What’s Bonilli up to?

A lot of people ask me this, many of whom are from the world of wine who have lost touch with him. I have seen him a few times since, as many readers know, we reconciled after a few years of reciprocal coolness due to well-known questions related to the period when I remained at Gambero Rosso after he had been forced out (he then successfully sue them). For those who may not know, Bonilli is Stefano Bonilli, founder of Gambero Rosso in 1986, a veteran journalist with whom I worked closely with for 22 years.

Today he continues to have his blog Papero Gialloand now he, too, has an online magazine. It is calledGazzetta Gastronomica and it is by far the most interesting and up-to-date you can find on the web in Italian. He is also writing a book which I hope will come out soon. As with my book ‘Doctor Wine’s Tales (and Advice)’, his will be published by Einaudi in its Stile Libero series and he, too, has Severino Cesari as his ‘tutor’. The subject is Italy’s chefs and restaurateurs, from Peppino Cantarelli to Bottura and including Gianni Morini, Angelo Paracucchi, Gualtiero Marchesi and Gianni Vissani. At least that is what I understand it to be about. I hope it gets published because few more than him have monitored the evolution of the restaurant trade over the past 40 years and no one like him could write so well about it. Bonilli also still travels a lot, lucky him, and is up-to-date on all the most important international gastronomic trends.

I don’t know if we will every work together again, another question I get asked a lot. Although we have not broached the subject, I have the feeling that neither of us would object. Seeing how our previous ‘common creation’ appears to be in rough water, anything we do would obviously have to have a different name and approach. This because times have changed dramatically and something new needs to be invented. We’ll see.