Jacopo Putignano

this was my most recent experience in a reasturant, i started working here ( at KALAMARO PIADINARO ) exactly one year ago, i always changed my culinary experience and vision in the kitchen, so that i'll find more possibility for my career and my self.

I always believed in try and learn as much as possible from whatever i was, in this scenario i started at the meat station which also did '' entré '', from the beginning i was given a lot of responsibility, even though i was working for a big company such as CIRFOOD.

In one year a lot as changed since i arrived, i was kinda directing the kitchen even thought i wasn't planning to do it, but responsibility is something you can only gain with trust for me so i was glad to do it in the end.

Anyways my duty here were:

- Doing prep with the brigade ,controlling the merch, keeping an eye out for the ingredients we had in the house before the two services, doing the inventory, checking the food preparation schedule procedure, placing the order for the merch,last but not least doing the services.

My position here was flexible because i could cover each roll in case of help, that i really think is good quality of mine, because it's due to my experiences working in different kitchens.

I've chosen to work in this restaurant because in my previous job i was missing local business that work a lot with numbers, so i was searching for the rush hour services to '' train '' my self to understand better time/team work and prep quantities.

I loved being here, but unfortunately the kind of kitchen we were doing isn't my favorite, i prefer to make something i'm 100% satisfied whit rather than doing something whit no meaning for me.

At the end of my contract i was asked to be the '' kitchen manager'' for the restaurant, because the head chef of this restaurant quitted when the company i mentioned earlier bought the place 7 years ago;

I declined the offer they made me for the moment, because i think it would be a good experience for me to go out and see other mentality and style of work before becoming the head chef or possibly own a restaurant.

I worked two jobs this year with the same chef since he rented two places, i did the opening kitchen routine here starting early i was starting whit the prep for the lunch rush and the mise en place for the evening before closing and then i moved to Riccione to work in the other restaurant/lounge.

it pretty similar concept to the other restaurant, but itwas the first year of a more longer idea i think, because it was mainly to gain knowledge about this city market and to being known among people

This was my second time working with this chef, i actually loved working here, the place was a lounge owned by an italian company PRIMADONNA, they opened up a lounge/bar very sophisticated in the main street of Riccione, type type of cuisine we were doing was a fusion mix between Japan and Brasilian sushi.

the main goal about this concept for us was being unique, we wanted to serve people high quality food but in a new way with mostly eccentric presentation ,but without changing to much from the basic of Japanese cuisine

here in my second year i experimented a lot whit presentation, was really something i loved because as i continued working in a kitchen my brain started with time to picture the image of a plate and i really like plating because it can show really Art in every way

My duty here were ''upgraded'' i could say since the last time i worked whit him , i gained more freedom in what i was doing, i also directed all the purchase for both establishment he rented, i convince the chef to change some thing in the menu to achieve a food cost lower but highly increasing the revenue, i think this is very important in this line of work.

This was my most important experience ,because i had the opportunity to work whit a michelin star Chef that i can firmly say he teached me most of the thing i know right now, so i will always be grateful to him for that.

i started working here under the supervision of a young chef he trained called Jacopo Galliano, i started from zero basically, because almost everything they did here was more advance for the level of cuisine knowledge and onestly ability i had at the time.

So the learning progress was infinite from my POV,beacuse not only the prep. was huge for just one service but the level of detail was really inspiring for me.

i started working in the starters station for about a month then they alternate me at the ''viande/grille'' station which also used to help the chef at ''primi'' station, we also baked and used to make our own desert, so late service someone had to go to that station to work there.

the knowledge i gain from this experience was fenomenal, the concept of the restaurant was a cozy cuisine cured in every aspect of it and served to people in a gourmet way if that make sense.

Here i really experienced the true concept of a highly working kitchen, the owner/chef philosophy was ''quality of michelin star but whit the speed of a fast food'' that may seem foolish when you hear it,but it was like a religion in there for us that used to push every body to their max potential.

This was my first experience with this chef and in the world of Japanese cuisine, he saw me working in the previous job and while he was there for an event he recognized my potential and call me to work for him.

The first months that i not included here he teached me how to do this job and the minimum prep to do a service, meanwhile i was going to school ,at that time i was studying at the culinary school ''Severio S. Savioli'' located in Riccione were my culinary experience started.

We really started working together at november just on the weekend because i still wanted to finish school, so from monday to friday i usually hopped by his place after school tho learn the techniques and everything else i needed to know to work and sometimes on saturday/sunday we were '' hired '' from private to make a evening dinner.

as i was finish my last year of school on the weekend i started work at the restaurant he rented ( PRIMADONNA LOUNGE ) in Riccione and in April i started working there full time till september were i unfortunately finish due to an injure while driving that broke my elbow

I started working in this restaurant thanks to my school '' work assignment '',they basically would send people in their last two years of the school to see what the kitchen/bar/pastry world would be.

This was my second time in a professional kitchen, the restaurant was mainly based on italian cuisine but modernized, i started as the jolly of the kitchen i basically did chores of any type to be as useful as possible,later on they started putting me behind station to help the ''chef de partie'', when summer arrived which in my region is basically the peak of work, the owner bought a luonge bar that was close to the restaurant were he offered a refined ''aperitif'' and as my ''work assignment'' was about to finish he hired me after i ended the semester in school to work there full time.

Even thought this was my first truly experience in a kitchen they entrusted me to take care of the new bar/lounge kitchen for that summer and sometimes when the service was to crowded in the main restaurant to go there and help them out.

this was my first really big responsibility job, and i was 16/17 years old so that was really huge for me

This was the beginning of my culinary experience, my school would send you to start your career in random restaurant in the area, to make you understand what this work would look like,i can't say much about this place because even thought i stayed almost 6 weeks i ''worked'' probably 16 hours a week and yes i learn a lot because the staff there treated me like a was a professional so that once i was out i could imagine what working in a kitchen would look like, it's funny because it was a long time ago i picture in my head each tips they gave me and thats it