NARRATOR
Nice, 1864: the railway has reached the Riviera. Construction work is underway everywhere. Luxurious hotels are springing up and, with them, new opportunities. Giovanni Battista Gastaldi takes up his post at the Hôtel des Anglais, opened just two years ago. The young saucier from Siena finds himself in the right place at the right time in this now-flourishing world.
CHEF DE CUISINE
Gastaldi, the sauce!
GIOVANNI
Right away, Monsieur!
NARRATOR
He will stay – not in Nice, but in a life that follows the rhythm of the seasons: the Riviera in winter.
The Alps in summer.
Across France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.
Moving around brings experience. And with experience comes recognition.
ISOTTO
Signor Gastaldi has always performed well: I’ve never had any cause to complain about him.
NARRATOR
writes Isotto, manager of the Hotel de Genève in Naples.
PORT
He knows his job inside out; he has performed to a high standard and his integrity is beyond reproach.
NARRATOR
Praise from Port, manager of the Grand Hôtel de Cimiez in Nice.
NARRATOR
Year after year, he works his way up the ranks. In 1878 he achieves his goal: Giovanni becomes head chef at the Hôtel Baur in Zurich.
GIOVANNI
So… what shall we serve tomorrow?
Potage Châtelaine… saumon du Rhin à la hollandaise…
ASSISTANT CHEF
Monsieur, the kidneys have arrived from Scotland.
GIOVANNI
Very good.
And the fish from Hamburg?
ASSISTANT CHEF
Not yet.
GIOVANNI
Hmmm…
Foie gras de Strasbourg… faisans et perdreaux de Bohême en volière… salade à l’Italienne…
Henri! There’s much too much coal in the stove! The fire needs to breathe!
NARRATOR
Giovanni is now 34 and lives in Geneva with his wife Pauline Kleiss. They frequently move house: from the Chemin du Grand-Pré to the Rue Lausanne, later to the Rue Simon Durand – always starting anew. Another member of the Gastaldi family lives with the couple: Silvio, also a chef. Perhaps he is a nephew from Siena who has followed Giovanni there?
The couple eventually settle as homeowners in Onex. Giovanni now increasingly spends several consecutive seasons in the same hotel: seven summers at the Grand Hotel Neue Curanstalt in Baden, six at the Grand Hôtel des Alpes in Interlaken, five at the Kurhaus Tarasp in Scuol. In winter he works as a chef in the grand hotels on the Côte d’Azur – and even in Egypt.
NARRATOR
In 1895 he sends his last surviving application to the Hotel Edelweiss in Sils Maria.
GIOVANNI
Dear Sir, Do you happen to have a vacancy for a Head Chef for the coming season at your esteemed establishment? If so, I would be delighted to offer my services, having previously worked at leading establishments in Switzerland, France (Nice, Cannes, Menton), Italy, Austria, Germany, Russia and Egypt.
NARRATOR
After that, all trace of him is lost.
Was he hired? Or did he move on?
Does he perhaps even realise the dream of many a seasonal worker: his own little hotel, run together with his wife Pauline?
Others have managed it: Josef Haberzettl from Karlsbad who, after several winter seasons at the Hotel Habsburgerhof in Meran, in 1913 buys a hotel in Bad Kissingen; or Eduard Bezzola from Zernez, who later takes over the running of the Hotel Waldhaus Flims and the Hotel Savoy in Meran.
Perhaps one day Giovanni will hear one of his kitchen boys in Tarasp reciting a poem – written by none other than Bezzola, who was himself still a kitchen boy at the time:
KITCHEN BOY
The Cook
As I stand at my stove,
Frying an egg,
I think of my girl.
I’ll never forget my sweetheart,
And if I may offer you some advice
– advice is always worth its weight in gold –
Should you ever have a son,
Let him become a cook.