Giorgio Bargiani, mixologist

"Coriander is the worst enemy of Italians" - Giorgio Bargiani 

On mixologist Giorgio Bargiani's menu: grandfather's caffè corretto, dining out always in Pisa, and discovering spices in the UK. 

Sides include: the Beauty and the Beast, the most important job of a bartender (it's not making the drink), and the best pizza in the world. 

Giorgio's social cause is the Drinks Trust UK, a trade charity providing financial assistance, emotional support, and opportunity for growth to drinks industry people.

To find out more about the project and Savva - head to threefoodmemories.com
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Email us at threefoodmemories@plated.com.au, we'd love to hear from you! 

TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the ground we stand and I thank them for allowing Papa to tell stories of all these glorious lands we share.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

My guest on this episode of Three Food Memories brings the spirit of La Dolce Vita to every glass. Assistant Director of Mixology at London's Connold Bar and previous winner of the International Bartender of the Year Award, he's one of the defining faces of modern mixology. Old polish, precision, and quiet seduction. Born in Pisa, he paused with the unmistakable Italian instinct for ritual, beauty, and pleasure. In his hands, a cocktail is never just a drink. It's a mood, it's a memory, and a reason to stay just that little longer. Giorgio Bagiani, welcome to Three Food Memories here at the Maybe Groups, El Primo Sanchez in Sydney.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Ciao Saba. I'm not sure you're talking about me. It was too eloquent, too, you know, elegant and refined.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

How do you think your customers see you?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Funny. Sometimes a bit awkward, but yes. A bit weird, but you know, it's part of my character.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

This is part of the character, and this is what we're going to look, this is what we're going to learn about and discover. When did you realize you like to make drinks for other people?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

I can say, as I always say, you know, my surname starts with Barr, so I didn't have many choices in life. You know, Bar Jani is not Dot Jani, it's not lawyer Jani. So growing up in an hospitality setting, because my family ran restaurants since the 60s back in my hometown of Pisa, I probably poured my first glass of wine too many years ago. Probably I wasn't also I wasn't allowed to touch charcoal the first time I put in the city.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

But that didn't stop you.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

No, totally. I think the moment I realized the joy I could bring to people. And that was probably my early days when I was working in nightclubs. You know, like wherever you pour in nightclubs, then you see people dancing and screaming and jumping. So that was the beginning of what I do and where I am now. So I'd say, yeah, probably was a party somewhere on an island in Tuscany.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Two of your great loves are your Italian heritage and your life behind the bar. Which one has seduced you the most?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I carry my heritage with pride, uh, for sure. But I feel that you know the culture of the bar is what sticks with me the most. The Italian culture of the bar. So I I kind of cheat on this answer, but I hope you got me.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

The two come together and they're very difficult to separate.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Correct, correct.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Your first food memory, let's start there with the caffe.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

So, kaffe coretto is actually something that is not very popular outside of Italy and I guess it's getting even less popular in Italy. Growing up, grandfather, all man, men in general. They were drinking kaffe with a little liquor or distillat. You know, it could be a kind of very entry level brandy. It could be an anisliker, sambuka style. It could be sambucha itself. My grandfather was drinking, I don't know if it still exists. An anisiliker called Sassolino, which means small rock. And I lived most of my life in my grandfather's family house. And my grandfather used to drink his coffee in the living room straight after lunch. So leaving the dining room, the kitchen to move to the living room, and I have a coffee there. Giorgio, bring me the coffee. So I will bring him the coffee with a solino that my grandmother will make. He will drink it fairly fast, and I will straight away bring it back to my grandmother. The thing is, from the living room to the dining room, we will be, let's say, six, seven, eight meters with a blind corner. So I probably was not even five, and I don't know why, you know. Like my mom told me afterwards. I don't probably I I f I barely remember. I remember this action of going from a room to the other one. And in this blind spot, I will drink a little left over that my grandfather will always leave behind in his cup.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Did he leave it behind for you?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I don't know. I think I think it was an habit of him. He wouldn't finish. And what was and what was the temptation to push back the little bit, the remnant of the I feel like was being like my grandfather, you know, feeling like my grandfather, you know. My grandfather was a great man. I I unfortunately didn't spend much time with him, but he was a man that was helping a lot of other people. He was uh almost uh how do you call it um uh not a father but a brother in the church. And he was a person that was very inspiring because he was helping a lot of people, but never publicly. Of course, I discovered all of that afterwards. My mum told me, you know, when I was that the younger, I wouldn't know. But at the time it was very much I want to do what my grandfather does.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

So what did it feel like as a five-year-old? Do you have any memory of the coreto going down?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah, I I feel like it was that bittersweet feeling that you know when you're a kid you're not used to coffee, I think. But Sassolino, sambuka, whatever, the very sweet and the very powerful flavor. So it was that that kind of uh I can make it even if I don't like it, sort of uh feeling.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Do you think this was the sort of where the seed was planted for you to become a bartender?

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah, probably was the very, very first cocktail because you know nowadays Espresso Martini is a global icon, no? And it was created by Dick Brassel in the 90s, more or less. But Cafe Shacerato in Italy and Shaking Coffee is way older than that. And you know, I have memories of Cafe Shacerato even before it became this massive trend. Without alcohol, uh, generally, but people would do with like we'll basically do a corretto scacerato, which is basically an espresso martini. Perhaps it wasn't vodka specifically, but maybe it will be the you know the brandy or ram. You know, in Italy with coffee we have this option: you have either brandy, ram or uh design silly kirts. I was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

You were born in Pisa.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Pisa is much more than it's faulty tower. Tell me about the magic that you remember Pisa to be. And and and and and and what is it that makes you homesick for Pisa?

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Pisa is a big village. You can say small city, but I like to say big village because I grew up in the very heart of the city. Like Pisa is a as a river called Arno. They start in Florence and finish by the sea nearby Pisa. So the city is cut in a half. There is a north half and the south half. I'm from the north half where the tower is. And the tower is literally 500 meters from my house. My family had a restaurant, yes, but also perfumery shops since the 1800s, 1884. The perfumery shop could be seen at the time from the window of my house. Where going down, everybody knows each other, you know. Everybody knows about each other. I feel like I don't know how much you are into cartoon, but you know, growing up, the beauty and the beast, you know, the beginning when everybody knows Belle. I don't want to say I'm Belle, I'm not Belle at all. I might be the beast more than Belle, but that was the feeling. You know, you go down to the market. Yeah. You know, you go to the market and you know, they know already what you like. Uh they know if you know you are graduating or if your family uh has a wedding upcoming. You know, this feeling is the one that a bit I miss about London being in a city of 10 million people, but it's the same feeling I try to recreate in the bar in a way that not always, but often enough, I know something about what's coming. I know where they're from, and already know where they're from can can make can give me the opportunity to make them feel part of this small village, you know. If you come from Australia, say, ah, you are from Australia, so you kind of laugh, and that laugh kind of brings you back to, oh okay, look at this guy, you know. Or, you know, the way when when we have somebody foreigner like with from a country that has a different language from English, we try to know how to say thank you in their language or to say cheer it's in their language. So it's a bit controversial because I miss that, but at the same time I don't. Because there is flip side that you know everybody knows about everything. So there is this continuous sort of gossiping and jealousy sometimes, while here in London you can do kind of whatever you want as long as you respect other people.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

But it's kind of extreme, isn't it, though? Like you can't, if there was somewhere that you could meet in the middle, Pisa it's and and London would be the perfect place to live. So if I was to come to Pisa tomorrow, where would you take me?

SPEAKER_00 10:51

So uh my family restaurant is still open, so for sure you should, you must, we must go there. And what would we have? So mainly pasta. My family has been doing pasta from the 1980s in a place that was open a year after I was born. Uh, called Restaurant Le Banderine, which is down the street from where I live. From another window I can see that. Not from the same window I say I used to see the perfumery shop, but from another one. It's a spaghetti, so it's not a restaurant, it's spaghetti place. It's inspired by a middle age game that we still have in Pisa. It's like every summer we do it's called Game of the Bridge, Joch del Ponte. And Pisa is different like borough, and every borough has a team, and the flags of this borough are the name of the pasta. So it's very locker, very typical. That will be for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Your second food memory is you spent most of your childhood and teenage years eating out.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Yeah. Like there is this mama and nonna thing that oh your mom cook. My mom wasn't really cooking. Uh, not because she can't, just because she was working until 1:32 in the afternoon every day. Uh so for context, I lost my father 30 years ago. So I was waiting for my mom to finish work while we were coming back, me and my brother from school. There is a pizzeria, a pizza place, called Il Montino, which makes the best pizza and pizza by far. It's hard to describe, it's non-Napolitan pizza, it's not Romana pizza. It's made in a pan. Uh it's a bit thick. Il Montino was doing like I don't know, roast beef, lasagne, pasta, a lot of things. So every day we will have something different, but from El Montino, even there, either there or takeaway. So if we will eat there, we will be, of course, among people. If we will do takeaway, the place is packed every day. So we will go there and meet the butcher, the fisherman, the guy of the newspaper uh stand, you know, everybody will be there every day. Every day. While for dinner, I will go to my family restaurant just to see them. Not necessarily eating every single day there, but mostly, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

So this was your neighborhood. This was your this was your Yeah, this is what you did. And and tell me, the this level of cultural sophistication and education is not is not afforded to a lot of children and teenagers. Did you know at the time, were you aware of this as a young person, that for uh just because of uh you know circumstances, this was a blessing. This was setting you up for your future in hospitality.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Every day I had a reality check with all my friends, you know, because people will eat uh home, lunch, and dinner. I feel very blessed that I grew up this way. So some of the soft skill I think I have, they they come from those days.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Now, this food memory, it's when you arrived in the UK from Pisa. The disappointment, the shocking discovery of what people were eating in London.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I'm actually very grateful about this whole transition. You know, like grewing up, this restaurant always with seasonal product, local product, fresh product, you know, my standards were very high, you know, but not high in a fancy way. It's just, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

You had an understanding of what food was? Yeah, you know, and what it could be.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Yeah, but we were also living, I'm gonna say simplest time, but you know, like things that now are crazy expensive, say truffle. When I grew up, it was fairly affordable. White ruffle, there is one of the main cities in Italy, white ruffle is 40 minutes away from my from Pisa. They do most of the most of the white ruffle of central Italy comes from that area. So my family restaurant from October to no to December will have white ruffle, good white ruffle for what would be, I don't know, spaghetti with ruffle would be 14 euros. You know, for instance, or porcini mushroom, all these things, you know, they were very affordable and they weren't impossible to find that now. Anyway, I moved to not London on the first place. I moved to the Oxfordshire working in a two Michelin star restaurant. Beautiful place, a fairy tale. Wonderful, wonderful place. And uh the food was amazing. What was very you know shocking for me was coming across flavor I never experienced before. The UK cuisine is very influenced by most of other countries in the world, you know. Uh you have uh Asian flavor, you have African flavor, you have South American flavor, all probably historically due to uh colonies and trades and stuff, no? So I didn't grow up, for example, with a lot of usage of spices. In Italy we have chili and black peppercor. But you don't have you know cinnamon staranese uh curry, uh satchw and pepper, you know. And this the first encounter I had was in the canteen of this place I used to work. So generally, canteen food is not the most glamorous. Imagine you go to a canteen in a new country where you know you you go across this, you come across this very strong flavor. I was like, what is that? I can't eat everything, anything. You know, or even when they were doing pasta, for example, there will be something in the Bolognese sauce that I wouldn't recognize, that I wouldn't like, and so I wouldn't eat, you know. Or maybe the coriande, which is the worst enemy of Italians, you know, coriander leaf. Like I love it.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

People in Koriander, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

That's the turning point. That opened my eyes to the fact that Italian cuisine is amazing, Italian cuisine could be one of the best of the world. I agree. But somehow I was limited by those beautiful products I came across. I was very limited by those 30 dishes, 40 dishes delicious, but always the same. So the discovery can be just summarizing. I arrive, I go to this canteen, I discover all these new flavours, I discover all these new dishes and then move on. No, it was the beginning of a process. You know, from there I moved to London. London is London, it's not the Oxford Shire, you know. But London 12 years ago wasn't London of today. I think today London is one of the best cities in the world by far to eat. Recently I have a weird crave for pizza, and the amount of pizzeria of different styles that are open in London is impressive. But again, when I first moved to London 12 years ago, for example, in my region we eat a lot of charcuterie, prosciutto, mortadella, di la. As well as we we seasoned everything with extra virgin olive oil. These two things in the mainstream supermarket they weren't available. And if they were very, very poor quality. Also pasta. But you know, I had to travel to the other side of London to that specific grocery shop that a friend told me you will find that pasta there. While now, you know, there are more brands of pasta there. And that rediscovery of good products, good brand of stuff led to the London today that you know you can have anything around. Anything.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

So the Connet Bar in London is famous for its iconic martini trolley. Tell me about this ritualistic service.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Uh we close 2025 uh with a quite impressive number of 29,546 martini. And it might sound like a cliche. The secret ingredient of our martini is certainly the time that we give to our guests, you know. The unique interaction that again we try to create.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

I drink only, I mean, the dirtier the martini for me, the better, and I can stay on it the whole night. What does a dirty martini say about somebody?

SPEAKER_00 20:57

I don't know. You try to trick the system, you know. Dirty martini, you cover everything with salt and pico flavored. So I feel it's an easier way to approach the martini. I like martini with lemon, so personally it's now my go-to.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

You're coming to Australia next month for the maybe semi cocktail festival. It's happening this year again in Sydney from the 14th to the 19th of April. Who else is coming from around the world to join you as part of this organization?

SPEAKER_00 21:29

I'm very happy to come back. You know, Stefano is one of my best friends, even though we live uh more than 12 hours uh time zone apart, and I'm personally very happy to come back. But also he managed uh with this team to invite other people uh I love Benjamin from Mexico, or then you have Sippengazor from New York, um, you have tres manos from Argentina, the guys of handshake. Mexico City, Josh from Tree Dog, and many others.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

What does this festival celebrate?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Celebrate the most beautiful part of what we do, which is togetherness. It's not a place where you know we try to diskover a new molecule, or you know, we are so focused about innovation. It's how we can celebrate our global industry in the beautiful setting of Australia. Been together for almost a week. Sharing yes, events, but sharing also meaningful moments conversation. Doing something which is meaningful and relevant on a global stage.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

You've chosen Drinks Trust UK as your social cause. What do the Drinks Trust UK do?

SPEAKER_00 22:57

I I always feel that very few people in history change the world. To change the world, you need to have a platform as big as the world, you know? President of a country or singer, an actor, somebody, you know, I'm a bartender and my community is the bartender world. So the Dream Trust supports hospitality workers, bartenders. So I feel like Dream Trust helps a lot of people during COVID. And generally, whenever somebody has issues, which are not necessarily financial issues, like mental health issues, or you know, any other sort of uh counseling or assistance that person needs, the Dream Trust is there to provide for for now many years. I could relate a lot.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

You said something earlier. We were talking about your grandfather, and you said very secretly he would help people, and you didn't find out until later in life. This is something that you do. You help other members of your bar community privately and quietly.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

I think help could come in many forms. Sometimes it's money, easily. You know, you see somebody struggling, you give money. But these are no help you should advertise. In my eyes, you must not advertise those up. Uh mainly because yeah, it could be seen as an example, but at the same time, you expose somebody's struggles to the world. People that move abroad, they're struggling in a way, you know, they don't find a job, they don't find a house, they don't find their place within the community. They see like, I'm here, I'm alone, I don't know what to do, I don't know, you know, and everybody that move abroad feels that, you know, experience that. Then eventually, I've been very lucky that I made friends, or I had a couple of friends on the first move. And these friends, I consider them my family. They work with me, uh, Maura, they used to work with me. Uh, there are other people, Daniel, Matteo, a lot of people. These days my girlfriend, but you know, sometimes feeling alone, it could be devastating, you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

The Drinks Trust UK is a trade charity providing financial assistance, emotional support, and opportunity for the growth to the drink industry people. They aim to alleviate hardships, improve the well-being of our colleagues, and support professional development. TheDrinksTrust.org.uk. Here at Three Food Memories, in the spirit of Martha Stewart and her kitchen meets life wisdom, we have a tradition where our previous guest presents you with a life kitchen guidance. Our previous guest was singer-songwriter Hava Ramadan. And her advice to you is when it comes to food, try everything once because those things will show you what life is really about. You travel so much. Is there a culture where food has shown you something unforgettable about life?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Generally, food can be a big element of pride. Recently I was in China and I remember this girl ordering all the foods and be so proud about this. Is my home you can't visit my hometown because my hometown is far from where we are today, but this is a piece of my life. This is a a piece of my people. And that's what I feel the most whenever I travel is no. I might say, for example, probably I can say that in Mexico, agave is not just tequila, it's truly part of their life. Because tequila, yes, is drunk in many occasions, and when I say tequila, but I can say mezcala, baconora, raisilla, whatever uh agave spirit you want to go for. But then the plant itself, the agave plant, it's used for many things: hand creams, lib bulb, and you know, the top of the agave, they are used like skewers, you know, there are many things. And I I haven't seen anywhere else something which is so meaningful for many things, not just for one purpose related to again making tequila, for example.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

What intelligence from behind the bar would you like to share with our next guest?

SPEAKER_00 27:45

It's important to be curious about who is in front of you and not be judgmental because we are there to host people to live a memory, even with the worst guests you might think about. They might have a bad day, they might not be happy about their life, they might have you know something going on that you you you don't know about. So be curious and be kind with whoever decides to come to your bar.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Before the bar closes on our time together, one last drink for the story of your future. What will this drink be and who would you like to cheers it to?

SPEAKER_00 28:31

I think it will be the Cafe Correto. I will use it probably made in a more of a espresso martino like cocktail form, and I'll cheer it to my grandfather that gave me my mother.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Well, when you come to Sydney in a couple of weeks, I will be knocking on the bar and asking for you to make that specially for me, and I look forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

I will, I will, I will.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Giorgio, to you, I say grazie mille.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Grazie te, Sava. Grazie.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

That's it for this episode of Three Food Memories. Be sure to spread the plated love and check out our hundred-plus back episodes. You can catch them on YouTube as well. Just search for Three Food Memories. For all things TFM, head to the socials at Three Food Memories and at SavaStavas. For more info, send us a message, head to threefoodmemories.com. Three Food Memories is produced and edited by Lauren McQuerta with original music by Russell Torrance. Nastika La Philly, and bye for now.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Thank you for listening to Papa's Podcast. Don't forget to like and subscribe and tell your friends. Bye. Bye.