The atmosphere of Dolce & Salato, Elizabeth Martelli’s restaurant is intimate and very comfortable with its walls decorated with paintings. On the hall table there’s a display of antique home made pasta presses.
Elizabeth has been running the restaurant for 20 years. These days she is helped by her son Massimo, who is in charge of the cellar, with over 700 labels, and an enoteca close to the restaurant called “Benéssum” which organizes musical events, wine tastings, olive oil and cheese and wine courses, particularly those which involve dough and a rolling pin.
The menu of Dolce e Salato is mainly based on hand made pasta, all rolled using a rolling pin, not a machine. There are about forty different types, stuffed with herbs, vegetables, cheese and fruit. Of course the menu is not limited to this feast of pasta, but beautiful Elizabetta’s vitality and enthusiasm shines through them.
Q: How did you get interested in cooking? Elizabeth: Practically since I was born. My grandparents had a restaurant in Bologna and I was always busy in the kitchen. I was already rolling out pasta dough at the age of three.
Q: What path did you follow, the classic hotel school? Elizabeth:No, after high school I worked in an electronics company, then I opened a bookstore. But I followed my true vocations and in 1985 I found a restaurant in San Pietro in Casale called Ercolino, which I converted and reopened as Dolce & Salato. My training was in the kitchens of the Church Bells restaurant run by Nonna Ines; the artistic and creative Gianfranco Vissani helped me to be more professional.
Q: From where do you get your creativity?
Elizabeth: From nature, everything is beautiful, alive, true and authentic, the pleasure of discovering new tastes, the curiosity and the daily challenge
Q: What do you want to convey with your dishes?
Elizabeth: Myself. I think cooking as a form of communication is very important, hence the responsibility to convey serenity, pleasure and love. So I think that a chef must work at the stove when it is peaceful and she should work in optimal conditions to be able to transmit only positive energy with the dishes she prepares.
Q: Do you find it difficult to get respect in a nearly all-male world? Elizabeth: I find that women everywhere find it harder than men to get out of mediocrity. We spend more energy and we must be very brave. True success for me, however, is all the people who consider my cooking to be fantastic.
Q: Do you have dreams? Elizabeth: I’ve always had a dream to be a farmer. The present one is able to transfer all the knowledge that I’ve gained over the years to people who love food. To this end my son Massimo and I started a school of food and wine, called “Benéssum” (I am also a sommelier, technical taster of olive oil, pasta and even naturopath teacher). The biggest dream is to bring the culture of Italian food outside Italy. Soon I will start pasta courses in Brussels at a famous cooking school there.
Elizabetta has co-authored a book on herbs, see:
http://www.minervaedizioni.com/SchedaProdotto.aspx?oid=e65f0cc8-040b-4eb9-9716-9bb480836581
Restaurant
Dolce & Salato,
Piazza Luigi Calori, 16
40018 San Pietro in Casale Bologna,
Telephone: +39 051 818090
Website http://www.dolcesalato.org (doesn’t work though)
Women Chefs 