Tony Rosetti grew up in his parents' restaurant in Palmariggi, worked at top hotels from Monte Carlo to Singapore and in July 2013 opened his first restaurant, Noti, in Singapore.
My name is Tony Rosetti, and I'm the chef of Noti Restaurant & Bar, which draws guests with Italian dishes in Singapore. The name of the bar is an anagram of my name. So yes, I'm the owner as well.
Singapore is home to more than 5 million people, while I was born in a small Italian town of fewer than two thousand. Palmariggi, a town in the province of Lecce, sits at the tip of Italy's “heel.” I was born there, on the “heel,” on March 31.
It didn't all start from scratch. In cooking, I had a terrific foundation and solid support behind me, because my parents ran a very successful restaurant in our small town. I can say that I grew up in the restaurant business. My older sister Antonella and I helped our parents while we were still young madcaps.
My first memory of working in the restaurant is from when I was 5: I helped carry cups and plates to the kitchen. So much has changed since then, but I keep this memory carefully.
And guess what, a year later I got promoted. When I was 6, my dad put me in charge of the coffee machine and gave me a wooden stool he had made himself, so that I could climb up and make a strong espresso. That was my career path in my family's kitchen. Then I became a waiter, and after that I got into the kitchen as my mother's assistant.
The restaurant was a big part of our life and our home, because it was actually very close to where we lived. My mom cooked, and my dad managed the restaurant. That's a family idyll for you.
So I worked with my family until I was 17. Then I decided to move up to a higher level, because it interested me, and started an internship at the Hotel Excelsior in Montreux, Switzerland. That experience sparked a passion inside me and gave birth to ambitions. Every guy has ambitions at 17 or 18, and I was proof of that.
I decided to build a career in this business, and I haven't changed that decision to this day. My passion and fascination came true in July 2013, when I opened my own restaurant, my very first, Noti.
You can cook for a long time and be a chef, but nothing compares with creating a new gastronomic place that is entirely yours. Is it trite to compare it to having a child? Probably, but I'm living my dream.
I must admit I wasn't idle before that. I worked at top international five-star hotels and built a successful career: the luxurious Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, the iconic Savoy in London, The Gleneagles in Scotland, Four Seasons in Milan, Park Hyatt in Paris and, finally, Grand Hyatt Singapore.
I gained unique experience in running a restaurant and working in professional kitchens, and even in the way people get inspired and create food art. I saw restaurants both from the back and from the front.
With that knowledge, I left the wing of the big hotels and created my own place. I must say that all those big hotels never made me forget my childhood experience. On the contrary, many of the lessons in service and restaurant management that I still remember come from my dad, and that knowledge is even more valuable than what I received from world-renowned professionals.
From my mother I inherited her love for cooking. I learned a lot from her, and I'm still learning. Anyway, if you want to find out how my Italian mother cooks, come to Noti, because most of the recipes are traditional and come from her kitchen.
Together, Mom and Dad were a dynamic, perfect team, and I feel very lucky to have learned from them: to watch, to pick up skills, to dream, and then to go from thoughts to making the dream real. Thanks to them, I opened Noti.
What do I like to eat? Hmm, let's divide the answer into two parts. As an Italian, I like pasta, and when I'm working it's generally my daily food. On days off, I like cooking for my family.
Yes, I don't give this up: I start the day by buying a fresh baguette for breakfast and excellent beef to make Florentine steak or tartare. Then come the sweets: tarts, pies and cakes.
Living in Singapore, with the chance to discover the whole variety of Asian cuisine, I don't deny myself that pleasure. I like local food, such as Hainanese chicken rice and roti prata, pancakes from the griddle served with beef or chicken curry.
When I go back home to Italy, it never happens without a big family barbecue: the backyard of our home, family, friends, a very different air and childhood memories. It fills me with energy and reminds me where it all began and which path I have traveled.
My hobbies are cooking, eating good food and drinking good wine. Besides that, I still have lots of interests. I like watching documentaries and reading books by top chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and Marco Pierre White. You never know when the light bulb of a new idea will switch on, but these guys tend to light it up for me.
And I'm not done yet. I like buying all kinds of things for the kitchen, equipment and so on. It's the same story women have with shoes: there can never be enough.
My kitchen fetish right now is Staub pots. I like everything about them: the color, the shape and the quality. By the way, every time I buy cookware in a new shade, and with these pots my workspace in the kitchen always looks juicy.
Outside the kitchen, I like shoes, especially handmade ones from Tod's and Church's, as well as limited-edition sneaker collections from Adidas, Diadora and Asics Tiger. I like sports shoes with a retro design.
I think it often goes like this: actors' children try their hand at film, and singers' nephews make music videos. But whether it all comes from the heart, I don't know. What I do know is that I truly found my life's work in childhood, when at 5 I carried cups and plates to the kitchen of my parents' restaurant. It's happiness to do what you love, so don't change it, no matter what, and you will succeed.
The dish in the photo is gnocchi with pesto and shrimp. I chose it because it is traditional for my region and conjures up memories of the sea and the flavors of my childhood.
