via Rizzetti, 22 Fobello (Vercelli) T. +39.0163.55901
At first sight he looks like a snowman, with that big beard evoking a Tolstoyan return to nature. His laboratory is actually called Vulaiga, and it’s a word meaning, in a dialect, the first snow-flakes, those who never settle down but continue to whirl, similar to the phantasmagoria of flour or ashes from the wood oven. Spells of a dream that defies gravity. Eugenio Pol moves across these fairy tale atmospheres like a Cyclops of bread.
Venetian origins, born in Milan, he soon chose a mountain life. At least three ingredients come together in his dough: the chemist training, the experience as a cook and the leavening experiences. Two years spent between Valsesia test tubes are enough to push him inside a small shop inn, but the 5 inhabitants of the village do not allow him to make ends meet. Four years and he’s back again in Milan, thanks to some experience as a chef, but still with allergy for city life. He’s back to Valsesia at the first opportunity, then, when he’s asked to cook at Muntisel in Varallo, laying hold of spontaneous ingredients and the motto: «Do not look for new worlds, just look with new eyes». And in his mind, great masters like Aimo Moroni , Olivier Roellinger , Michel Bras and Marc Veyrat .
The worm of dissatisfaction, however, sticks to bread, looking for an elusive perfection. Hence, crazy studies on flour and archaic techniques captivated him in the Fobello laboratory. Still now, his bread is a chef’s bread, although Pol is constantly experimenting, personally choosing grains, being them the monococco, the Senatore Cappelli or the gentil rosso. And he makes them grind by his friend Renzo Sobrino in La Morra, to make them fly like vulaiga, with the gentleness of a father.
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