Antonia Klugmann: "You Don't Want to Find Yourself 15 Years Older and Unhappy"

Chef Antonia Klugmann, whose restaurant L’Argine a Vencò holds one Michelin star, will again take on the role of mentor to the Italian finalist Alessandro Bergamo during the Grand Finale of S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy 2021.

The chef, named in 2020 as Identità Golose's Chef of the Year, is one of the 100 up-and-coming chefs to watch out for, according to Today's Special – a volume published by Phaidon, in collaboration with S.Pellegrino, which features 20 world-renowned chefs, each revealing the names of five chefs to keep an eye on in the coming years.

Despite the difficult past year, the recognition received in recent months has been an inspiration for the chef who had a decidedly different path to the kitchen than many of her colleagues. "I chose to pursue a career in the kitchen while I was studying law," Klugmann says. "So many things had happened in my personal life and I questioned myself. I realised that the happiest moments of my day were those I spent in the kitchen and I decided to start my apprenticeship, first by attending some courses in Milan, and then by starting to work in the kitchen. I started as a dishwasher, I worked as an intern, commis and finally I became head of the game."

But just as the chef seemed to be on a certain path to the kitchen, a serious car accident forced her to stop. "During this period I started cultivating a vegetable garden and taking long walks. Not being able to stand in the kitchen, I started cooking the ingredients in my head. I realised that what stimulated me the most was the creative part of the work. When I was able to resume business, I decided to open my first restaurant. I was 26 years old."

If Klugmann's debut started late, her journey was decidedly fast, despite the challenges faced mainly due to her age. "It seems incredible to think that at 21 or 22, when I embarked on the path of an apprentice, I was considered old." But these preconceptions did not stop her and still don’t today. The decision to open the first restaurant at 26 years old and therefore to become an entrepreneur "is one of the most important and identifying choices” of her career.

Today's Special: 100 Emerging Chefs Around The World

In 2006, at the age of 26, Antonia Klugmann opened the Antico Foledor Conte Lovaria in Pavia di Udine. In 2010, with the desire to create her own reality, she bought a piece of land in the Collio Goriziano. L’Argine a Vencò was built there in 2014, and the following year it was awarded a Michelin star.

Klugmann is not only a chef and entrepreneur, but also a mentor to her brigade. "The role of the mentor is inherent to that of chef or head of the brigade,” she says. “And each leader does it for their own commis. There is a continuous exchange of knowledge and experience within each kitchen that guarantees the constant improvement of our workshops of artisans. What makes our country extraordinary is also this continuous movement of human resources within the regions and the country. A continuous and profound exchange between countryside and cities, north, centre and south. Mountain and sea."

"What I always say to the boys and girls who work with me, is to question their choices. Time passes quickly, in the kitchen even more so. It is very important to constantly ask yourself if you have taken the correct path so as not to find yourself 15 years later, older and unhappy."