«He was on shift with us until a few days ago. She had let it appear that things at Masterchef had gone very well, but we certainly didn’t expect her to have won.” Blame the times of television. Eleonora Riso, became the 13th Italian Masterchef on Thursday evening she is also the first Tuscan amateur chef to win the program.
Twenty-seven years old, born in Livorno, university student in Pisa and finally waitress in Florence in the historic Cibreo restaurant. «We sent her our congratulations, now we wait to see her again to celebrate this great victory, then I wish her dream come true» says the restaurant’s host, Giulio Picchi.
Thursday evening Eleonora opened sparkling wines in Sant’Ambrogio with friends.
It couldn’t have been easy to keep the secret all this time. The first episode of the program aired on Sky in mid-November, while filming of the race dates back to the previous months.
She mentioned the Florentine dishes at Cibreo during one of the first evenings: «I was thrilled to taste a typical dish they make there: something with offal. When I ate it, I cried.”
A victory, so said the chefs/judges Bruno Barbieri, Antonino Cannavacciuolo and Giorgio Locatelli, the fruit of his “creativity”.
«We have worked together since 2018. I must say that on television she showed herself as she really is, an extroverted girl and a little “crazy”, in the good sense of the term». His “verses” (the chefs’ definition), that is, his funny or embarrassed expressions, or his gesticulating, were framed and made famous by the cameras of the 13th edition of the programme, the most watched in the last 4 years according to Sky data . Also because the final remained in the balance until the last dish, that is, a mochi filled with coconut Bavarian cream presented by Eleonora Riso to close a menu that mixed “our” cuisine with the Japanese one.
In addition to the title of 13th Italian Masterchef, she was also awarded 100 thousand euros and an advanced training course, while her recipe book will be released on March 8th.
«A good waiter must have a strong personality: I liked Eleonora because she knew how to read others and remained imprinted in the souls of the customers» continues Giulio Picchi of Cibreo.
Radiohead, Katy Perry e Russell Crowe
«Together in recent years we have achieved a lot of satisfaction, we have served Radiohead, Katy Perry and Russell Crowe. We have gone through difficulties and successes. Now I hope he enjoys this great success for which we have great respect.” In Florence Eleonora only worked in the dining room, «but I had heard about her “skills”, on her days off she occasionally cooked something for the other employees».
«To all the disadvantaged like me»
On Masterchef she immediately defined herself as “outside the box” and dedicated her victory “to all the disadvantaged like me”. She said that she lived in Florence, in a “house in the woods”, where she “cultivated a vegetable garden and learned the secrets of beekeeping”.
Cooking helped her overcome her eating disorders (Anorexia nervosa and bulimia) and she often proposed vegan and vegetarian dishes “for an ethical and health issue”. Among her passions, she says, “there is everything that is art”.
Il menu «Ichigo-Ichiche»
His path was clear in a high-level masterclass. The menu that convinced the chefs on the final evening was called “Ichigo-Ichie”, a practice linked to Zen Buddhism which requires living every moment to the fullest.
«The invitation is not to put it off, trying to do things never done before, changing things if we don’t feel well, chasing the special moments and breathing. I tried to calm the chaos inside me: it is impulse and emotion, but it can also be destructive. I realized that I have no other real goal in life other than seeking a minimum balance. So for my menu I decided to take inspiration from Japanese cuisine, intertwining it with my traditions and experiences and making the ingredients I am fond of protagonists, because they remind me of important and significant moments in my life.”
So here are rice paper chips, with decomposed Russian salad, anchovy concentrate, vin santo and wasabi. Steamed ravioli filled with potatoes flavored with rosemary, marinated trout tartare, grapefruit, dashi broth and “Pelle Ribelle”, the double-cooked and lacquered eel that earned her success.
March 1, 2024
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2024-03-02 08:16:00
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