Quality, analysis, innovation and testing: the four ingredients to success. Design by Alvisi Kirimoto
Cooking is in Giulio Terrinoni’s DNA. Born in 1975, he is the chef and owner of the restaurant Per Me, in the heart of Rome. The real strength of this lovely boutique restaurant – which already boasts a Michelin star – is the team, on which Terrinoni relies greatly. A team consisting of staff members who like him love to cook, of course. It also includes two sophisticated architects, Massimo Alvisi and Junko Kirimoto, the authors of elegant design projects such as the Cantina Bulgari in the Tuscan countryside. The design proves that an unforgettable culinary experience is enhanced by the quality of the space that surrounds its guests.
The philosophy of his cuisine centres on his search for the finest raw materials, on his emphasis on wild-caught seafood and a culinary approach based on espresso everyday cooking.
Of course Terrinoni has worked on a team since the very beginning, his first job n his family’s restaurant. A graduate of the Istituto Alberghiero in Fiuggi, since then he has gathered a crescendo of professional experiences at the highest level: he worked at the Sheraton Hotel in Rome, at the Grand Hotel Palazzo della Fonte and at the Ristorante La Torre with chef Antonio Ciminelli, both in Fiuggi. At that point he was appointed Executive Chef at the Ristorante Panda in Rome. At the Acquolino Hostaria, a Roman seafood restaurant where Giulio took over the kitchen and the team in the dining room, he won his first Michelin Star. Until, a few years later, Terrinoni felt the need and the desire to open his own restaurant: Per Me, a professional summary of the chef’s culinary and life experiences. The philosophy of his cuisine centres on the search for the finest raw materials, on his emphasis on wild-caught seafood and a culinary approach based on espresso everyday cooking.
The menu also features meat dishes, and so, for example, along with the Seafood Carbonara, the Monkfish Tripe and the Fagottini in fish soup we also find Cappellacci with guinea hen, cesanese butter, vegetables, smoked sheep cheese, Five-flavour squab, the Rabbit on the spit, collard greens, black truffle, to name just a few of the dishes on the menu.
Pantografo asked Terrinoni about the key to his business success: «The business model we built our company on, he explains, can be summarized in four ingredients. Quality: the choice of the finest raw materials, the best personnel and the best consultants. Analysis: assessment of the strong and weak points. Innovation: developing new ideas, creating new ways of enjoying food, in a few words, to amaze the customer. Testing: constantly testing the degree of satisfaction with customers and friends to reduce the risks in our offer».
Terrinoni also writes (he wrote L’importanza del Riccio, n autobiographical book published by Iacobelli Editore), he teaches at the most prestigious Italian schools, and he has worked as a consultant in Rome, Moscow and New York.
Recently, as requested by his loyal customers, he began the project Per me dove vuoi, conceived to allow anyone who wishes to, to have the chef and the staff of Per me cater anywhere, even in their own homes.
The culinary experience is complemented by the aesthetic experience: Alvisi Kirimoto designed the project to expand the restaurant, made possible by the purchase of another section of store window on the street. In addition to the conquest of the third arch, behind which there is now a dining room seating 12 to 16 guests, the project also included the renovation of the entrance area and the replacement of the windows of the façade. The project retrieves the material qualities and warm and natural tones of the existing part: white walls, solid wengè wood flooring, wood ceiling with open beams, brought back to light by removing the suspended ceiling. Wengè wood boiserie on the wall matches the flooring, and runs at a height of 90cm along the long sides of the rectangular room: beside it side are tables with a black paperstone top on a painted metal base.
A site-specific work by Junko Kirimoto against the back wall lends the space a poetic atmosphere: a bright source composed of a group of sphere-shaped elements folded and anchored to different points and among themselves, at different distances from the wall, creates a dynamic effect by virtue of the light, the shadows and the reflections cast on the wall. . «Just like Giulio Terrinoni works on the strength and aesthetics of the ingredients, enhancing them and giving them new life through his creative process, in the same way, explains Junko Kirimoto, co-founder of the studio, I imagined light as the raw material to spark emotions. The work is an explosion of small luminous disks that shape the space, abstract and dynamic, and project the room into a different dimension. Conceived to tickle the curiosity of the guests, our creation weaves a pattern of visual references to the dishes of the chef. The culinary experience is enhanced by the wonder of standing before a deconstructed wall, with strong material qualities and in constant evolution».
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translation by Olga Barmine
