Chef Roberto Rota – in short Chef Roberto was the innovative driving force and the good soul of the VERO kitchen, the Trattoria & Wine Bar at the Pullman Arcadia Phuket. Here you can not only enjoy excellent food – from time to time very special events take place here. The portfolio of VERO’s cuisine ranges from down-to-earth mamma cuisine to Italian haute cuisine and the most delicious representatives of Mediterranean flavours in general.

The pizza that Chef Roberto offered at VERO was unparalleled – I haven’t often had a pizza prepared as well even in Italy, and you have to be a professional to do this with the oven there. Furthermore, all the pasta dishes are incomparably good – it really makes a difference whether you grew up with Italian pasta or not…and Chef Roberto always had a few recipes from his “grandmother” in the back of his mind.

Chef Roberto was working hand in hand with his team, he trusts his people and they trust him – that’s how it should be. He encouraged and challenged in a way that his colleagues appreciate – nobody here has to worry if something doesn’t work out the first time. “Try makes smart” could be a credo of the chef.

It was important to Roberto that his employees are always open to new things – “The proof of the pudding is in the eating” and so VERO has a lot of tasting before new compositions are served on the plates of the guests.

Chef Roberto had attached particular importance to teaching his team how important – especially the health-promoting properties of each ingredient, each aroma is retained despite cooking. In this way a good and culinary high-quality meal should ideally also always remain a healthy meal at the same time.

As always on Meet the Chef, I naturally jumped at the chance to ask Roberto a few questions about his career and his love of cooking.

It was fantastic that Chef Roberto immediately took the time to cook with the Italian black garlic that I brought him. Beside the Spanish garlic the best and a speciality from Roberto’s home country – that was a double incentive.

[Erik]: Roberto, when did your love of cooking begin?

[Roberto]: As many Italians would say:  “since I was a kid”, when cooking and eating was a family moment, or when let’s say Grab and go food was a desperate solution only.

I started to be curious about cooking when I was a young boy in charge of my household duty to go downstairs to pick up veggies, porcini mushrooms to be eaten raw in a salad or  “mazze di tamburo” mushrooms with eggs and polenta flour pan fried with tons of butter, salt, rosemary and  sage paste…mmmh, what was the question?

[Erik]: Who inspired you?

[Roberto]: Everyone was and still is able to shake my gut with happiness and some knowledge, in terms of food, hospitality and all related with nutrition. Mostly never a brand or a trend, but people, real people.

[Erik]: Where and how long were you trained?

[Roberto]: Certainly not enough, starting from school to now, every experience has been teaching me something new. One of the things that I’ve learned is that, despite trends which tend to summarize all our tastes, everyone, no matter where, needs and craves certain things. It is all about a synergy with our surroundings.

[Erik]: What are your favourite dishes (starter, main course and dessert)?

[Roberto]: Surely sharing starters with multiple tastes and textures, spiced and juicy main courses with fruit and not too sweet-not too cheap hand-made desserts.

[Erik]: What are your goals for the future?

[Roberto]: Keep developing my ongoing food and nutrition projects, achieve synergy with nature, stay away from food from big chain multinational food companies that do not bring about a sustainable future.

[Erik]: When you will get your first Michelin star?

[Roberto]: “Stars are in the sky” a friend and chef told me 6 years ago, in front of a plate of beetroot spaghetti with abundant curly grated pecorino and a delicate garlic cream.

I would like us to have a little jam-cooking session at our next meeting – I can imagine some new dishes being created that are suitable for more than just one evening – until then all the best and thanks Roberto!