Some experiences don’t belong to just one time or place – they hold together past and future, the personal and the collective. When Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary, they didn’t choose a starred restaurant or a faraway destination. They chose Refettorio Ambrosiano: “We were celebrating the future. We had believed in an impossible dream and it had come true. We both felt we had stumbled onto something that would define the twenty years to come.” That sense of dual presence of being here and elsewhere, now and next, is what inspired our choice for this month’s ingredient: the tomato.
Native to South and Central America, the tomato has travelled the world to become a defining element of countless culinary cultures. Though considered quintessentially Italian, it is in fact a migrant fruit – one that crossed oceans, adapted, rooted itself in new lands and recipes, becoming essential without losing its origin.
When Chef Joan Roca cooked at Refettorio Ambrosiano, he brought this story to life in the form of a ‘salmorejo’: a humble Spanish tomato soup made with surplus ingredients. “The idea is a quick exercise in creative thinking by using what’s available,” he said. A reminder that what we cook, and how we share it, can connect places, people, and possibilities. Like all the best dishes, it lived in more than one place at once.
Can you be here and there?
We believe you can – when a story is shared around the table, it belongs everywhere, all at the same time.
Warm regards,
Food for Soul
