TASTE & FLAVOURS

Giacomo Bulleri was born in Collodi, surrounded by the Tuscan countryside, in 1925, but only during the war, in Turin, he began to learn how to cook in a restaurant kitchen. In 1956, he arrived in Milan and only two years later he opened the historic Trattoria da Giacomo in Via Donizzetti, a simple trattoria serving the typical Tuscan dishes of his childhood, like ribolitta, acquacotta and pappa al pomodoro. Located near the courthouses and a conservatory, it attracted a lunchtime clientele of lawyers, musicians and titans of the Italian industry. The restaurant was also near the studio and home of Renzo Mongiardino, revered architect, who had lunch there every single day. When, in 1989, Bulleri was forced to move because the building that housed the restaurant was sold, Mongiardino proposed to Bulleri that if he stayed in the neighborhood, he would design the space for free. The restaurant that Mongiardino made for Bulleri turned out to be a place in which elements of the past and present harmoniously intertwine to project the atmosphere of trattoria where nothing feels dated, but time has stopped in the early 1900s. During the years Giacomo Bulleri’s received so much appreciation that his brand has steadily increased its range, and, on top of a trio of restaurants, he opened a cafe, a pastry shop, a tobacco shop and a carryout lunch spot. In each one of these locations the trademark timeless atmosphere has been uniquely reinterpreted, not only by Renzo Mongiardino, but also by his disciples Roberto Peregalli and Laura Sartori Rimini.