- What inspired you to start an event food company, and how has your vision evolved over time?
It’s a profound question and certainly requires a multi-faceted answer.
First of all, without a doubt, my previous work experience and professional skills have greatly influenced me.
I worked for almost twenty years as a sales manager at Gianni Versace, exclusively managing the home collection sector, where I had the privilege of learning from great masters of aesthetics and attention to detail down to the finest points.
I also had other very enriching professional experiences, I worked for a renowned Italian architect and designer, a multiple “Compasso d’Oro” winner, and over the years I developed a very personal aesthetic vision, with a vast mental photographic archive, a true “metissage” between fashion and design.
For a long time I also helped myself by relying on a visual archive on my computer.
This was complemented by a great culinary passion, both familiar and gastronomic, driven purely by curiosity and probably by our DNA as Italians.
It is certainly a characteristic that unites us all, from north to south.
Therefore, from an early age, I had the opportunity to travel with my family and taste and try new things.
From Italian haute cuisine and foreigners to the simplest street trattoria, from my grandmother to my parents, I had this opportunity, which has enriched me personally over the years.
As a result, I also dedicated my free time to pursuing courses in Italian haute cuisine at the prestigious Cordon Bleu Society, settled also in Milan and at the Italian Sommelier Association.
Therefore, my inspiration has multiple professional and familiar roots, and having experienced the catering world from the opposite side of the barrier—on the client’s side, in the luxury brand and fashion industry—I also had the opportunity to refine what were market and marketing possibilities related to my city, Milan, where I live.
Furthermore, on a personal level, I find that an event itself—especially one that includes a catering service—holds a strong experiential emotion.
It offers the opportunity to create, with truly limitless imagination and creativity, unique experiences for guests, fully engaging all the senses.
This speed, this sense of uniqueness, and this creativity solely dedicated to an event, to a specific aesthetic and set of values, is so fleeting and fast in itself that it can create a magical effect—a surprising, always different impact.
What inspires me is certainly the possibility of quick change, of adapting to the aesthetic of Intermezzo Catering&Events and the client’s request.
This discontinuity in our menus and aesthetics is the most conceptually interesting challenge, even when it comes to food, and aesthetically the most engaging challenge.
So, if it has a “wow” effect for us from the moment of the request and first contact with the client, it will certainly also have that effect during the event for the guests.
This is a world that is very much connected to the aesthetics of cinema, which is why I named our company “Intermezzo.”
It is a constant challenge of creativity, of very specific skills, and of deepening culinary techniques, especially haute cuisine, which is the background of our entire kitchen team.
With the new technologies available, it also involves finishing touches for finger food or highly specialized dishes.
- If your food presentations were a work of art, would they be more like a bold abstract painting or a classic Renaissance piece? How do you balance creativity and tradition?
It is very difficult to answer this question because our presentations can correspond to both a masterpiece of art and a masterpiece that evokes an abstract effect of contemporary art or a painting from the Renaissance.
Certainly, there is a great deal of research and a significant amount of synthesis involved in the skills that Intermezzo Catering&Events can offer, as it is part of a broader culture that undoubtedly stems from personal studies and a deep capacity for research and synthesis of that research. Our presentations primarily align with a brand, but in order to do so, they require a depth of cultural understanding that spans across creativity and draws from everything related to art, literature, history, the visual arts and same language.
My reasoning, my process of mediation between the great tradition of Italian cuisine and creativity, is a very complex balance, even mentally and personally, because it involves many areas of one’s professional expertise. However, I am undoubtedly very fortunate, as Italian cuisine is, without a doubt, the best in the world for its variety, regionality, and preservation of its seasonal sustainability culture.
Therefore, from this great tradition, my work is a mental synthesis. That’s why I always say that my approach to food, to a menu, or to the creation of a finger food is certainly conceptual creativity.
It’s conceptual because it starts from a deep knowledge of the Italian culinary and gastronomic tradition, in order to become a small bite-size, whether savory or sweet, that corresponds to an image. It’s not my image but an image that is exclusively coordinated with the client, the brand, the collection, or whatever needs to be represented at that moment.
- In your experience, what food trends are most popular at events right now, and how do you incorporate them into your offerings?
At this moment, as far as food trends for events are concerned, specifically for our company, we are seeing very different requests from the market.
We receive requests for both “Demure” quiet luxury and “Brat” glamour styles, aesthetically speaking.
We get requests for catering services that include either tray-passed, buffet, or plated dinner, where the minimalist effect is predominant, as well as requests for the “more is more” effect—rich and aesthetically redundant.
So, we are dealing with quite opposing requests.
In my opinion, there isn’t a specific food trend that defines a single theme at the moment, except that Intermezzo Catering&Events operates through its own filter.
In both cases, we apply our unique style of filtering and synthesis.
What matters to us is that our filtering and synthesis style is somehow recognizable, even though it doesn’t belong to us but rather to the brand we are representing at that moment for the catering service we are providing.
- Italy is known for both its exquisite fashion and art. How do you incorporate the elegance and craftsmanship of Italian design into your food presentations?
Certainly, the concept of visual elegance and aesthetics, combined with savoir-faire, the exceptional craftsmanship of Italian manufacturing, is all synthesized into a design that encompasses not only aesthetics but also flavors, tastes, and the diverse regions of Italy.
This is presented in a very personal way, in the sense that it is a talent with which I was born and have been grappling since I was a child. It is a creative talent that has guided me in my studies and professional journey, leading me to envision a very precise aesthetic that is meticulously detailed and even obsessive in its attention to detail, and that is in continuous evolution. From my very personal perspective, everything that Intermezzo does as catering services will never fully match what I already envision creating and tackling.
It is certainly a challenge primarily directed at myself, which is very engaging and, from a certain viewpoint, quite stressful, but it possesses an adrenaline-inducing quality, a challenge, and a connection with the experiences of others that is truly captivating.
- Just like a designer's signature piece, what’s your signature dish or food presentation that sets your catering company apart?
I can answer this question immediately. There is no single dish that can correspond to our synthesis of design because, from my perspective, it will always be the next event for Intermezzo Catering&Events, the next menu for Intermezzo Catering&Events, the next finger food for Intermezzo Catering&Events.
Therefore, I cannot respond to such a defined current trend, as our signature dish or food presentation will always be the next challenge to tackle with the same passion that distinguishes us.
- If you were to compare your food presentations to a fashion era (e.g., vintage, modern, futuristic), which era would best describe your style?
Certainly, all these fashion eras—yet none of them—reflect our contemporary reality.
Aesthetically, we draw from influences like modern vintage and futuristic elements, which truly describe our contemporaneity.
We are effective in carrying forward aesthetic solutions that can be complex in terms of cooking techniques. Everything created as a sketch or idea is then transformed into a dish with fine dining plating, whether it’s a finger food or a sweet or savory item.
Undoubtedly, it is this contemporary essence that connects us more than anything else to our aesthetic.
- In fashion and art, colour is key. How do you use colour in your food and presentations to create visually striking, artistic displays?
Color is a fundamental part of Italian cuisine. Starting from this great concept, I have built a company in a country that has the highest expressive culinary and enogastronomic culture in the world, which is undoubtedly a great advantage.
Color is seasonal in Italy and is exclusively tied to a discussion of high-quality ingredients that are linked to very specific regions.
Thus, the seasons and nature are the true forces that act on Italian ingredients and create the wonderful colors with which we simply create our cuisine.
From my perspective, color serves primarily to create volume from the natural ingredient. Assuming that ingredients already possess this wonderful natural value, it is applicable and implementable to shape; for me, everything with volume is a shape that is born first as color.
Certainly, it is the color that defines the shape of a finger food. Therefore, the choice of the ingredient that creates the color and subsequently creates the volume is strictly delegated.
- If your company could collaborate with a famous fashion designer or artist, who would it be, and how would that influence your culinary creations?
We have two artists and one fashion designer those who we would love to cooperate!
We would certainly love to collaborate with Andrés Reisinger, the Argentinian artist who creates installations using artificial intelligence, producing these visual but also very emotional and sensory suggestions with colorful drapery, immersed in contemporary life today, covering entire cities. It is somewhat an artistic decontextualization work that started long ago, from the times of Christo and Jean-Claude, which we both admire greatly, and which closely ties into catering services.
It has a moment, a venue, and a setup that creates sensory and emotional experiences.
The second artist I would love to collaborate with is Esmeralda Devlin, a British set designer who creates unique spatial arquitectonic suggestions and sensory experiences that go beyond the era of Yayoi Kusama. I find her work to be very contemporary and unique, a monumental performative sculpture that involved all the senses and biodiversity.
The fashion designer we would love to collaborate with is actually M. Pierre-Alexis Dumas the Creative Director of the Maison Hermès, renowned for its exceptional savoir-faire and top-tier craftsmanship, embodying the highest concept of luxury.
Luxury in a 360-degree sense, both as an experience that engages all the senses, and as a lived, real luxury in people’s lives. This would be a wonderful challenge and collaboration for us.
- Fashion shows in Milan are a feast for the eyes. How do you create a similar visual ‘runway’ effect with your food displays at events?
It is important to keep in mind that requests for collaborations with major brands begin months before the event date.
Therefore, when Intermezzo is involved in collaborations for events like Milan Fashion Week, the collaborations and planning start many months in advance.
This entails a significant amount of work involving design, drawings, renderings, creation of food displays, and setups for events that eventually lead to the final solution.
We typically require at least 15 days of internal design and discussion before presenting on a PowerPoint what we believe to be the best aesthetic synthesis and experiential connection with the client to the brand team we are collaborating with.
- Both art galleries and fashion shows are about creating memorable experiences. How do you create an immersive experience for guests, blending visual art and culinary art at events?
It is a tremendous team effort. This allows us to create memorable experiences. However, it is an immersive, experiential creation process that involves many people.
It certainly includes the briefing from the client, but it also involves the production company, which is a crucial step in the close collaboration with the catering company, as we share the same aesthetic and experiential objectives in two seemingly different fields that are, in fact, very interconnected.
Therefore, there are numerous meetings in the practical activities, and many initial proposals that are eventually synthesized into one effective solution.
This requires a great deal of patience, collaboration, and the ability to work with diverse teams that may have very different internal and professional processes from our own.
This is a strong mental challenge that our entire team has always embraced in a truly proactive manner.
Through these collaborations and daily discussions, we learn a great deal and continually enhance our professional ability to manage logistics, which is the fundamental aspect that implements everything creative we have designed. Our intern logistic team enables us to always look ahead, always to the next event, and always to the next experience to create.
All this tremendous team effort, which exists for months, including hours, Saturdays, and Sundays, and often goes unseen, actually simplifies a very complex professional approach to catering services.
This involves very specific professional entities with diverse skills that must, in some way, create visual harmony and sensory harmony.
Approaching our work professionally with this attitude is, in fact, something much deeper. It reflects the connection between all visual arts and represents a significant expression in the world of cinema for me.
This is why Intermezzo collaborates and constantly seeks new partnerships with production companies, both Italian and international. It is the realm that is closest to the world of cinema, which has always been a great source of inspiration for me and “Buona la Prima!” – “One take and Action !”
As I mentioned, Intermezzo, the name I chose for my company, derives from a famous 1936 film by Selznick in which Ingrid Bergman, the legendary Oscar-winning actress renowned worldwide, played the main character for the first time.
There is a pivotal scene in this film that takes place in a restaurant, where everything—the venue, the table setup—evokes a sense of déjà vu, a magic emotion with a beginning and an end. It is an emotional dream and visual experience that has a start and a finish. This, in my opinion, is the allure of cinema, as well as the appeal of all societies and visual arts, including ours, which is very real and concrete in providing catering services, yet connects all these worlds in a truly powerful and magical way.