like it?
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, very American. You know, in general, I love
Speaker 3: the atmosphere more than the food. In all the West Coast,
Speaker 3: you can find someplace very nice. I love all the
Speaker 3: New England area, you know, starting from Upper New York State,
Speaker 3: go into Rhode Island.
Speaker 2: You know that lobster did your lobsters main.
Speaker 1: Is in very strong for lobsters.
Speaker 3: I love all the area of Iena Sports, Martha's Vinian,
Speaker 3: you know, Nintaketa Island. All this era I think is
Speaker 3: super super interesting. Then when I I back from United States,
Speaker 3: my first company I found when I was twenty years old,
Speaker 3: the name was New England. Because I was so in
Speaker 3: love with this area that I called my clothing company.
Speaker 1: You know New England.
Speaker 2: Does it still exist? No?
Speaker 3: No, it's not exist because I sold the company in
Speaker 3: two thousand. The people they bought was not They're not
Speaker 3: very successful.
Speaker 2: It's very young to form a company, yes, very young.
Speaker 2: Did you have backing from you from your family? No?
Speaker 1: No, honestly no.
Speaker 3: I tried to make everything alone because my mother said,
Speaker 3: you have to come work in my company. My father said,
Speaker 3: you have to come work in my companies.
Speaker 1: And I want to. I want to make and I
Speaker 1: want to make my own I want to make a startup,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: I want to make a step by step, very very
Speaker 3: little step, especially at the beginning because I was a
Speaker 3: lonely company and the only employee was me. I didn't
Speaker 3: have the money to towire other people. And then step
Speaker 3: by step I build a company.
Speaker 2: When you say that you dream of food or you
Speaker 2: go you're looking for food and other cultures. Was this
Speaker 2: something that came later or do you think you always.
Speaker 3: After a few years, as food become very very important,
Speaker 3: you know, now is I'm all research all around the world.
Speaker 3: I'm very curious about food, you know. I would research
Speaker 3: something new, a new place to have a good experience.
Speaker 3: I think it's a mix between food and experience, you know,
Speaker 3: I think a good food in a sad place. I'm
Speaker 3: not very interesting, you know. I think the balance between
Speaker 3: experience and food, I think is super important. Also, I
Speaker 3: think for the future will be not to have a
Speaker 3: great experience in a place with a good food mixed
Speaker 3: the two elements, you know.
Speaker 2: So tell me about Langusteria. I had to tell you
Speaker 2: that two years ago I was in miland to me,
Speaker 2: I was on my way to Venice to the Vinale
Speaker 2: and somebody said, there's only one restaurant to go to
Speaker 2: in Milan, and it was a language to Ria. It
Speaker 2: was the one. I think you have several, but it
Speaker 2: was the one on the water there's a little canal. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it was the best meal I've had in a
Speaker 2: very very long time. So tell me about how you started.
Speaker 3: This was an acquisition. We'll not find Languasteria, you know.
Speaker 3: It was an acquisition from our family office, because we
Speaker 3: have a division when to invest in experience, more experienced food,
Speaker 3: hospitality for them, beverage in this and I think this
Speaker 3: actually was the first acquisition. Was only small restaurant, couple
Speaker 3: of doors. They have a Milano, very very nice.
Speaker 1: But I went.
Speaker 3: I tried to win there. I was I was not
Speaker 3: very familiar. Honestly, I went there a couple of times,
Speaker 3: you know, and then start talking with the owner and
Speaker 3: I think the food and the service and was very curated,
Speaker 3: you know, the the raw material was imported from Maple Sicily,
Speaker 3: you know, the best place to have this kind of
Speaker 3: fish or the other fish. I think it was very courageous.
Speaker 3: The culture they was very interesting. We buy a steak,
Speaker 3: you know. And now we're partners since five six years
Speaker 3: and we developed, we redesigned the restaurant in Milano.
Speaker 1: We have in Milan. Now we have four restaurants.
Speaker 2: Yes, are they different from each other, but different experience.
Speaker 1: Different experience exactly. And the food is is on our
Speaker 1: line more or less. This is the food.
Speaker 3: But we have different produce, different different quality, always the
Speaker 3: best quality to have. Sometimes in the bistroy you find
Speaker 3: Polypo and in Langusteria you find Caribbin air or just
Speaker 3: to give you an example, different different level of food
Speaker 3: than we open in Porto Fino. Yes, into that one,
Speaker 3: very very nice on the beach. Then we open on
Speaker 3: the last floor of Blank in Paris. That is the
Speaker 3: view is incredible, you know, there is the spinning is
Speaker 3: very nice because we have this Terrance. You know, you
Speaker 3: see all parries including toy fell in front of you.
Speaker 3: I think it's super super nice. Then we're gonna we
Speaker 3: have a couple of projec in the pipeline, you know,
Speaker 3: one I think in London and one maybe in Miami.
Speaker 3: But we don't want to rush, you know, we want
Speaker 3: to go step by step, you know, because as you know,
Speaker 3: it's not easy to run place far from your house.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 3: We opened a fantastic place two years ago in Semurza
Speaker 3: on the on the sloops. Fantastic really is the best
Speaker 3: one for my for me because it's a small chalet,
Speaker 3: you know, all in wood, and the difference of the
Speaker 3: culture between mountain chalet and eating fish, you know, it's
Speaker 3: the only fish restaurant in some more it. I think
Speaker 3: it's very interesting. We have a couple of two tree
Speaker 3: received very more mountain.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: We have polaina with the seafood, we have soup with
Speaker 3: the seafood. We try to have something special for for
Speaker 3: for the mountain and mostly it's the same menu that
Speaker 3: we have in Milano. But the experience that is very
Speaker 3: very interesting.
Speaker 2: It's interesting that you say polenta with fish because when
Speaker 2: I went to Venice, they do you know, polenta with
Speaker 2: scallops with cape. They do scalp with langustine, and it
Speaker 2: was kind of a mindset to suddenly have polenta with fish.
Speaker 3: But typical from from Venice. They used to have mostly
Speaker 3: spolina with cold. Yes, they used to have polenta with coda.
Speaker 3: Polenta bacala is the typical dish from will make totally different.
Speaker 3: We make very soft polaina with fruit ma you know, clams, shrimp, gumbus,
Speaker 3: and it's very very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2: We went to in Padua or Verona, I can't remember
Speaker 2: years ago when we were. I was there with Richard,
Speaker 2: a restaurant that actually runs a recommended, and we discovered
Speaker 2: a pasta which we now make in the River Cafe,
Speaker 2: which is it's like carbonara, but it is with Langestine
Speaker 2: and it's really breaking all the rules. We do it
Speaker 2: with meta macrii, the kind of small rigatoni or you
Speaker 2: can do with penne, and then we do the Langestine
Speaker 2: pecorino and parmesan and butter and actually the sweetness of
Speaker 2: the Langestine with a pecorina. It's very good.
Speaker 1: Yeah's amazing, it is good.
Speaker 2: So another thing that I'm interested, you know, we have
Speaker 2: one restaurant, and Wolfgang Puck came to the restaurant. I said, Wolfgang,
Speaker 2: I want to be like you and have forty restaurants,
Speaker 2: And he said, Ruthie, I want to be like you
Speaker 2: and have one. But I think the reason I tell
Speaker 2: this is that how do you control I think there
Speaker 2: are very few restaurants that have multiplied all over the
Speaker 2: world that actually keep the control. And I think I've
Speaker 2: been to the one you've done here, the one in
Speaker 2: Paris I went to, and the one important now, and
Speaker 2: all of them were excellent. But how do you control that?
Speaker 3: It's a really question of organization. Don't have to you
Speaker 3: need more organized? You cannot think about I go in
Speaker 3: the morning and make a shopping what they very found
Speaker 3: the market. I make my own there. You have to,
Speaker 3: you know, to have like like a company, you know,
Speaker 3: like my company. My company is more or less we
Speaker 3: have two hundred and seventy stores. I have organized everything
Speaker 3: because I'm not in China, I'm not in America, not
Speaker 3: in in say ooh, I'm not in Tokyo.
Speaker 1: Means all the store must.
Speaker 3: Be exactly the same, with the same service, with the
Speaker 3: same client telling, with the same customer relation, management, you
Speaker 3: have organized, you know, step by step you have the
Speaker 3: guys who runs people. The HRD is in Milano. We
Speaker 3: have an HRITY in Milano. They take care about Milanos area.
Speaker 3: Then have the guys report to him in Paris that
Speaker 3: take care about Paris.
Speaker 1: You know, it's all.
Speaker 3: It's all, you know, all the organization must go down
Speaker 3: to really the were the head of service that is
Speaker 3: in Milan, and the corporate in the corporate office. But
Speaker 3: as well we have in every in every restaurant, we
Speaker 3: have head of service that report the guys in in
Speaker 3: as well, like the chef and the guys there.
Speaker 2: We teach the chefs here they all come to the.
Speaker 3: First and then you know, all the chef we have
Speaker 3: all around is the chef they started down or they
Speaker 3: was here for like three four, five, six years. And
Speaker 3: then after we decided to move when we think we
Speaker 3: already we decided to move in Paris, in Samore, it's
Speaker 3: in Portofino, in different locations in Milano.
Speaker 2: How was it for you in COVID, because COVID really
Speaker 2: started in Milan.
Speaker 3: Milan, remember that it was the most destroyed city in Europe,
Speaker 3: you know, and actually we close, we close, we make
Speaker 3: Langustia Kaza. Yes, we make the sim service that we
Speaker 3: have in the restaurant delivery there with a totally different
Speaker 3: approjects delivery food. We have a small van, you know, refrigerator.
Speaker 3: We delivery everything by our own you know, our own people.
Speaker 3: We go into the house, we're prepared in the kitchen
Speaker 3: everything you know, and then we back home.
Speaker 2: You went to people's houses and there for them.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, we also cook if you want, if they want,
Speaker 3: we also cook there or we only divide the product there.
Speaker 3: We live on the on the buffet. Whatever is this
Speaker 3: the past and not cook? You have to cook the
Speaker 3: pasta for six minutes. This was the source for the past,
Speaker 3: This source for what every tomato for the tuna and
Speaker 3: so on.
Speaker 2: Yes, very challenging time, very challenging.
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Speaker 2: Thank you. It's interesting. I used to think I have
Speaker 2: ski jackets that come from your man, Claire, and I
Speaker 2: think I was going to ask you if you designed
Speaker 2: the logo? Was that did you inherit that or did
Speaker 2: you design that you do it because it's so recognizable.
Speaker 2: It's such a beautiful logo.
Speaker 1: Of all, the original logo was already there.
Speaker 3: You know, the company was founded in nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 3: and the logo was this exactly that. Then we have
Speaker 3: other interpretations like the jacket, you have tone on tone,
Speaker 3: but the original logo when I bought the company was
Speaker 3: already there. I have all the kai from the fifty
Speaker 3: to sixty to seventy there. It was only this logo
Speaker 3: that is quite quite a charming It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just tells you something about It tells you
Speaker 2: about just adventure or paying outdoors. You bought Montclaire when
Speaker 2: you were old.
Speaker 1: I was two thousand and three.
Speaker 3: The company was bankrupt and it was my dream because
Speaker 3: when I was fourteen thirteen, fifteen years old, I was
Speaker 3: I use I love skiing, I love the mountain. I
Speaker 3: was living in Como with the motorbycle. Was very very
Speaker 3: cold in the morning when I go was cool. I
Speaker 3: used every day Montclair and then it was nice because
Speaker 3: after thirty years, twenty years, they told me Montclair is
Speaker 3: on the market. It was not successful at all, but
Speaker 3: saying no, no, I love because I think, you know,
Speaker 3: I could know to you know, to make it, make
Speaker 3: it better. When I bought the company was very small,
Speaker 3: was only sport jacket, you know, very commercial and very distributing,
Speaker 3: very in the sport good stores.
Speaker 2: Was it all still the look was the original look
Speaker 2: like then.
Speaker 3: They have three four models only you know, very very
Speaker 3: big jacket, very heavy and you can use but really
Speaker 3: when the weather was very very cold, you know, otherwise
Speaker 3: was impossible because it was a jacket like this. So
Speaker 3: I try to work on R and D, research and
Speaker 3: develop and try to have something much more light, waterproof,
Speaker 3: try to really have product that can go from the
Speaker 3: mountain to the city, you know, because my idea at
Speaker 3: the beginning say okay, I cannot sell it only in
Speaker 3: the few store in the mountain.
Speaker 2: I have to.
Speaker 3: I think it was so comfort that you can use
Speaker 3: a down jacket also every day in the city. Means
Speaker 3: the first two three years I really work on the
Speaker 3: industrial part, on our research and development part, really to
Speaker 3: really to improve the quality. And then I start to
Speaker 3: build a company like having my you know again unique.
Speaker 1: I tried to make my own strategy, my own vision,
Speaker 1: on my own.
Speaker 2: Approach, and did you ever go to business school.
Speaker 1: No, I started working like I was two months before
Speaker 1: turn twenty.
Speaker 2: And your family were in fashion fashion.
Speaker 3: Yes, are your children yes, I have two children, Pietro Romeo.
Speaker 3: Now it's thirty and thirty three. They're not children anymore.
Speaker 2: They are start and they are a good friend of mine.
Speaker 2: And are they working in the company.
Speaker 3: One is working in the olden company and in my
Speaker 3: olden company, and one is starting working a couple of
Speaker 3: years ago we just make an acquisition. The brand is
Speaker 3: called Stone Island. Yes, and you work on as a
Speaker 3: chief commercial Business Development.
Speaker 2: What was foold like in your home with your child.
Speaker 3: Because my son they are very healthy in terms of food,
Speaker 3: very very healthy. They like to have protein, only vegan protein.
Speaker 3: Then they tried to have.
Speaker 1: Fifty Grandma pasta with lean until you know, very very healthy.
Speaker 4: When they were little, did you did you know when
Speaker 4: there was there was little, there was disaster, disaster, they
Speaker 4: used to have this big bottle of hotela.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I always try to Yeah, and now they are very
Speaker 1: very healthy.
Speaker 2: You always eat in your own restaurants or do you
Speaker 2: go to other restaurants?
Speaker 3: No, I don't go often. I go in some mode
Speaker 3: is quite often because I like very much. My Milana,
Speaker 3: not very often. I like to go around. I eat
Speaker 3: mostly at home because when a MILANAM work and then
Speaker 3: you say, when I work, I want to be fresh
Speaker 3: in the morning. I don't go out too much because
Speaker 3: when I travel, I always at the restaurant, you know,
Speaker 3: and loan, you're now just come back from seven days
Speaker 3: in United States, fifteen city and seven days quite drunk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a lot as someone who skis and sales
Speaker 2: and so do you think there is to find a
Speaker 2: relationship between health and food the kind of food?
Speaker 3: Yes, I think it is, you know, I'm really I
Speaker 3: love skiing. This is my first, my first port. I
Speaker 3: try to ski at least every weekend. I'm free thirty
Speaker 3: thirty five thirty eight some years skills of forty days.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: That's very difficult because I have to work as well,
Speaker 3: and I try to finish my ski days, you know,
Speaker 3: and then avalunche. I don't like to have lunch stuff
Speaker 3: in the middle. Ye to start early, like eight thirty
Speaker 3: in the morning and finish skiing like one thirty two
Speaker 3: o'clock or one thirty like this, and then go to
Speaker 3: the different refugeo that we have differentially. That is around
Speaker 3: the mountain to have lunch. Mostly they are very simple,
Speaker 3: very very nice. You can eat the classic food from
Speaker 3: the mount and the brad ushed to the roastya these
Speaker 3: kind of things.
Speaker 2: Before I ask you my last question, I just want
Speaker 2: you to talk to me about pizza.
Speaker 3: But this is the worst, the worst question that can
Speaker 3: make it. Because I'm so crazy about pizza.
Speaker 2: We just do a whole episode of pizza. Tell me about.
Speaker 1: Pizza, really the worst.
Speaker 3: I think pizza is part of my life, unfortunately, because
Speaker 3: I really love pizza. We just bought a very special
Speaker 3: place in Rihonnesan Itai Naples Conti, one of the oldest
Speaker 3: pizzeria in Italy and they have a very good experience,
Speaker 3: incredible good experience. These guys he ran the sun that
Speaker 3: he ran the pizzeria because the father and mother they
Speaker 3: have another's very small pizza, but they only to go
Speaker 3: and he opened the real pizzeria just behind.
Speaker 1: The energy is incredible. The food is incredible.
Speaker 2: Tell me what it's not?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: The crust a thin crust.
Speaker 3: No is a typical typical Naples, you know, typical Naples pizza.
Speaker 1: But you know they have a really good recipt. They
Speaker 1: used to have they have this.
Speaker 3: Zucchini pizza that is incredible. They do it like you
Speaker 3: know pasta and Erano. Rano's pasta zucchini with with the
Speaker 3: eggs and it. Tried to try pizza very similar to
Speaker 3: to to pasta and erano.
Speaker 1: That is incredible. But they have like.
Speaker 3: Not the normal pizza. No, they try to have the
Speaker 3: pizza with the flower of zucchini. They have to trying
Speaker 3: to try to then is in the sperience. They don't
Speaker 3: give you a pizza like this, you know, they come
Speaker 3: with the small pieces. They come with something like pizza,
Speaker 3: but with inside you know, special mozzarella. They have this
Speaker 3: lemon pizza, limo and mozzarella together. You know, don't talk
Speaker 3: about pizza with.
Speaker 2: Me because you bring them all over it the pizzas.
Speaker 3: I think now we open, we try to open in
Speaker 3: Capri the first location, but I think you want to
Speaker 3: move all around, maybe not all litally, but you know
Speaker 3: maybe Milani rom just just maybe in in Porto Finos area.
Speaker 3: That is quite interesting for the food. The idea is
Speaker 3: ready to develop this brend as well as Langusteria.
Speaker 2: What do you do when you want food for comfort?
Speaker 2: If you're feeling that you need food, not because you're
Speaker 2: hungry or because, but sometimes food does make us give
Speaker 2: you comfort. It's like to be something from your childhood
Speaker 2: or something that you love. Is there a food that
Speaker 2: you would turn to for comfort?
Speaker 3: Many times when I need something, it's comfort. I love
Speaker 3: Brazila that in northern Italy because linse is.
Speaker 1: Brazila is big like this.
Speaker 3: Brazila is dry Manzometer beef that is normally making north
Speaker 3: north Italy very close to the mountain, you know, because
Speaker 3: normally you have a huge braziala that I don't like
Speaker 3: match in this part when you go to we call Valtellina.
Speaker 1: This area they specialized to make this very small.
Speaker 3: That in our language is called Slinsega's little bit dialect,
Speaker 3: but slin Sega its very Itali. That is very It
Speaker 3: is long, like twenty large, like five centimeter, quite dry,
Speaker 3: and this is something I love.
Speaker 1: Is retain a lot of salts.
Speaker 2: So if I came to your house with there always
Speaker 2: be away always is there anything else? You always keep
Speaker 2: it the fridge.
Speaker 3: From the fridge is I love? And other things is cornishon.
Speaker 3: I love cornishon that they make this kind of Swiss
Speaker 3: cornision that is very big and quite sweet and.
Speaker 2: Thank you for you well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We can go on for hours.
Speaker 2: I told you we wouldn't have enough time, and there's
Speaker 2: so much to talk about. Wonderful to see you and
Speaker 2: continue the dreams. Yeah, thank you for
Speaker 1: Sure, for sure, thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table
Speaker 1: four in partnership with Montclair