It was 2006 when Niccolò Vallese arrived at the Tacabanda restaurant in Asti for an internship. The director of the hotel school had asked chef Antonio to take one of their students for a few months but the last boys he had sent were too listless, one had even cut himself with a potato peeler. “Trust me, this one is good and willing,” she told him, “only, he has Down syndrome.”
Nothing mattered to Antonio as long as he had the desire to learn and a little passion for the job. That boy changed his life, today he has a regular contract at the Tacabanda and tutors other boys like him. Because at a certain point, says the chef: «Niccolò’s evolution got out of hand and we said to ourselves: let’s see what happens if we include other kids with intellectual disabilities». It so happened that an Australian director, Trevor Graham, made a film about them: Chef Antonio’s Recipes for the Revolution (an Australia-Italy co-production, Yarra Bank Films, Black Sheep Films and La Sarraz Pictures, with backing from Screen Australia and the Italian Ministry of Culture). The Italian première will be on 21 March, World Down Syndrome Day, in Turin, Milan, Rome and other cities (details on screenings at www.lasarraz.com).
“Revolution” yes, because chef Antonio changes the world by bringing people to his restaurant and to the ethical hotel that was born later: «He welcomes them into the heart of Italian hospitality», explains Trevor Graham. «Experience is not only good food but also the guys who cook it and serve it at the tables. It brings a new vision and energy that leaves its mark in the lives of customers, people with intellectual disabilities and their families, your celebrated tourist hospitality and fine cuisine become something socially useful. This is the role of documentaries, to open wide the windows on what men can do together to change things, Antonio is an inspiration».
It was a dear friend of Sydney who has a daughter with Down syndrome who spoke to Trevor about the project: «I love stories that have food at the centre, this film is the third in a trilogy: it’s a pleasant and effective way to address important social and political issues. The theme here is inclusion, bringing people together, because we all have many things in common and we all have the right to a dignified, independent and full life. The Sydney premiere was a triumph. Never have so many people written to me, even things like: “We ran to eat Italian, you made us hungry”. What more can I want? And maybe over a plate of spaghetti they thought back to the film, to Niccolò, Jessica, Irene, Nicola…». Who want to make friends, find love, dance and feel alive like all of us. Trevor traveled back and forth from Asti for three years: «I shot 80 percent of the film, the rest is the work of my Italian assistant director, Lorenzo Bombara, who also acted as my interpreter. The boys quickly got used to me, I said to them: “Pretend it’s one of the saucepans”, they didn’t even notice me anymore, I was family. What you see is all spontaneous, we only recorded some voices in the studio because the noises from the kitchen often drowned out the boys’ words».
It was 2011 when the association was created and 2015 when the first ethical hotel and the first Academy of Independence were born in Asti, an experimental path that helps young people with intellectual disabilities to grow up, become independent and develop their own potential. One of the founders is Niccolò, together with chef Antonio De Benedetto, his brother Egidio and Alex Toselli. “We were the first who didn’t come from the social world or from familiarity with people with Down syndrome,” explains Antonio. «The real innovation lies in the involvement of the family, in the pact of honor with them, we build another academy at home, the dialogue is continuous as is the sharing of responsibilities. There is a control methodology that we call a parachute to give parents peace of mind, because without their trust it cannot be done, especially without the peace of mind of mothers, we have noticed. If you don’t stabilize their fears, the cord vibrates and the child wobbles… The problem is the parents – civil society is ready – they don’t have an operating scheme and the ethical hotel offers them one, to them and to the kids”.
Antonio’s setting is very clear in the film: a family atmosphere but military rules. “He can also be very hard on the kids,” says Trevor, “he wants them to understand that it’s real work, that it’s real life and they have to work hard.” It is one of the pillars of the chef from Asti: «Someone has to give them the position of their evolution because they don’t have it, everyone tells them they are good even when they don’t know how to do anything: how does a person grow and orient himself without a map ? I am a naked and raw cook, it also happens that I lose my patience. Beware, it’s fiction that ruins guys, not the truth. They are trained to be a resource, to be decisive, and parents are trained to be work managers for their children. The right of the disabled, in the world of work, is to be able to stand tall. For this reason, the approach must be straightforward, then obviously, with them, there is a different graduality». Hence the name of the method, Download, which was born naturally. At a certain point, Antonio and his collaborators realized that something was triggering the change but what? The answer came by chance, watching Tavarelli’s film on Maria Montessori with Paola Cortellesi: «The methodology of the Children’s Home was the same that we used. In fact, the method was born in a psychiatric hospital. And who was there in those days in psychiatric hospitals? People with intellectual delays, the misunderstood. Montessori creates a method that develops in the home environment, like ours. I read Education for Freedom and I rediscover what we do in restaurants and hotels. One could almost say that we have created the House of grown children».
Three other ethical hotels are born in Italy and six academies. 70 percent of the boys who attend them are placed in the world of work. And while Trevor was shooting the film in Asti, another ethical hotel was born in Australia in the Blue Mountains. The next will be a guesthouse in Palestine right in front of the Basilica of the Nativity. For Antonio it is certainly no coincidence. «These guys are little blue helmets… Do you know what the Dictionary of Metamedicine says? That people with Down syndrome came into the world to teach not to learn, to bring harmony and peace. They are therapeutic elements, in the family and in society. I am always listening to them… Think of what that bullied girl in North Macedonia managed to do: the prime minister accompanied her to school and the whole world talked about it. Shall we bet that in a few years we will meet you again at a summit for peace in the world?».