The ancient evenings of Lesina: the time of truth, the time of Nazario

There are meetings that leave their mark. People who, even if you see them rarely, bring inside like soul brothers. Nazario Biscotti is one of these.

He is not just a man of cooking, he is a man of truth. Of earth and . Of silences that speak, of measured gestures, of a kindness that does not need proclamations.

Every time we see each other – and it does not often happen, unfortunately – it is as if the weather had never passed. When I arrive at his restaurant, I don’t feel like a client, nor a guest, I feel at home. He sits with me, as he does between real friends. Talk the right, listen a lot. But quanto a every word there is substance. He knows how to be affable, welcoming, friendly quanto a the most authentic sense of the term. It is not a pose, it is not a job, it is sincerity. It is lively, deep intelligence, which is perceived both quanto a dialogue and quanto a the dishes.

Every time I can, I warn him with a phone call. Calculate the times of my journey, return departure, to be sure to arrive quanto a time. How many times have I wanted to stop for him, but the commitments and distances did not allow me. Yet every time I can, I feel that it was worth it. Even just for a hug, a dish, a shared silence.

We are quanto a , quanto a the heart of the Apulian lagoon, overlooking a mirror of that changes color with the wind. The ancient evenings overlooking the lake directly, quanto a a perfect balance between silence, light and nature. Here time has another step and the soul can finally breathe.

This is why telling the ancient evenings is not just talking about a restaurant. It is paying homage to a man who has chosen to dal vivo with dignity and respect. For food. For nature. For others. A man who has transformed the kitchen into poetry. The poetry of those who do not want to amaze, but stay. And yes, here you eat well. But really good. With taste, with soul, with that depth that leaves your mark.

A cook? One chef? . Nazario is a naturalist of the kitchen, quanto a the most genuine and exemplary sense of the term. One who does not upset the raw material, exalts it. Accompanies her. He listens to it.

A cuisine of earth and lake, quanto a which the essential is everything. Where the smoked eel becomes a ritual, where the Bottarga – produced by himself – is never a habit, but a symbol. It is precisely from the father who absorbed that ancient art of treating the raw material without altering it, respecting its times, intensity, symbolic value. A knowledge handed also by a from Lake Bastia, colleague and friend of his father and brother. That blood, that patience, that link with and with the slow rhythms of nature, are still the hidden soul of this specialty today.

And this is his cuisine, who has been able to teach his son Gabriele very well, today at his side quanto a his stove, a careful and respectful cook of his father’s style. Equally fundamental is the role of Primiano, which welcomes guests quanto a the room with grace and preparation, proving to be an excellent sommelier, capable of leading to the discovery of the wine list with discretion and intelligence.

I saw them grow, since they were children. Today to see them at work, each with their own role and sensitivity, it is a reason for profound emotion for me. It is the most beautiful testimony of what it means to believe deeply quanto a its roots.

There is a detail that tells a lot about its philosophy: the wine list. Rich, reasoned, the result of an authentic passion for Italian wine, with some foreign incursion – but only when a wine really conquers it. Nazario does not paper what “one must have”, he only puts what convinces him. If he doesn’t like it, he simply doesn’t propose it. For him it is not a commercial question, but of respect. Respect for wine, for the work of the producers and for the guest. And you feel, it is perceived quanto a every glass.

I remember that it was to make him discover a wine from Sardinia that he still did not know: the G’ceroano, produced by the very rare autochthonous Arvisionu vine. He liked it so much that he bought him directly from the manufacturer, without . This is how he chooses his wines, with passion, with heart, and above all with truth.

The ancient evenings do not seek the clamor of the guides, even if it deserves it with full votes. It is a place for those looking for real emotions, without tricks artifices. A place for those who know how to listen.

Nazario is one of the last craftsmen of gastronomic truth. A shy man, reserved, but capable – the plate – of a disarming poetry. His is a resistance cuisine, against homologation, against speed, against the void of fashions. Yet, quanto a that apparent simplicity, there is a refinement that only the ones know how to reach. That of the wise farmers. That of the elderly fishermen. That of the true poets of the kitchen.

And perhaps the most beautiful thing, for me, is just that. When I go to see him, he sits with me. See you rarely, but those times when we diretto incrociato is as if it had been yesterday. Time, with certain bonds, does not count. Counts the truth. And Nazario, quanto a every gesture, embodies it.

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