STORIES OF PEOPLE FROM THE WORLD OF ITALMOBILIARE
DISCOVERING YOUNG ARTISANS
Stories of young people whose work for the Group features a high degree of craftsmanship. Precisely those young craftsmen and women who - if you read the news - seem impossible to find.
But we found them and discovered that they are not only very skilful, but also extremely proud of their work.
Craftsmanship is key at Capitelli, an excellence from Piacenza that produces the best cooked ham in Italy, called "San Giovanni", and other exceptional cured meats, such as "Giovanna", bacon cooked in three different ways, and cooked shoulder, called "Proibita".
Here we meet Davide Lutchanah, born in Paternò to parents originally from Mauritius. His family moved from Sicily to Piacenza when he was 14. "It wasn't easy, everything was very different, from the people to the climate. I remember that, before coming here, neither my Dad nor I had ever seen snow. But then I settled in, and this is where I learnt a trade."
After some experience as a salesman, at twenty years old Davide began working as a butcher. "I have cultivated a passion for the raw material since my time at the college of tourism. In the butcher's shop I learned to recognise the meat, how to cut and prepare it, taking care of every detail."
Davide guides us through the plant, explaining all the secrets of production, which are many.
From the special churner used to massage the meat, a model from the 1960s "much better than modern ones", to the ovens where the hams are cooked for 24 hours.
However, time is also fundamental, "It takes us 10-12 days to make a ham, compared with the four days needed for industrial products", as are the people involved. Seeing the operators at work is incredible, their movements are fast and precise, the knife sharpened after each operation to allow them to do their job in the best way possible.
"Seeing a ham being prepared may seem easy, but it isn't easy at all. When I started here I already had seven years of experience as a butcher, but I had to learn from scratch how to do everything, even how to sharpen a knife correctly. My colleagues followed me in everything, explaining how to avoid unnecessary movements, not so much to do it faster, but above all to suffer less fatigue and avoid getting hurt."
A learning process that requires a lot of time. "Learning to bone a thigh well and quickly can take up to a year, and in any case being as quick as the guys you've seen is almost impossible. For example, I'm not at their level."
Davide is modest. It is striking to hear him say that after seven years of working at Capitelli, there is still something he doesn't know how to do. We certainly understand how good he is by seeing him prepare the "Giovanna", which requires a very particular way of tying it "my signature is the regular knots two fingers apart. It's only a question of aesthetics, but for me it's fundamental. It's something I learned when I was a butcher, when they taught me that people buy above all with their eyes."
He likes working at Capitelli because "In the butcher's shop everyone worked on their own, here it's a matter of team work. We are a team, inside the company but also outside, when we get together for our barbecues. And there too, we find ourselves discussing the best cuts of meat." Davide's relationship with his colleagues is profound; it also emerges in his desire to thank two of them in particular: "Vince, who encouraged me to apply for work here, and Tauland, who taught me every aspect of the trade. A tough but fair teacher, one of those who not only teaches a job, but transmits a passion." And he adds "Being in contact with a craft is fascinating, it envelops you. Seeing a product take shape is very satisfying, especially because you know that it wasn't a machine that made it - we made it."
Davide has only one regret "I would like people to know just how much work goes into the few ounces of ham that they order at the counter."
