Italian chef brings a little of la dolce vita to Chongqing

CHONGQING－For young people in Southwest China's Chongqing, 62-year-old Italian chef Franco Bergamino－or, perhaps, more accurately, his dessert house Mimosa－is the "secret ingredient" to a sweeter life.

The dessert house serves wine jelly with green pepper cheese, jasmine mousse and peach-Oolong cake－fusion desserts that combine Italian specialties with local Chinese ingredients.

Bergamino used to run two dessert houses in his hometown of Turin, both having a history of 90 years. In 2016, he settled in Chongqing and set up a dessert workshop.

He had visited New Zealand, Canada and other countries, but he says that China is more suitable for his professional development.

"I especially like Chongqing, where the food and culture are completely different from my hometown. Life here is like 'the other side of the coin'," he says.

With the help of his local English-speaking friends, he has overcome the language barrier and has even learned some of the Chongqing dialect. More importantly, he has gotten used to the Chinese table culture of "sharing food together".

Mimosa, like its owner, has also been increasingly localized. Bergamino says that, back in Turin, frequent customers to his shop would buy the same dessert every time and would be disappointed if what they wanted was sold out.

The situation in Chongqing, however, is very different. Customers expect different desserts each month, and they will be disappointed if the dessert menu stays the same, he says.

"Young people here like new ideas, and they are becoming more open-minded," says the chef, who has added the tongue-tingling green pepper, one of the most popular ingredients among Chongqing locals, to his classic Italian snacks. The fusion works.

From 2016 to 2022, Bergamino felt a huge change in the taste of Chinese customers. "In the past, Chinese guests always said that my desserts were too sweet. Now more people have accepted the authentic Italian flavors."

Mimosa's consumers are mainly aged between 25 and 35, a group that is more willing to try exotic flavors, partly due to China's decades of opening up to the outside world.

"I hope I can live to 95 and still work," he says, so that he can not only continue to bring authentic Italian desserts to more Chinese palates, but also enable more people to enjoy the fusion of both Chinese and Italian culture.

Xinhua