The owners of Da Vittoria di Brusaporto, the Cerea brothers, have partnered with Italian vertical farm company Planet Farms to grow indoors and experiment with vegetables in their restaurant. Meanwhile, the company is preparing 'to conquer the rest of Europe'.
The Cerea brothers are chefs of the famous Da Vittorio restaurant in Brusaporto (province of Bergamo). At the height of the pandemic, the two chefs had launched a solidarity initiative: running a cafeteria at the Alpini Hospital in Bergamo.
Luca Travaglini, founder and co-CEO with Daniele Benatoff of Planet Farms, once decided to donate their salads and basil to the restaurant. As a response, Chicco Cerea was so surprised by the quality that he asked where it was grown.
"When they told me they grew it in Cinisello Balsamo, I didn't believe it and wanted to see for myself," he recalls. Since that day Planet Farms and Da Vittorio have not stopped working and experimenting together.
The Cerea brothers
Collaboration with star chefs
The farm display was presented on 11 October which is located inside the restaurant. "We started with growing different types of basil: limoncello basil, red basil. Then, with Planet Farm's agronomist who works here, we do a lot of testing and experimentation," the chefs recount.
"To date, in the farm in Brusaporto, we are producing 20-25 varieties, but they may reach up to a hundred. We have made an important investment that allows Chicco and Bobo Cerea to experiment with new flavors and to have zero-kilometer products and for us to have their valuable opinion. It was an investment of about one million euros for a plant equipped with technology and automation: at night, for example, a robot goes to collect data to understand if everything is working as it should, the state of the crops, and, if necessary, intervene," Daniele noted.
Click here to view the inauguration of the farm (in Italian)
Source: Tecnologia Innovazione Scienza