Franco e Raffaella Cazzamali

Eating isn’t an ordinary action. Nor is it deciding the food to purchase.
The consumer is the last ring of this chain, which involves the feeding of animals, the interests of industrial producers and the environment. Each food choice strongly influences the production choices of others: awareness will bring up again the value of productions, according to a well defined ethics, aiming at a quality strictly defined by artisans instead of being industrially set.
In the sector of meat there have been too many scandals, which have led to a dullness in consumption.

Unfortunately, there are few butchers that can be defined as that, who respect and enhance all the meat pieces and believe in the revaluation of meat, setting new breeding parameters. This difficult task has been entrusted to the few small artisans able to balance again the destiny of meat: one of these is certainly Franco Cazzamali, linked for life to the Piedmontese breed.
Eating entrails doesn’t mean eating waste but trying the taste variations of a poor part, the animal essence, which reflects the animal feeding.
Looking for simplicity doesn’t mean easiness: simplicity implies more attention and skill, because it’s easier to make mistakes when no tricks are used.

Cazzamali has meat in his blood; he rejoices at seeing the animal alive, slaughtered and then in the dish and a unique passion comes from his eyes when he talks to chefs such as Alajmo. These chefs, ambassadors of Italian cooking, have stimulated the work of this simple though careful butcher, by reintroducing dishes which had disappeared.
Born in Antegnate, in the territory around Bergamo, at 15 he was already aware of his passion. However, passion is not enough; rigor and knowledge are needed as well as the respect for the land and agriculture, because everything comes from the land. His first great teacher was Michele Bellini, who has been teaching him slaughtering techniques for two years. However, this wasn’t enough to Franco; he wanted to learn the art of serving people. This is why he worked for two years in the shop of Mr. Aquilino Carmelo, in Cusano Milanino. In 1983, when he had just become father, he opened a butcher’s shop he still owns in Romanengo, an intermediate point between producer and consumer where the Italian artisanship can be appreciated.