“It's a great joy, I wanted to share it with all my friends. They were very happy,” says Eleonora, who had to wait until the end of the final episode, which aired on Sky on Thursday evening, to uncork the champagne bottles and keeping it secret for several months.
They met in Sant'Ambrogio, “my favorite place in Florence.” I worked there, basically I lived there».
Not in the kitchen, though as a waitress in a restaurant Cibreo, where he worked shift until a few days ago. “The dining room remains a great love, I never tried to move into the kitchen: there was never the opportunity and in reality it never really occurred to me to do it. I was so happy,” she says . She happened to serve several famous customers, from Katy Perry to Russell Crowe, “but the most satisfying day was when I served minestrone to Thom Yorke.”
Coincidentally on Masterchef
She was born in Livorno and studied in Pisa. She arrived in Florence later, “at a somewhat strange time when I wanted a change of scenery and was living alone.” However, it ended up on MasterChef “almost by accident”. I saw an ad and tried it. Even though learning to cook has always come naturally, there were times when I would spend an entire half hour watching Chinese cooking videos before falling asleep. As interest has grown over the years, so has competence, which is never enough… That's what I want to say.”
But in the end she won, at the end of a final that was decided only by details. He presented a menu in which Western and Japanese traditions were mixed, called “Ichigo-Ichie,” a practice associated with Zen Buddhism that requires seizing every moment. He impressed the jury in the kitchen the brilliance and creativity of the dishes and the audience with their funny facial expressions and unconventional actions.
After the victory
“At the moment of victory I was amazed,” he admits. She took it home 100,000 euros in gold coins, a training course and will publish a recipe book. Some are linked to Tuscany's culinary history.
“Lately I know the Testaroli of Luniagna, you're driving me crazy. Then I love chestnut cake.”
And now? Well, trust me, “I want to be successful, to ride this tsunami.” I will stay in Florence for a while, then I will move to gain experience and study to achieve the real goal: Open my business in the country». Not a simple restaurant: “I think of a place where you can have different experiences.” A house in the countryside where you can welcome people, eat them, but also cook and collect products from the countryside. The Florentine landscape wouldn't be bad and neither would the Maremma.
In Florence he lived in the countryside, “under Saint Bridget and Molino del Piano, a 15-minute climb there.”
When he's not cooking, he's drawing. “This is something I have done since I was a child. “Obviously cooking was difficult at that age,” jokes Eleonora. Then there is music, “but I have never played before.” During the program, he talked about the difficulties and weaknesses he had gone through, such as: eating disorder which he has overcome today, but above all he has understood “which path I want to take”. And it leads to a house in the country.