Cantarelli Restaurant – Samboseto (PR)

This is the first text about one of the “stories of my past”. I am going to talk about someone very special, Peppino e Mirella Cantarelli, and it goes out to them.

That was one of my first experiences as a Michelin inspector, when I was still young. That was in 1978 when I was living near Samboseto di Busseto. I had only to pass the bridge over the Po River to reach the Restaurant Cantarelli in a few kilometres.

When the winter came, the sun had been hiding behind a thick fog and nobody was able to touch it. The only people one would have been able to meet had always been in a hurry. Today, the winter cold is still raging on Down Po Valley, more than ever.

Yet, November is a great month for these people. One kills pigs, and families who raise pigs, ducks and chickens, are challenging in order to entrust the best butchers with this task. It is time to make cotechino(gelatinous pork sausage in a natural casing), salame, pancetta, cold cuts and the most appreciated culatello (typical flesh of the leg of adult bovin).

The fog was good for culatelli, in fact, some people held the windows of their cellar open in order to let the fog entry.

However, that was not good for me since I would have driven for long. Narrow roads, sharp turns, few road signs, I was not able to see the lines. So, reaching Cantarelli was not so simple.

But, I mean, I was used to visit that places on sunday afternoon in order to discover new inns that could have been able to cook the famous “fried cake” with cold cuts. Those were wonderful places, where, It was known one could have found kind elderly playing cards (briscola, tresette, etc.) and typical inns with home-produced cold cuts.

Mr.Peppino Cantarelli was famous for his”culatello” and a lot of people came from North Italy
to buy and taste it.

Finally, I reached the restaurant Cantarelli. It was a very modest place. It was a small house with a simple engraved sign “Cantarelli” at the entrance. That was like looking an ancient grocery’s store.

When I entered the inn, I smelled some fragrances I had never smelled before.”The culatello” is the “king” of the Down Po Valley. One could smell its fragrance expande everywhere. Indeed, the Cantarelli’s got one of the best culatello.

Peppino was a serious man who spoke like a Frenchman. I wonder if he thought me as a simple traveller who was waiting for a good meal!

Everything was simple, with a touch of graceful too. White tableclothes, very good silverware, big napkins you could have tie around your neck to avoid to get you dirty! One could smell the scent of tradition in the kitchen.

Once I had had a taste of cold cuts, I tasted “tortelloni with ricotta and herbs”, the classic “tortellino soup”, the delicious “risotto with potassium nitrate(preservative matter used for cold cuts) tongue”, “the guinea-fowl” and “zabaglione with amaretto”. At that time nobody knew anything about cholesterol and diabetes!

One of the best things of that place was the cellar. Peppino was keen on French wines (Bourdeaux, Bourgogne, etc.) and people loved his professionalism and competence.

I won’t forget these memories, ever. Notwithstanding the successors could have been able to hold the inn open, It shutted down in 1982 leaving a deep hole in Italian cuisine culture.

As a way of celebrating this historic inn, ever year I meet some friends at the same place, remembering memories of the past with Peppino’s son, Fernando Cantarelli.

Holy lands! Giuseppe Verdi composed his memorable works here, Giovannino Guareschi created his character “Don Camillo” in order to tell stories about native people… and Peppino cooked for everybody!

If you are walking through these roads, you should know that here, one of the most beautiful stories of the Italian cuisine began.
Fausto Arrighi