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FOREFATHERS – His paternal grandfather, Edoardo Raspelli senior, was lieutenant in the Royal Carabinieri corps; his great uncle was referred to as "the highest ranking magistrate in the Empire"; another, name of Bonelli, was six times captain regent of San Marino.
HIS FATHER – Giuseppe, an executive working at the Ospedale Maggiore di Milano, as well as a freelance journalist and national secretary of the hospital workers union (Single Union during the Fascist period, later CISL). A fascist "black shirt" who nevertheless harboured Rachele Bethman, an elderly jewish woman.
HIS FATHER AND THE SMELLS – Giuseppe, Edoardo's father, couldn't stand dozens of smells and aromas, namely garlic, onion, parsley, basil, tomato, fennel, olive oil or savoury butter, cloves and cinnamon…Edoardo, together with his mum and little brother occasionally took sanctuary in the villa of auntie Fania Besana, at Gargnano on Lake Garda. She was an accomplished cook and turned her villa into a charming hotel - restaurant.
AUNT FANIA AND UNCLE SECONDO – Fania Besana, his aunt from the mother's side, who was left a widow by the death of a famous architect, converted his villa in Gragnano into a classy hotel - restaurant on Lake Garda. She then remarried to Secondo Bozzoni, his maitre d'hotel. It was there that Edoardo first had a taste of water buffalo mozzarella, the local extra virgin olive oil, Barolo and a number of French Chateaux.
RASPELLI AND MATHAUSEN – When he was a child Edoardo Raspelli was so skinny that he was nicknamed Mathausen, after the infamous Nazi concentration camp (now after countless diets and a heart attack he has reduced his weight from 104 to 105 kilos)
THE FIRST DISH IS HARD TO FORGET – As a respectable member of the middle - class (his mother a housewife, his father a hospital officer) on a Sunday the then child Edoardo Raspelli went with his brother and his parents to Di Gennaro, a pizzeria located in Via Agnello, in Milan. His childhood dishes were Neapolitan pizza and Roman - style gnocchi (i.e. with semolina flour).
THE FIRST DISH IS HARD TO FORGET – Giuseppe, his father, while getting home from work, loved to take long walks in the outskirts of Milan where they lived, between the Città Studi and Ortica. Along the railway roadbed, at the end of Via Amadeo, he picked up spring herbs, being particularly fond of the traveller's joy (Evergreen Clematis), which came in useful as a seasoning for omelettes.
THE FIRST GLASS OF WINE – Friulian forefathers (from Mortegliano, Colloredo di Monte Albano) and Giuseppe, his father, from Modena. He had his son drink his first glass of wine, Lambrusco Amabile diluted with water.
ORTICA – Edoardo Raspelli used to live in Via Amadeo, between the between Ortica and the Città Studi. He watched, enraptured, a film crew shooting "Rocco and his brothers" around the council houses located in front of his residence. A short walk from his house, the evacuees' lodges were chosen as the backdrop of "Miracle in Milan" in Via Argonne.
FIRST CRUSHES – Manuela, which he first met when he was in his second year of lower secondary school at the Collegio Villa Palmizi in Bordighera. His avowal of love ? A colourful pill box wrapped in a billet doux which he ventured to fling past the fence of the girl's house, located in Via Romana. No answer.
FIRST CRUSHES – Orietta, from Codroipo in Friuli, which he first met during a Christmas ski holiday at the Aprica pass, during his third year at the lower secondary school. His avowal of love ? A lover's signature on a scrap of newspaper, jealously preserved up to now. No avail.
SEASIDE OR MOUNTAINSIDE – His childhood holidays were spent at the seaside (Miramare di Rimini, Pesaro) and, in september, on Lake Garda at the small hotel of his aunt in Gargnano. Over the years, with age, he has opted for the mountainside in Lombardy, Cevo, Pontagna di Ponte di Legno, Ballabio, Lanzo d' Intelvi, and then for 25 years in Pievepelago (Modena). In 1987 he has rented a house in the Ossola area, in the Antigorio Valley, at Mozzio di Crodo "90 residents, a few cows, two seasonal hotels .That's all: a real treat".
PIEVEPELAGO – Strange as it may seem, Raspelli used to patronize form 1961 to 1967 the Tennis Federation Summer centre in Pievepelago (Modena) together with Adriano Panatta. His trainer, the legendary Simon Giordano, once said that Edoardo Raspelli reminded him of king Edward, the eponymous English saint, that is one who run like the statue located at the gate of the French city, slim but motionless.
PRESS CONFERENCE BUFFETS – In Raspelli asked his father the invitations to press conferences. He took some notes, scribbled or pretended to do so and tucked in the buffet with zest. His all - time favourites, smoked salmon and the canapès with jelly on top.
EATING OUT WITH CLARA – Edoardo Raspelli married Clara Cortemiglia on june 30th 1979, yet they have been together since December 11th 1971. He used to take her to a restaurant every evening. One of their favourite romantic haunts was Tout Paris in Sala Comacina, located on Lake Como. The menu included saumon fumè, diablotins à la normande, truite aux amandes, gigot d' agneau…
STARTING FROM…SOCCER – Using Piacenza's Libertà press card, a local newspaper in which his father didn't miss a single AC Milan and match and occasionally sneaked inside changing rooms
HITCH - HIKING TO PARIS – When he was 16 he hitch - hiked from Milan to Paris. He lodged at the youth hostel near Port d'Italie for ten days. He squandered all the weekly pocket money he had been saving up at the legendary Lasserre restaurant in Champs Elysèes and the following evening he went straight to the most celebrated Tour d'Argent. The bill was worth 29, 000 liras and 33, 000 respectively, add 30 - 40 times more for the same bill these days.
BUDDING (CRIME) REPORTER – Hired by Giovanni Spadolini on july 26th 1971 when he was 22, Edoardo Raspelli started as editorial intern at the Corriere d'Informazione. The very same day of work his first crime report was about the killing of a universitry student, Simonetta Ferrero, apparently stabbed with 33 blows and found dead in the toilets of the Università Cattolica, Faculty of Political Sciences. The faculty's dean was Gianfranco Miglio, who was later to become the Northern League "ideologist". On may 17th 1972 Raspelli was the first reporter to reach Via Cherubini where police commissioner Luigi Calabrese was killed by left - wing fundamentalists.
FACCINO NERO 1 – Cesare Lanza, director of Corriere d'Informazione, talked him into covering gastronomy and restaurants "Go there, eat, pay the bill and we'll get you a refund, but I want you to cover bad restaurants too, mind! Those where you get dreadful service and the grub is even worst !". Faccino nero, a box marked by black a frowning face, expressing disgust, entirely focused on the worst restaurant of the week.
FACCINO NERO 2– There were not too many fans of the Corriere's Faccino Nero, the brainchild of Edoardo Raspelli, devoted to the abysmal restaurant of the week. Once a patron or a hostess of a Milanese restaurant laid a funeral wreath at his doorstep with a message "To our dearest Edoardo". Raspelli replied on the Corriere's title page "I would like to thank the person who laid the funeral wreath and yet I can encourage him/her, his cuisine is indeed stinking, yet not lethal".
TOBAGI'S LETTER – During a trade union assembly at the Corriere della Sera headquarters, while Raseplli was complaining about pushes and pressure from the editorial staff for his unfavourable criticisms and columns on restaurants, journalist unionist Walter Tobagi, one of his schoolmates at the Liceo Parini, wrote on a scrap of paper "Edoardo Raspelli, sole representative of democratic gastronomy"
HIS FAVOURITE MOVIE – "Who's killing the great chefs of Europe ?" (1978) feat. Jacqueline Bisset, Philippe Noiret and Robert Morley. The chefs were found dead, killed in the same manner that their own special dish is prepared in, Cipriani drowned in the lobster tank, Claude Terrail from the Tour d'Argent with his head smashed into a presse à canard
A SECRET DREAM – Playing the role of Robert Morley in the remake of "Who's killing the great chefs of Europe ?", the food critic and gourmet who stands accused of killing the great chefs so as not to die himself after many an excess of gourmandise
SIMONA RASPELLI – The first time Edoardo Raspelli took his first - born Simona (summa cum laude graduate at the Università Cattolica di Milano, today psychologist and PhD student at Bicocca ) to a restaurant, she was only ten months old. She ate flan of porcini mushrooms served with a goose foie gras sauce at restaurant San Domenico in Imola.
MATTEO RASPELLI – second - born of Edoardo Raspelli, Matteo, majoring in Automation Engineering at the Milan Polytechnic, as a child hated going to the restaurant with his parents "I'm not coming, if I change my mind then you'll have to stay for a quick eat, you won't be having the sampling menu…it's such a waste of time. If you want me to join you, then you'll have to pay me"
OBNOXIOUS DEODORANT – If there's one thing that Raspelli hates most it's those electric air fresheners emanating overpowering artificial flavours. He can't stand them in a restaurant salon as well as in the lavatories, "that you plug into an outlet
FUMES AND PERFUMES – Edoardo Raspelli detests those air fresheners that you plug into an outlet, smoke, or overwhelming perfumes worn by customers, waiters, staff or even scents emanating by some flowers, no matter how beautiful they might be.
THE DISH HE LIKES MOST – He loves salami, matured cheeses, all sorts of shellfish, biggish prawns (cooked or uncooked), the "cassoeula", the "bottaggio", stew of any cut of pork served with Savoy cabbage.
THE WINE HE LIKES MOST – He loves great barrique matured white wines which prove an ideal match with starters and light meats. Then just a sip of red wine. He doesn't like sweet wines. He prefers an excellent red wine paired with cheeses and drinks water or a high - proof berverage with desserts
THE HIGH - PROOF BEVERAGE HE LIKES MOST – At home he drinks only no gas mineral water; he likes ending a meal with a high - proof beverage at the restaurant. Whisky is his ideal high - proof beverage. He doesn't pay much attention to its territory or provenance, provided that it is properly aged and firmly - structured.
THE DISH HE HATES MOST – He hates tomatoes au gratin (since they remind him of those tacky boarding houses he went to as a child when holidaying at seaside resorts), beet, grilled veal liver.
OBNOXIOUS WATER – He adores water and drinks it in much liberal quantities. Particularly mineral water with a Ph balanced to 8.0, the ideal remedy against uric acid. He hates filtered water, often served by many restaurants and passed off as mineral water.
HIS WEIGHT – In 1988 Raspelli embarked on a number of diet programs. He weighted 100 kilos and went down to 88. Before his art attack (9 october 2002) he reached his record - high with 119, 5 kilos, and then lost 20. These days his weight varies between 106 and 116 kilos.
SHOWER AND TUB – Raspelli is a Milanese, he considers himself as a practical and pragmatic person, hates wasting time and wallowing in the tub. He delights in long, slow showering but detests those small shower cubicles you find in some hotels, even deluxe ones.
PETS 1 – The first pet he had when he was a child was a sparrow his father found out on the stove of his office at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan.
PETS 2 – Edoardo Raspelli and wife Clara were at the seaside with their sons to celebrate their anniversary with two empty bottles of Baron de L. when the restaurateur broke in "I've got such cute new - born kittens, lads" he said, looking knowingly at the Raspelli's offspring… "that's how a Chartreux female cat first crossed the threshold of the Raspelli household, she was named Lisca (fishbone)…, fishbone…that's what's left on a plate when the Raspellis have had their way".
PETS 3 – Lisca, the Chartreux cat, died when she was 11; Gandalf (a cross breed between a Siamese tomcat and a don't know female), 2 years old, was run over by a car in Mozzio di Crodo. At present the food critic of Melaverde has Spicchio, a Siamese, Parsifal, a European shorthair, white and black, and Semola, white and brown - spotted, who came when Gandalf died.
CARS – Edoardo Raspelli took driving lessons on a FIAT 850 in 1967. Then he drove a white FIAT 1100 R and his mother's FIAT 124. His first car was a green Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300, bought second - hand, followed by an Alfetta 1600, Alfa Romeo 75 Twin Sparks, Alfa 164, Lancia Dedra (four - wheel), Lancia K, FIAT Stilo JTD Dynamic.
Audi is the carmaker that sponsors the TV programme Melaverde putting at his disposal an A6 Avant 3000.
CLOTHES – Edoardo Raspelli wears his own clothes, he buys them in a shop just around the corner, in Bresso, or directly from Renco Grandi Taglie, a boutique specialising in outsized clothes, located in Corso Venezia (Milan), . When Raspelli presents Melaverde, he wears Beretta Sport clothes (Gardone Val Trompia, province of Brescia).
HOBBIES – Gide, Peyreffite, Mauriac, Hesse, Cassola…when, out of the blue, in the Liceo years he started to read only newspaper and dailies. He never fails to perform his daily ritual, the same that he used to practice when he was a crime reporter, which consists in following closely a tight schedule of newspaper reading, first dailies in the order of Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, La Repubblica, Libero, Il Giornale, L'Unità, La Padania, Il Giorno…then weekly supplements follow suit in the order of Venerdì di Repubblica, Magazine del Corriere della Sera, Panorama, L'Espresso and some TV paper like TV Sorrisi e Canzoni, Onda TV, Famiglia Cristiana…On a daily basis he browse the gossip columns of "Dagospia". He occasionally reads gastronomy special issues. When he is away, he never fails to read local newspapers. He loves crosswords and sudoku ("only the easy one, it must be a pastime not something to rack your brains for").
TV IN SMALL DOSES – Raspelli does watch TV, but sparingly. He watches repeats of Melaverde ("It is essential that you can see all your mistakes and understand how to improve…") and monitors Linea Verde, his rival programme. Looks for the recipes of Gianfranco Vissani... he never misses the TG3 headlines (the 7 p.m. news), and sometimes delights in watching "Blob", which he utterly adores, "Striscia la notizia", "Paperissima", or his past TV "memories", notably the programmes conducted by Piero Chiambretti, Fabio Fazio, Enza Sampò, Simona Marchini…
THEATRE – Edoardo Raspelli was a regular theatre - goer in his teens. Great actors like Gianni Santuccio, Tino Buazzelli and Salvo Randone have stayed in his memory as well as their classic pieces. Among his favourites are Gilberto Govi, the so - called early "Legnanesi", and Piero Mazzarella's vernacular theatre. He'll never forget the first time he saw a comic piece, " Renato '61 ", featuring Renato Rascel, he was only 12.
SONGS – Edoardo Raspelli has always been a music lover, particularly "the music my mum grew up listening to, she was born in 1920 and she was in her twenties in 1940", Signorinella Pallida, Lili Marlene, Mario Lanza, Silvio Gigli… He remembers wistfully Gianni Morandi, Il Dio Serpente, Lucio Battisti... He adores De Andrè, Luigi Tenco, the first Jannacci (Ti te se no; Quella cosa in Lombardia…), Bruno Lauzi.
THE IDEAL RESTAURANT – Must be small, romantic but not pandering to your personal taste, family - run, with a menu based on Terra ("Land"), Tradizione ("Traditions") and Territorio ("Terroir"), with a good yet not over - solicitous service, with an elegant feel yet also friendly and cosy.
THE IDEAL HOTEL – Classy, elegant, set in green surroundings, quiet, private and cosy, even family - run, with private areas where one is not to be noticed, not too small (he abhors B&B and the patron as well as a totally unknown guest sitting at his table…).
THE BOOK HE IS READING – On his desk a book has been lying open, largely unread, for years, it is a book handed over by his daughter Simona when she was swotting over her dissertation on optimism at the Università Cattolica di Milano. The book is "Social Phobia: From Shyness to Stage Fright" by John R. Marshall. The same fate is shared by the stage script of Piero Nicolaj's comedy, "Classe di Ferro", featuring Piero Mazzarella, Paolo Ferrari and Isa Barzizza, which he once saw at the San Babila theatre in Milan.
