– Wow! Is this a real film? Asks me Michel, the director of the restaurant, where I’ll soon be shooting. The restaurant’s guests also stand up and approach me, asking for my business cards. The waitress, with modestly eyes down, too.

I’ve been using these business cards for more than three years. The funny thing is that almost noone believes that this is a real film. People start scrabbling and slobbering the business cards, critically looking at me. Professionals even consider holes in the film, trying to determine how I cut them out in that way. But that’s a real film bought in a usual photo shop. The process of making these cards is quite tedious, but the way people react, makes it worth it.

– Wow! Are these real black truffles? Now it’s my turn to be surprised, not to trust and admire.

– Maybe you’ve just painted champignons?  I continue my jokey interrogation. Alexey Shvets, chef of Bernardazzi even jumps up on a chair in surprise, then laughs and hides from me and my questions in the kitchen. I am alone now, enjoying the taste of tagliatelle with butter and black truffle.

For this dish you can use any pasta and truffles can be replaced with white or black truffle paste.

All the Italian dishes have their own history, legends, fairy tales in the background. How do without it? Tagliatelle were born in the Italian province Emilia Romagna in the 15th century. Dazzling beauty with blond curly hair Lucrezia Borgia was celebrating her wedding. In her honor Bologna chefs created a new kind of pasta, looking like long narrow strips – tagliatelle. Here’s the story, and it’s up to you to trust it or not!