The relationship with the mountains is something personal, which everyone experiences in their own way. Some people were born and raised there, and others have always considered it as a special place to visit a few times a year.
So let's find out today how Ludovica lives the mountains: she chose to be adopted by the Dolomites, giving life to a project that embraces these places and their products at 360 degrees.
In Cortina, in the heart of the Dolomites there is a special place where cuisine meets the countryside, where you can taste the forest on each dish, where the butter has a traditional flavour and where hearts, hands and minds all breathe in unison. This place is many places: a starred restaurant - SanBrite - a dairy farm - Piccolo Brite - and an alpine agriturismo (country restaurant ndt) with vegetable garden, beehive and stable - El Brite di Larieto. This place is also somewhere for the coming together of different people and experiences that result in the Genesis event, designed to reconnect with nature and its innermost beauty.
This place is also and above all a dream, imagined, sought after and created with dedication, humility and commitment by Riccardo Gaspari and Ludovica Rubbini, a couple in love, life and work. He is from Cortina and a chef, she is a Bolognese transplanted to Cortina and “general manager” even if as Ludovica herself says “that isn’t entirely accurate, because I have built up my role over time, first as a waitress, then as a cheesemaker and manager of the shop, looking after the image, communication and everything else necessary to develop and evolve all the different facets of our project as best as possible”.
It is a project that goes far beyond the concept of catering and which essentially has the flavour of family and mountains.
Ludovica, how did your adventure begin?
I met Riccardo while I was studying in Cortina. First we became friends, then we started going out together, and when we decided to spend our lives together in one place, my heart brought me here to the Dolomites. Mine is a creative family, which has always stimulated me a lot and also demanded a great deal in terms of behaviour, ambition and commitment so when I arrived at Brite, Riccardo's family's farm business, I immediately thought that this wonderful set-up needed to be developed and expanded. We immediately threw ourselves together into the business and as it produced milk, after a few years we decided to develop a dairy, since there hadn’t been one in Cortina for 30 years. As a result, I enrolled on a cheesemaking course even though my baby was only 5 months old. Once I’d learnt the trade, we finally opened the dairy and the shop, immediately trying to put our vision into the project, especially the visual aspects, which are always very important for me.
And SanBrite, how and when did that enter the picture?
In the space in front of the dairy there was a garage and Riccardo and I dreamed of opening our own restaurant there. I encouraged Riccardo to better develop his idea of cooking and we began to renovate the space while keeping the spirit of the place alive, for example by refurbishing lamps from the 1956 Cortina Olympics. We wanted people as soon as they came in to immediately experience the feeling of the mountains, not just in the food. 7 years ago we finally opened, success was immediate and a few years later we got our Michelin star and the green star for our commitment to offering authentic, solid and 100% mountain cuisine.
The mountains are therefore a fundamental presence in your life. Where did your connection with them come from?
I was born in March and after 10 days my parents took me to Cortina for the regular skiing week. I have always come here with my family, both in summer and winter. We had wonderful picnics in the woods, my father made a stick for each of us (we are 3 sisters), we bought sandwiches and ate among the trees, we collected all the different signs outside each of the refuges. The mountains have always been a place of the soul, which I experienced as a tourist for the first 20 years of my life, until I came to live here and then my perspective changed. Today I live the daily life of the mountains which is slower and quieter, and which also features empty moments where we go and walk in the woods, in contrast with moments during the busiest part of the high season when our little town fills up and it’s a bit of a shock for all of us. However, like this I can experience every aspect of this environment and having also known it as a tourist, thanks to my work, I can fill some of the gaps that I had experienced.
You and Riccardo have two daughters, how do you convey your love for this environment to them?
We are trying to pass on our vision of the mountains to our daughters, mine and Riccardo's, even though they are very different from each other. We are closed on Wednesdays and that’s our family day, one just for them where we take them with us walking, skiing or cross-country skiing. We are trying to create a mix of memories for them, combining those of my childhood as a “tourist” - my best childhood memories come from right here - and Riccardo’s, who was born and bred in the mountains and for whom it was entirely normal to go out into the woods or up into the mountains. For us it is important that they understand how lucky they are to have been born here, to wake up with all this beauty before their eyes. You can't help but be grateful for it, every day.
What is your favourite moment in the passing of the seasons in Cortina?
I don't think I have one in particular, I've learned to find something magical in every season. In winter, when after two days of snowfall the first day of sunshine arrives and everything is revealed as sparkling white under the blue of the sky, that’s my favourite moment... In autumn when nature starts to turn red and the air gives you that hint of the arrival of winter, that’s my favourite moment... In summer when the greenery and leaves all around seem almost phosphorescent, that’s my favourite moment...
Today, what are the must-haves in your backpack?
A small knife, which we use to trim the sticks that we collect every time from the undergrowth. Also binoculars because when we were little, my father used them a lot and for me it is an object with a special memory. Today, we use them with the girls to watch what’s going on around us or to discreetly look at an animal in the distance. It is our way of connecting with the nature that surrounds us, without needing to filter our gaze through a mobile phone screen.
