Running a successful restaurant is one of the most challenging tasks a businessperson can tackle. It takes not only a great passion for food, but also a strong sense of committment and highly developed interpersonal skills. It seem Antonella Ribuzzi, the owner of several Moscow-based Italian food establishments, has what it takes.

Could you tell us about yourself and how you got the idea of visiting Russia?

I was born in Bergamo, a small town in northern Italy. My mother is Greek, and she is a great cook. She has managed to embrace the very best cooking traditions of Greece and Italy, and I've enjoyed eating tasty dishes since childhood. Needless to say, Italy is a country with age-old gastronomic traditions and the motherland of an excellent cuisine.
I arrived in Moscow 10 years ago at an invitation from my friends to take part in the launch of a new Italian restaurant. At first, I did not plan to stay in Russia long, but, as you see, things have turned out the other way around. Back then, there were no Italian restaurants in Moscow, and nostalgia for our magnificent cuisine was felt very acutely, not to mention the fact that it was impossible to buy any Italian foodstuffs in the city.
This situation prompted me first into setting up a company, Ital-Market Cash & Carry, to supply Italian foodstuffs and then to open the trattoria-pizzeria Da Cicco. Ital-Market has operated in Russia since 1995 and is rather active on the food market in Moscow and beyond. We supply high-quality Italian foods to Moscow's prestigious hotels, restaurants and supermarkets, including Sedmoi Kontinent and Kalinka-Stockmann, and also to the embassies and representative offices of large companies.
At this moment, as Russia's economy is reviving, I see a stable growth in the foods market, and quality foods are getting increasing attention. As Ital-Market was initially oriented toward quality, it is getting more and more interesting to do business in the increasingly competitive environment. It looks like many more investments will be made in Russia's food market in the next few years, but I'm certain that victory in the competition will not be given so much to the strong ones as to those who are true professionals and really love their business.
Italian cuisine is enormously popular throughout the world, and Moscow is no exception. My desire to make as many people as possible acquainted with our culinary art led me into the idea of opening Da Cicco trattoria in 1998.
I would say the trattoria has set an example of a successful restaurant operating within the medium price level, which, of course, does not mean that the quality of our dishes is mid-range. Since we opened, we have received a lot of praise from patrons for our high-quality Italian dishes. Testifying to the restaurant's class is the fact that 80 percent of our customers are regulars, and one-third of them are foreigners, mostly Italians, which is also indicative of high quality.
Since the very start we have given primary attention to quality, and we see our goal as presenting Italian cuisine with all its nuances and subtleties.

What, in your opinion, are the specific features of Italian cuisine?

Italian cuisine is a whole world. But what is most important is that it is based on high quality and natural products Italy has in abundance. Ease of preparation and availability make Italian dishes increasingly popular and a bit ahead in the competition with French cuisine, which is a bit too intricate. In our days of permanent time shortage, people want the best quality at the fastest speed, and this is where Italian food comes in.

What is your favorite dish? What is, in your opinion, the most typical Italian food?

My favorite dish is polenta with mushrooms and game. My mother prepared it superbly, and now you can come and taste it at our Da Cicco trattoria. In my opinion, it is difficult to identify something as "the most typical of Italy," and it would be too primitive to say that it is pasta. There are 20 provinces in Italy, and each of them has its own peculiarities in cooking and its favorite products. Liguria, for example, boasts its trenette al pesto. Elilia Romanie is famous for its tortellini with different stuffings and a rich choice of sausages. Sardinia is notable for its fish and vegetable dishes.
I spoke almost no Russian when I first arrived in Moscow, though English, German, French and Italian were all my native languages. Of course, I felt the language barrier. For one to understand people, their psychology and mentality, one has to speak their language. Today I can say with full confidence that I've managed that. I must say I feel very comfortable in Russia, as I'm surrounded by kind, openhearted, lively, resourceful and communicative people. And these people help me to implement my ideas in this country. In the fall of 2001, we opened a new pizzeria, Cicco-Pizza, at Kamergersky per., a pedestrian lane in downtown Moscow. It's pleasant to see that, despite serious competition, the new pizzeria seldom has vacant seats.
One of the latest projects was the launch of an Italian restaurant, Pinocchio, on Kutuzovsky Pros-pekt. It took us almost a whole year to implement the project. Though I'm now tempted to take a breath of relief, the truth is that the real challenge is ahead of us, and I hope that in short order the restaurant will be rated among the very best in Moscow.

What are your immediate plans?

I plan to bring a new brand to the Russian foods market. In March 2001, I decided to invest in pasta production in Moscow to launch a new brand, Da Cicco, which will feature a real Italian quality. The factory is located in the center of Moscow, near the Paveletskaya metro station; its area is 940 sq. meters and it employs 15 people. We had to carry out major equipment renovation to set up a production line for genuine Italian fast food. Also we had to design eye-caching and attractive packaging.
It is impossible to maintain real Italian quality without using genuine Italian products; Ital-Market is here to supply the factory with all the necessary ingredients, including tomatoes, mushrooms, ham, grana padano cheese, cream and special-quality wheat flour.
The Da Cicco brand includes a number of varieties of pasta, such as tagliolini and fettuccini, as well as ready-to-eat dishes, such as lasagna with ricotta and spinach, tortellini with ham, angolotti with meat stuffing, cappalletti with eggplant, pancerotti with cheese and, of course, several kinds of pizza. The aim of the new company, TPK Cicco, is to produce Italian foods and dishes matching the level of quality we have set up in our trattoria Da Cicco and pizzeria Cicco-Pizza.
In my opinion, the secret of success is universal: One has to really love what one is doing. Also, one has to be a true professional and should be creative, willing to experiment and, of course, never stop trying to achieve.