MAY EDITION

When Pilar Rigo, Executive Chef and Co-founder of Mille Nonne, first arrived in the US, she was in her 20s and she was a guest of a family’s friend in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But it was only in New York City that Pilar felt her life was going to change. In the early 90s NYC was a totally different place. It was vibrant, as usual, but also more adventurous and challenging. Everything was new and no place in the world was comparable to NYC for diversity, multiculturality, sources of inspiration, music, and flavors. It was a continuous stimulus for the eyes and all senses. Pilar decided to stay after falling in love at first sight. The desire to experiment with new tastes and recipes was in her DNA and she was passionate about food and cooking since childhood. Everything started at the age of five when her mom, Giovanna, began teaching Pilar how to pick fresh ingredients at local markets in Italy. It was a magical game involving all senses: touching veggies and fruits and learning everything about their texture, scent, and colors.

FROM PILAR:

“When I got there, I had with me a notebook handwritten by my mother with all the best recipes she knew. A priceless treasure that I still keep with me. I started working in the restaurant business first as a coat-check, then as a hostess, welcoming customers upon their arrival. I thus discovered that the restaurant was an environment that I liked very much. So, with a friend, we decided to try to open one. After some time we decided to open a real restaurant, Il Bagatto, downtown in the East Village, an area very different from what it is today. It was a great success. The place was always full of people and we were very busy until late at night. It was a kind of crash course in business management. Mille Nonne, whose name wants to pay homage to our roots but also to propose a journey towards the future of cooking, is a company that is based on respect, sustainability, on the idea of always being zero waste. An approach that today seems as necessary as trendy, while it has always been in the DNA of our tradition. I realized that it was necessary to explore alternative routes and this vision opened my mind towards experimentation. From there, new recipes were born that now bear the signature of Mille Nonne, and are very popular with our customers.”