Until March last year, I was travelling 200 days a year. One thing that I always say when I give speech at a university or high school and I speak with students is: always remember to travel with your eyes and your ears open.
The point of travelling is to understand cultures. You go to a market in Bangkok or in India and there’s a meat section that looks like hell and on the other side, a vegetable section that is like a beautiful garden. You understand immediately the culture of the place where you are.
The more you learn, the more you know – then, at the point of creativity, you forget everything and you create something new.
As soon as we weren’t able to travel, I started a cultural exercise with my team – 103 young chefs from all over the world who decided to spend the quarantine year in Italy. I had to take care of everyone, you know, like a big father.
In the meantime, I was moving records from one place to another. And I had the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in my hand and I asked everyone: what was the meaning of that cover for them? The answer was so good that I said: Ok, now it’s time to transform this answer into edible bites!
