Genoese by birth, Savonese by adoption. He is Adriano Fedi, an engineer with the passion and "healthy disease" of storytelling. He has recently completed the master's degree in Wine and Food Criticism of Italian Food Academy and it is already an opportunity to toast its first milestone: the publication of an e-book titled "Pen & Squid, A Gastronomic-Narrative Guide for Gourmand Wanderers.", available in kindle format at Amazon.
"Pen & Squid" is a pleasant journey of stories, discovering restaurants, trattorias, culinary events described through short and original stories. Inspiration, pen and notebook in hand, came naturally from those very places and events, places where the good food, good drinking and atmosphere are mixed together as in a pleasant mixture.
Enlivening the stories are fictional or real characters, true or invented stories, which follow each other while also offering more or less veiled reviews of the places described. The result is both light and compelling, fragrant and savory...tasty one might say!
In a comment on facebook signed by Francesca Cristella, educational coordinator of the IFA master's program, you can read a nice review about Hadrian's book:
"I run into looks I will probably never meet again, voices and souls that overlap. I can tell you that each of them told me a story. Experience will never be enough, as will knowledge, and I will never get to the point of saying, I knew from before that there was fabric. Each of us has hidden cards that we will show only when we feel like it. I can tell you, however, that the Bao story I still remember now and not because I reread it just now, but because I saved it on my pc one afternoon in November 2018 when its author asked me:-could you get it printed? - but of course:- I replied. Bao has been with me ever since. In rereading that story I retrace Via Paolo Sarpi whenever I feel like it, and it is not a frantic race among the gastronomic representations of continents that, though geographically distant, find themselves close in shutters, but as a well-deserved pause among emotions.
Know that, thanks to this book, you will travel the boot alongside its author, and if one day you happen to come across a narrative locale selected by him, do not be surprised to relive a kind of déjà vu, to recognize people or remember stories.
Thank you Adriano for these narrative sparks of yours."
We met Adriano Fedi and we were overwhelmed by his positive energy and fervent storytelling talent:
"I was born with atavistic hunger in Genoa. After a brief interlude in milk and homogenized food, among pesto, trenette and focaccia I lived twenty-seven years and then moved to Savona, where I finished university, got my doctorate and where, today I live and work. I am an engineer, but of those for whom pens do not fit in the pocket: for me, they must be used to write stories, or, if rifled, they must end up in plenty of boiling salted water.
As a child, conditioned by my grandmother, bella stella, who told me I would become rich, I dreamed of being a design engineer: then something must have gone wrong, and today, at almost forty years old, I have different, ongoing dreams, and they are about so many other things."
How did the idea of an ebook come about?
This is a question-bomb. To be honest, the underlying reason comes from a great productive period. Together with my fraternal friend Matteo Bellini, we have written several works, which we think are interesting, and we are waiting for responses from several publishing houses. Except that I (and here is a cyclopean flaw of mine) have a hard time waiting, I like to ride the wave, and dilated response times make me falter. So, as soon as I had a production of my own ready, I decided to try to skip that step and try a service, however interesting and up to date, like the one offered by...can you say the name of the behemoth that starts with A and ends with mazon?
What does Pen & Squid tell about it? How would you define it?
Pen & Squid is the story of the feelings I've had about places and events where I've eaten, drank, chatted with owners or customers. It is a nonlinear sum of evaluations of kitchens, wineries, services, but with the added literary spark that was ignited in me by spending time in these places. In summary, it is a food-narrative guide, where reviews are replaced by original short stories.
You attended the IFA master's program in Food and Wine Criticism: how was this experience and what is the most valuable lesson you will always carry with you?
I enjoyed learning, I think that's a great feedback to give you. To be more precise, I have to say that it was beautiful the atmosphere that was created with the classmates with whom we remained in wonderful relationships, and on top of that, it was great to meet people of the caliber of Roberta Schira, great teacher as well as lecturer, Paolo Vizzari and Chiara Caprettini above all. Undoubtedly, the teaching that I will carry with me for quite a while is the one that Roberta Schira gave me and that is summed up in an acronym that is pregnant with meaning: MIC. It means Move thel....in short, get a move on, you get the picture, right?
What do you expect from this project?
Frankly, I expect this to be the first in a long series of books, works transposed to screen or paper. Since I discovered that I love to write, I have also developed a biological need to have readers, to know if I have succeeded in conveying the emotions I carry with me and, why not, to give, more or less veiledly, good gastronomic advice.
Travel, cooking, writing: how do these passions of yours come about?
I think it all has as its trait d'union the curiosity that drives me to want to explore new places, experiment with cooking techniques that I have discovered from chefs I have met wandering around, read anything to glean information from it. All of this, easily, opens my mind and helps me imagine scenes, even fragments of them, that make up, in my personal creative process, the short stories or the tad more articulate stories that I am trying to concoct.
The book you would like to write...
This is another very difficult question, because if I think of books that already exist and that I would have liked to write myself, well, there are dozens of them. If we are talking about a book yet to be written, however, my most honest answer is: the next one. That would mean that someone will have believed in me, that I will still have something to tell, in short, a lot of good things.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In front of the mirror, despairing of the now inescapable baldness. Then, laughing, I would go back to cooking something for my son, who in the meantime will be a teenager in the midst of rebellion, and for that holy woman of my wife, a real driving force and very strong help for all my activities.
I still see myself in Savona, physically, but, as always, with my head in the clouds. Or, if I have won the lottery, in a nice lodge in Botswana, a country that my wife and I believe to be as much as Of the closest to Heaven that exists on this planet.
Qualities and flaws that you recognize...
The one about merits and flaws is the hardest part, because I recognize too many of my flaws and it would bother me to see them listed all at once (in fact, one is the fact that I am very touchy). Certainly, the flaw that has given me the most trouble is pride where I think we marinated me as a child. Perhaps a virtue that I can hardly credit myself with is being able to be ironic on any subject, but I have to think about that a little more.
Tell about: a place to visit, a dish to taste, a situation, a chef to meet and interview, a book to carry with you always...
You could tell from the response earlier how Botswana is my suggestion: it is an incredible country of people at peace and marked by crazy nature. Here, I also suggest the situation to be experienced, namely sipping a gin and tonic while eating excellent biltong, a dried meat that is only good there, while the sun colors the savannah grass with hues that cannot be described in words.
As for the chef, my money is on an old acquaintance of mine, with a very happy hand and a fine brain that translate into dishes and reasoning that are never trivial. He moved from Liguria to Piedmont a few years ago and he is definitely worth a visit, his name is Flavio Costa and I recommend him highly.
On the dish, I have to go heavy, because finding just one to remember is not trivial: I choose, then, Bottura's "The 5 Seasonings of Parmigiano." I was close to tears, partly because Parmigiano is to me as peanuts are to Super Goofy, only I try not to walk around in red pajamas and blue cape to maintain a decorum.
The book to carry in my backpack at all times, on the other hand, is a great source of inspiration for me when I decide to get into the kitchen. In an exceptional coding, you can find hints and tips for interesting pairings: I am talking about "The Grammar of Flavors," which I loved.
Oh, then if you like, Pen & Squid does not have "phenomenal cosmic powers," but it "occupies a tiny living space" (quote).
